The aftermath of the Korean War set the tone for Cold War tension between all the superpowers. The Korean War was important in the development of the Cold War, as it showed that the two superpowers, United States and Soviet Union, could fight a "limited war" in a third world country. The "limited war" or "proxy war" strategy was a feature of conflicts such as the Vietnam War and the Soviet War in Afghanistan, as well as Angola, Greece, and wars in the Middle East.
The Korean War was the first war in which the United Nations (UN) participated in outside the Western World. Some commentators[who?] argued that it showed that the UN was a powerful organization for helping to keep world peace.[citation needed] The UN Command in South Korea is still functional.
The war scarred both North and South Korea. Both nations suffered massive damage to their economies and infrastructure, as a result of bombings, artillery strikes and loss of skilled workers. In the aftermath of the war, the United States funneled significant aid to South Korea under the auspices of the United Nations Korea Reconstruction Agency (UNKRA). Concomitantly, North Korean reconstruction was assisted by "fraternal socialist nations," namely the USSR and China. In the years immediately following the war, North Korea's growth rate of total industrial output exceeded that of South Korea, averaging 39% between 1953 and 1960.