Remembering the Korean war 70 years on
(25 Jun 2020) LEAD IN : North and South Korea have separately marked the 70th anniversary of the start of the Korean War. The commemorations were largely subdued due to the coronavirus pandemic, and came a day after the North abruptly halted a pressure campaign against the South. STORY-LINE A disconnected railway track near the border between the two Koreas looked even more desolate on the hazy day of the 70th anniversary of the Korean War. The Baengmagoji Station is the northernmost railway station of South Korea and the site where some of the war's most fierce battles took place. South Koreans fought with the Chinese forces at Baengmagoji, also known as White Horse Hill or Hill 395, for over a week in October 1952, to secure the strategic spot at the center of the Korean Peninsula. Near the railway station, there stands a bleak Russian-style building that is mostly destroyed with only the framework remaining. A former headquarter of Korean Workers' Party, the building was established in 1946 when the area was occupied by North Korea before the war. Before the war destroyed it, the headquarter was a place where many anti-communists were dragged to and tortured to death under the North's communist rule. War veterans, local residents and government officials gathered here today (25 June) in Cheorwon, the town close to the border to commemorate the 70th anniversary. In hopes for bringing lasting peace on the peninsula, participants sent a letter to Chinese President Xi Jining to help turn the armistice into a formal end of war. Participants also released doves as part of a performance expressing hopes for permanent peace on the divided land. Jo Jung-rae, South Korean novelist told the crowd "I urge you to put your wishes together, so we can turn the armistice into the declaration of end of war. Trusting that we all have the same wishes, we eagerly hope for the end of war on behalf of 80 million people (population of South and North Korea)." In 1945 the Korean Peninsula was liberated from Japanese colonial rule at the end of World War II but eventually divided between a Soviet-supported North and a U.S.-backed South. The North invaded the South in June 1950, starting a devastating war that was stopped three years later by an armistice signed on July 27, 1953. The armistice called for the creation of a military demarcation line and the demilitarized zone (DMZ) around it: a four kilometre (2.5 mile) -wide "buffer zone," with one side controlled by the American-led UN Command and the other side by North Korea. The armistice prohibited "hostile acts" within or across the zone. As a hotline between the sides, it set up a military truce commission at the Panmunjom village that straddles the DMZ. The 1953 armistice has yet to be replaced with a peace treaty, leaving the Korean Peninsula technically in a state of war. Relations between the two nations have remained difficult ever since. The Korean War left millions of people dead, injured or missing and destroyed much of the two Koreas. Some 36,000 U.S. soldiers were also killed. Find out more about AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/HowWeWork Twitter: / ap_archive Facebook: / aparchives Instagram: / apnews You can license this story through AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/metadata/you...
