The Korean War- A limited 'Civil' war?

To what extent was the Korean war a limited war, as well as truly civil war in the context of the raging Cold War? Geographically, the war was indeed limited. Although within the year MacArthur threatened to extend the war into China and unleash Chiang Kai-Chek, it never went beyond Korea's borders. When the US army moved towards the Yalu river into China's territory, 250, 000 Chinese suddenly streamed over the border surprising the US forces. This …

…fall under this category, being initiated by the North against the South for political reasons (communist vs. 'democratic', to unify a country only arbitrarily divided into 2, which UNTCOK had claimed in '47 to be temporary). However, it was very much a global war of ideology whose consequences would be felt along the newly-divided Germany. For such reasons, the Korean war stands as an anomoly; one that remains to this day difficult and demanding to define.