The Armistice of a Forgotten War
July 27, 2023
By Robert McCoy
Sandwiched between World War II and the Vietnam War, the oft-forgotten Korean War must be remembered. The armistice signed 70 years ago today suspending hostilities on the Korean Peninsula did not end the war.
The Korean War was started on June 25, 1950, by North Korean dictator Kim Il Sung attempting to unify a divided Korean Peninsula by force. Kim had permission from Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin and reluctant support from Chinese leader Mao Zedong. Stalin wanted the US engrossed in Asia to prevent American interference in Europe. The U.S. headed a multi-national force to aid South Korea. Then China joined the fray in October 1950.
The war raged up and down the peninsula for roughly a year. However, it became a stalemate as fierce battles resulted in little gain for either side. Ceasefire discussions began on July 10, 1951, yet Stalin ordered communist delegates to stall, sacrificing Chinese and North Korean soldiers to keep American forces tied up. Finally, negotiations concluded and the armistice was signed on July 27, 1953. It established a Demilitarized Zone as the border between North and South Korea, not much different from the old boundary of the 38th Parallel.
A total of 36,574 American service members were killed (139 from Montana); 103,284 more were wounded; and no less than 7,100 were held as prisoners of war. Some 8,000 US servicemembers are still unaccounted for. Of course, South Korean as well as communist losses were magnitudes greater.
The armistice has prevented another outright war on the peninsula, but North Korea has committed several hostile acts since: January 21, 1968 – the failed commando raid on the South Korean presidential Blue House in Seoul; January 23, 1968 – the seizure in international waters of the US Navy vessel Pueblo, killing one crewmember and holding the other 81 for eleven months; April 15, 1969 – the shoot down of a US Navy EC-121M aircraft in international airspace over the Sea of Japan, killing all 31 crewmembers; August 18, 1976 – the ax murders of two US Army officers in the DMZ; March 26, 2010 – the torpedoing of the South Korean naval vessel Cheonan, killing 46 sailors.
Today, after three decades of futile negotiations and despite punishing UN sanctions, North Korea has managed to develop nuclear weapons and miniaturize them to fit on their ICBMs. All US military and allied bases in the Pacific Ocean – as well as the entire US mainland – are within their range of up to 9,000 miles. Clearly, that includes all of Montana with its nuclear missiles at Malmstrom Air Force Base near Great Falls.
The United States must recognize the inconvenient truth that North Korea will not denuclearize and that years of illusory discussions have produced only North Korean broken promises to cease its nuclear program. Strategic empathy – seeing things as the enemy sees things – shows that North Korea has every reason to keep its missiles and nukes. After all, the prime objective of the North Korean regime is self-preservation. In its view, only its missiles and nukes keep the US and its allies at bay.
To make the Korean War armistice permanent, the US must reevaluate its approach to North Korea. No-nonsense realism dictates concluding a formal peace treaty with North Korea, establishing diplomatic relations, and reaching a détente – as we did with the USSR and China when those two countries independently developed their own missiles and nuclear weapons.
Robert E. McCoy is a Fellow with the Mansfield Center of the University of Montana. His focus is on international relations and geopolitical events in East Asia, particularly North Korea. The view expressed here are strictly his own.