Remembering The Korean War

By C. J. Refsland on April 7, 2013 • ( 0 )

Since North Korea is causing such a stir tearing up the 1954 Armistice agreement & threatening to annihalate the United States and it’s allies, I thought it appropriate for us to remember the Korean War and the veterans from that war. It was a brutal war, much like Viet Nam. It was a mutual agreement between all parties to call a truce and end the fighting. There was no winner of this war. It’s horror’s will live on forever in the minds of the survivors. I watched a video of Kim Jong Un and one of his generals, it was a propaganda video aimed at the US, but this old General held up a large rifle shell, and said, ‘This bullet is from the 1950 war and you ended it and I didn’t get to use it, to kill Americans, I’ll use it now.’ Where does this hatred come from, if it doesn’t come directly from Satan. Pray for the people of Korea. And God Bless the men and women who served in this war. You are not forgotten!

CHOSIN, a Korean War documentary film by Brian Iglesias:

I’ve put together some facts and photos from Wikimedia & Wikipedia.

Korean War (1950–1953)

Korean War Armistice Agreement

After Korea was divided by the UN, the two Korean powers both tried to control the whole peninsula under their respective governments. This led to escalating border conflicts on the 38th parallel and attempts to negotiate elections for the whole of Korea. These attempts ended when the military of North Korea invaded the South on 25 June 1950, leading to a full-scale civil war. With endorsement from the United Nations, countries allied with the United States intervened on behalf of South Korea.

After rapid advances in a South Korean counterattack, North-allied Chinese forces intervened on behalf of North Korea, shifting the balance of the war. Fighting ended on 27 July 1953, with an armistice that approximately restored the original boundaries between North and South Korea. More than one million civilians and soldiers were killed in the war.

Although some have referred to the conflict as a civil war, other important factors were involved. The Korean War was also the first armed confrontation of the Cold War and set the standard for many later conflicts. It created the idea of a proxy war, where the two superpowers would fight in another country, forcing the people in that country to suffer most of the destruction and death involved in a war between such large nations. The superpowers avoided descending into an all-out war against one another, as well as the mutual use of nuclear weapons. It also expanded the Cold War, which to that point had mostly been concerned with Europe. A heavily guarded demilitarized zone on the 38th parallel still divides the peninsula, and an anti-Communist and anti-North Korea sentiment remains in South Korea.

Since the Armistice in 1953, relations between the North Korean government and South Korea, the European Union, Canada, the United States, and Japan have remained tense, and hostile incidents occur often. North and South Korea signed the June 15th North-South Joint Declaration in 2000, in which they promised to seek peaceful reunification. On 4 October 2007, the leaders of North and South Korea pledged to hold summit talks to officially declare the war over and reaffirmed the principle of mutual non-aggression.On 13 March 2013, North Korea confirmed it ended the 1953 Armistice and declared North Korea “is not restrained by the North-South declaration on non-aggression”

Stalemate (July 1951 – July 1953)

American flame thrower units advancing toward a tunnel entrance

ROK soldiers dump spent artillery casings.

For the remainder of the Korean War the UN Command and the PVA fought, but exchanged little territory; the stalemate held. Large-scale bombing of North Korea continued, and protracted armistice negotiations began 10 July 1951 at Kaesong.^[202] On the Chinese side, Zhou Enlai directed peace talks, and Li Kenong and Qiao Guanghua headed the negotiation team.Combat continued while the belligerents negotiated; the UN Command forces’ goal was to recapture all of South Korea and to avoid losing territory.^[203] The PVA and the KPA attempted similar operations, and later effected military and psychological operations in order to test the UN Command’s resolve to continue the war.

The principal battles of the stalemate include the Battle of Bloody Ridge (18 August – 15 September 1951), the Battle of Heartbreak Ridge (13 September – 15 October 1951), the Battle of Old Baldy (26 June – 4 August 1952), the Battle of White Horse (6–15 October 1952), the Battle of Triangle Hill (14 October – 25 November 1952), the Battle of Hill Eerie (21 March – 21 June 1952), the sieges of Outpost Harry (10–18 June 1953), the Battle of the Hook (28–9 May 1953), the Battle of Pork Chop Hill (23 March – 16 July 1953), and the Battle of Kumsong (13–27 July 1953).

Casualties

Korean War memorials are found in every UN Command Korean War participant country; this one is in Pretoria, South Africa.

According to the data from the U.S. Department of Defense, the United States suffered 33,686 battle deaths, along with 2,830 non-battle deaths during the Korean War and 8,176 missing in action.^[231] South Korea reported some 373,599 civilian and 137,899 military deaths.^[9] Western sources estimate the PVA suffered about 400,000 killed and 486,000 wounded, while the KPA suffered 215,000 killed and 303,000 wounded.^[20]

Data from official Chinese sources, on the other hand, reported that the PVA had suffered 114,000 battle deaths, 34,000 non-battle deaths, 340,000 wounded, 7,600 missing and 21,400 captured during the war. Among those captured, about 14,000 defected to Taiwan while the other 7,110 were repatriated to China.^[232] Chinese sources also reported that North Korea had suffered 290,000 casualties, 90,000 captured and a “large” number of civilian deaths.^[232] In return, the Chinese and North Koreans estimated that about 390,000 soldiers from United States, 660,000 soldiers from South Korea and 29,000 other UN soldiers were “eliminated” from the battlefield.^[232]

Recent scholarship has put the full death toll on all sides at just over 1.2 million.^[233]

First Lieutenant Baldomero Lopez, USMC, leads the 3rd Platoon, Company A, 1st Battalion, 5th Marines over the seawall on the northern side of Red Beach, as the second assault wave lands, 15 September 1950, during the Inchon invasion. Wooden scaling ladders are in use to facilitate disembarkation from the LCVP that brought these men to the shore. Lt. Lopez was killed in action within a few minutes, while assaulting a North Korean bunker. Note M-1 Carbine carried by Lt. Lopez, M-1 Rifles of other Marines and details of the Marines’ field gear

Korean 57-mm anti-tank gun, evacuation of Suwon Airfield in 1950

Korea, on the “Quantico” Line. Marine Machine Gun Team with Browning M1917 Awaiting an Expected Chinese Counterattack

The wreckage of a bridge and North Korean Communist tank south of Suwon, Korea. The tank was caught on a bridge and put out of action by the Air Force.

Soldier examines a dead Chinese Communist killed during the offensive drive of the 5th RCT near the Han River area, Korea. The soldier is wearing GI clothing and carrying an American short story magazine

A 4.2-inch mortar crew of the Heavy Mortar Company, 179th Regiment, 45th U.S. Infantry Division, fires on Communist positions, west of Chorwon, Korea.