North Korea began its invasion of South Korea armed largely with Soviet weapons such as the Model PPSh41, and a variety of Japanese weapons captured by the Soviets and turned over to them and the Chinese Communists.

The Chinese did not arm primarily with Soviet weapons until after the 1st year of the KW. At that time they also began extensive manufacture of their own models of Soviet weapons. The above Type 50 went into production in 1950, and was one of the weapons the Chinese used when they first came into the war. With this model, the Chinese most commonly used the box magazine.

Like the PPSh41, the Type 50 had only 5 parts, including a black recoil-reducer pad over the end of a long spring, with a compartment in the butt for oil and cleaning brush. It was cheap, easy to maintain, very inaccurate, and threw a lot of lead in a hurry.