Devildogg4ever
07-27-03, 03:55 AM
By Martin Nesirky
PANMUNJOM, South Korea (Reuters) - Veterans and dignitaries have gathered at South Korea's Demilitarised Zone border with the North
to remember those who did not live to see the armistice that ended Korean War fighting 50 years ago.
The ceremony combined remembrance with reminders of what New Zealand Prime Minister Helen Clark called the "very critical challenge"
posed by communist North Korea's nuclear weapons aims.
At 10 a.m. on July 27, 1953, North Korea and the U.N. force signed an Armistice Agreement. It took effect 12 hours later and remains in
force, meaning the Koreas are technically at war -- and the heavily fortified DMZ is a vivid symbol of that.
"We pray that true peace may come to this Korean peninsula, and that this divided country may restore its 5,000 years of history and
become one again," retired missionary Horace G. Underwood, 85, told the 1,500 veterans and 200 dignitaries at Panmunjom truce village at
the heart of the DMZ.
Underwood interpreted at the truce talks.
Army General Leon LaPorte, commander of the 37,000 U.S. troops in South Korea, described the event in an upbeat rather than solemn
speech as a "grand celebration" of the U.N. forces saving Chinese-backed North Korea from engulfing the South.
"To some the armistice represents an anti-climactic finish to a complex conflict," he told the crowd in a tent that shielded them from rain.
"(But) the armistice represents nothing short of victory, nothing short of an historic international stand against communist aggression."
North Korea, which says it won the war, has described the ceremony as a disgusting farce. A lone North Korean guard stood stone-faced
on the far side of the dividing line.
STONE ARROW
"This weekend we remember...the terrible human cost," said Clark, paying tribute to more than 84,000 soldiers who died serving under the
U.N. flag.
"We also remember the losses incurred by the other side," Clark said of communist deaths that were greater than that of the allies in a war
that also killed millions of Korean civilians.
"We want to see North Korea emerge from isolation," she said. "We hope North Korea will seize the opportunity to do that now."
North Korea is edging toward talks with the United States and other powers in a crisis that erupted last October when Washington said
Pyongyang had said it had a covert atomic plan.
At the ceremony, U.N. forces unveiled a stone arrow curving toward the off-limits hut where U.S. Lieutenant-General William Harrison and
North Korean General Nam Il signed the truce.
Over the weekend, veterans from the 16 nations of the U.N. force visited other sites and graves of those killed in the 1950-53 conflict, often
called the "Forgotten War".
In a message to the United States, South Korean President Roh Moo-hyun said the conflict was by no means forgotten.
"We resolutely repelled the attempt to communise the Korean peninsula," he said.
Retired General Paek Sun-yop, who represented South Korea at the 1953 signing, condemned human rights abuses under North Korean
leader Kim Jong-il, whose father Kim Il-sung launched the war to try to reunify the peninsula under communist rule.
Veterans, many sporting medals and regimental hats, stared wistfully across the demarcation line and chatted to comrades.
New Zealand veteran Tamai Te Kani, 76, said he was amazed at the economic progress in South Korea evident in the bustling capital city
of Seoul, just 55 km (35 miles) from the border.
http://www.swissinfo.org/sen/Swissinfo.html?siteSect=143&sid=4071219
PANMUNJOM, South Korea (Reuters) - Veterans and dignitaries have gathered at South Korea's Demilitarised Zone border with the North
to remember those who did not live to see the armistice that ended Korean War fighting 50 years ago.
The ceremony combined remembrance with reminders of what New Zealand Prime Minister Helen Clark called the "very critical challenge"
posed by communist North Korea's nuclear weapons aims.
At 10 a.m. on July 27, 1953, North Korea and the U.N. force signed an Armistice Agreement. It took effect 12 hours later and remains in
force, meaning the Koreas are technically at war -- and the heavily fortified DMZ is a vivid symbol of that.
"We pray that true peace may come to this Korean peninsula, and that this divided country may restore its 5,000 years of history and
become one again," retired missionary Horace G. Underwood, 85, told the 1,500 veterans and 200 dignitaries at Panmunjom truce village at
the heart of the DMZ.
Underwood interpreted at the truce talks.
Army General Leon LaPorte, commander of the 37,000 U.S. troops in South Korea, described the event in an upbeat rather than solemn
speech as a "grand celebration" of the U.N. forces saving Chinese-backed North Korea from engulfing the South.
"To some the armistice represents an anti-climactic finish to a complex conflict," he told the crowd in a tent that shielded them from rain.
"(But) the armistice represents nothing short of victory, nothing short of an historic international stand against communist aggression."
North Korea, which says it won the war, has described the ceremony as a disgusting farce. A lone North Korean guard stood stone-faced
on the far side of the dividing line.
STONE ARROW
"This weekend we remember...the terrible human cost," said Clark, paying tribute to more than 84,000 soldiers who died serving under the
U.N. flag.
"We also remember the losses incurred by the other side," Clark said of communist deaths that were greater than that of the allies in a war
that also killed millions of Korean civilians.
"We want to see North Korea emerge from isolation," she said. "We hope North Korea will seize the opportunity to do that now."
North Korea is edging toward talks with the United States and other powers in a crisis that erupted last October when Washington said
Pyongyang had said it had a covert atomic plan.
At the ceremony, U.N. forces unveiled a stone arrow curving toward the off-limits hut where U.S. Lieutenant-General William Harrison and
North Korean General Nam Il signed the truce.
Over the weekend, veterans from the 16 nations of the U.N. force visited other sites and graves of those killed in the 1950-53 conflict, often
called the "Forgotten War".
In a message to the United States, South Korean President Roh Moo-hyun said the conflict was by no means forgotten.
"We resolutely repelled the attempt to communise the Korean peninsula," he said.
Retired General Paek Sun-yop, who represented South Korea at the 1953 signing, condemned human rights abuses under North Korean
leader Kim Jong-il, whose father Kim Il-sung launched the war to try to reunify the peninsula under communist rule.
Veterans, many sporting medals and regimental hats, stared wistfully across the demarcation line and chatted to comrades.
New Zealand veteran Tamai Te Kani, 76, said he was amazed at the economic progress in South Korea evident in the bustling capital city
of Seoul, just 55 km (35 miles) from the border.
http://www.swissinfo.org/sen/Swissinfo.html?siteSect=143&sid=4071219