During the Korean War, the United States dropped about 635,000 tons of bombs on Korea, essentially on North Korea, plus 32,557 tons of napalm, exceeding the 503,000 tons dropped in the entire World War II Pacific theater. The bombing destroyed North Korea's major urban and industrial infrastructure: 18 of 22 major cities were at least half obliterated, and by fall 1952 every significant town, city, and industrial area had already been bombed. A Soviet/Razuvaev estimate put deaths from bombing raids at 282,000. Broader estimates of North Korean war deaths are higher: Armstrong estimates 12% to 15% of the North Korean population died in the war overall, while Curtis LeMay later gave a rough 20% figure for war deaths from direct casualties, starvation, and exposure. By 1952, US forces had effectively run out of targets where dropping more bombs would have made any military difference.

• https://apjjf.org/charles-k-armstrong/3460/article "The Destruction and Reconstruction of North Korea, 1950 - 1960"
• https://apjjf.org/2014/12/37/sahr-conway-lanz/4180/article "The Ethics of Bombing Civilians After World War II: The Persistence of Norms Against Targeting Civilians in the Korean War"
• https://www.chosun.com/english/national-en/2001/06/25/ZYQ4COOYEH2IJJJUABQARTJDGQ/ "Report Shows N.Korean War Dead Only Half Previous"
• https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/GOVPUB-D301-PURL-LPS48716/pdf/GOVPUB-D301-PURL-LPS48716.pdf "Strategic Air Warfare"
• https://apimagesblog.com/blog/2017/7/25/64-years-after-korean-war-north-still-digging-up-bombs "64 years after Korean War, North still digging up bombs"
• https://www.counterpunch.org/2017/08/21/we-burned-down-every-town-in-north-korea/ "We Burned Down Every Town in North Korea"
• https://www.census.gov/popclock/world/kn "Population Clock: World"