Yalu

Yalu , Korean Amnok, river, c.500 mi (800 km) long, rising in the Changbai Mts. in Jilin prov., NE China, and flowing SW to the Bay of Korea at Dandong; forms part of the China-North Korea border. In places it is navigable for shallow-draft vessels, but its chief commercial use is for floating timber to sawmills. Several railroad bridges span the river. The Supung Dam above Sinuiju, North Korea, one of the largest dams in Asia, supplies hydroelectric power to China and North Korea. Chinese troops entered the Korean War by crossing the Yalu.

Yalu a river that forms the border between North Korea and China and marks the high tide of the United States and South Korean troops in the North. On September 27, 1950, President Harry S. Truman authorized Gen. Douglas MacArthur to take troops north of the 38th Parallel, and the combined forces swiftly swept north to the banks of the Yalu River and the border with Red China. This so alarmed Communist China that it sent a large force across the river, undetected by the United States and South Korea, and launched a major counteroffensive in conjunction with the North Koreans on November 25, pushing the invaders back to the 38th Parallel. Most of the action during the rest of the war would be involved in holding this line.