[Disclaimer - I'm no historian. I shouldn't even need to say that...]
As a child, I used to look through my father’s scrapbook from when he was in the Army with a sense of wonder at this strange place called Korea that he had been. He had joined the army at 17, in 1947, and was almost immediately sent to Korea to be part of a “peacekeeping contingent”. Without going into too much detail, Korea had been under oppressive Japanese rule for 35 years, which came to an abrupt halt at the end of World War II when the Japanese were pushed out of the peninsula by Russian and American troops. Much like Germany, after the war, Korea was divided into two halves, with the Soviet Union stationing troops in the north, and the United States stationing troops in the south. Those troops are what my father became a part of.
He has fond memories of that time in his life, and his scrap book reflects those times. He learned to speak Korean, took a liking to the food, and enjoyed the culture. Looking at the book through a child’s eyes, I saw all of these strange people wearing funny clothes and living in primitive conditions, yet I was fascinated and wanted to see them with my own eyes. Maybe that’s where my own love of travel really began.
Things changed quite a lot in late June, 1950, when the government of the Republic of Korea (aka North Korea), led by Kim Il-Song, invaded South Korea with the intent of reunification under a communist government, an idea that the Soviet Union backed for obvious reasons. Within a few days, the much larger and better-equipped army from the north had captured Seoul, and by August, the South Korean army had been pushed back to a small area surrounding the city of Pusan. My father was amongst those who did this march, and he would spend the next 18 months in combat both gaining and losing ground as he carried a machine gun nearly the length of the peninsula. For obvious reasons, the pictures from that period are far different.
The Korean War, as it became known (though technically it was a UN conflict), went on until July 27, 1953, when an armistice was agreed upon and the country was once again divided along the 38th parallel. It was a stalemate. Virtually nothing was gained by either side, and more than a million people (civilian and soldiers) had lost their lives in pursuit of…nothing. Yet it seems that most people have forgotten that it happened, as its legacy has been overshadowed by other wars. So, this is my small memorial to it so that the stories my dad told me as a kid will live on.
There’s obviously a lot more to the story of the war itself, and I highly encourage you to check out the Wiki link above, which has a decent summary of all of the phases of the conflict.
After the war, North Korea went into a mode where it wanted to become completely self-sufficient. I can understand this – years of being ruled by other nations had taken their toll. Their leader, Kim Il-Song, took it to an extreme, and his son, Kim Jong-Il (who I’m sure you all have heard of) took it even further. So, today, North Korea is one of the most isolated nations in the world.
That changed a little bit today. In Yongbyon, North Korea, the cooling tower for a (defunct) nuclear plant was demolished as part of an agreement the North Korean Government has made with a coalition of countries including the US, China, and Russia. While this was largely a symbolic gesture, documentation was also provided outlining their nuclear program – something very real. This was done in order to lift sanctions and to have a more open relationship with the outside world. It’s a start.
So why am I mentioning this? Well, there’s a part of me that really wants to go there. More on that another time.
