Page 46 - July18LivingSCCLmagazine

1953 armistice signing. Note the "Demilitarized Zone" table between the signing parties.
Korea After 65 Years of Armistice:
Will Peace Finally Come to the Peninsula?
By Nick Suhr
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and South Korean President Moon Jae-in met in April and May, 2018.
The Korean War began in June 1950, when 75,000 soldiers of the Russian-backed Democratic People’s Republic of North Korea invaded the pro-Western Republic of Korea, marking the first hostilities of the Cold War. Within a month, American boots were on the ground and three years of constant conflict ensued. By the time an armistice was declared on July 28, 1953, more than five million soldiers and civilians were dead.
WHAT IS AN ARMISTICE?
The website www.vocabulary.com defines an armistice as follows:
When two sides of a war need a break from killing each other, they agree to an armistice,
a temporary battle timeout. An armistice isn’t permanent, but it’s usually a sign that both sides want to give peace a chance.
WHAT WE KNOW
For 65 years, we have been giving peace a chance, and nothing much has changed. I mentioned the Pueblo
46 LIVING @ SCCL, July 2018
incident in an article I wrote for our January issue, noting that after fifty years, this American vessel is
still held by North Korea. In February and March of this year, North Korea began testing missiles capable
of carrying large, possibly nuclear, warheads over
vast distances. Year in and year out, there have been clashes. Suddenly, as I am writing this article in May, something is happening. Some movement seemingly aimed at achieving a lasting peace is taking place. A key moment arrived when, on April 27, 2018, the leaders of both South (Moon Jae-in, president) and North (Kim Jong-un, chairman) Korea met in the demilitarized zone where the Armistice was signed in 1953, to sign
a “Panmunjom Declaration for Peace, Prosperity and Unification of the Korean Peninsula.” The declaration records three main points of agreement:
1. To reconnect the blood relations of the people and bring forward the future of co-prosperity and unification by advancing inter-Korean relations.
2. To make joint efforts to alleviate the acute military tension and practically eliminate the danger of war on the Korean Peninsula.