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North Korea marks 60th anniversary of war's end - The Hindu
Right: China's Vice President Li
Also Obama marking 60th anniversary of Korean war truce - Businessweek
Right: China's Vice President Li
Grateful South Koreans mark war anniversaryChinese, North Korean and two U.S. veterans on Thursday joined leader Kim Jong Un at the start of official commemorations in Pyongyang for the 60th anniversary of the end of the Korean War.
In his first public appearance for the anniversary events, Mr. Kim laid a floral arrangement at a monument to war veterans that is the centrepiece of a sprawling new national military cemetery in Pyongyang's outskirts. Mr. Kim took power after his death of his father, Kim Jong Il, in late 2011 and has since overseen two long-range rocket launches and a nuclear test that have drawn international condemnation and tightened U.N. sanctions.
Dozens of elderly Chinese soldiers who fought for North Korea joined Thursday's commemoration. Also taking part were two U.S. veterans who fought against Chinese soldiers at the Chosin Reservoir in November and December 1950.
"I would like to meet some (North) Korean veterans to tell them how sorry I am for their fallen comrades, and for my fallen comrades", said retired Pvt. First Class Dick Bonelli of the U.S. Marines.
Mr. Bonelli and U.S. Navy Capt. Thomas Hudner are in North Korea to revisit Jangjin County, better known to Americans as the Chosin Reservoir.
"It's a very emotional occasion to be here with so many veterans not only the veterans but also the people of the nation who turned out to show their support to all of veterans. And as an American veteran, I am delighted to see that our former foe and we share some of the same feelings about this", Mr. Hudner said.
The Korean War, pitting North Korean and Chinese troops against U.S.-led United Nations and South Korean forces, ended with an armistice on July 27, 1953. A peace treaty was never signed, leaving the Korean Peninsula in a technical state of war and divided at the 38th parallel.
"Without America, everything would belong to North Korea," says Byun, 54, who fondly recalls the U.S. post-war food support and now earns $10,000 a month growing tomatoes.
"There would be no food, no life, we would be stuck in one country without commu nication with the outside world," he says. "But in South Korea we love freedom and democracy, that's why we can develop so much."
From the bombed out ruins of the 1950s, South Korea has soared in recent decades to become today's hi-tech, trend-setting powerhouse, the world's 13th largest economy. This summer, South Korea marks the 60th anniversary of the July 27 1953 armistice that brought a cease-fire, but no peace treaty, leaving the Koreas technically still at war today.
Many South Koreans are quick to express gratitude for the U.S. help in repelling North Korean and Chinese forces. Unlike in the United States, the war is far from forgotten here. However, there is widespread concern that younger generations fail to grasp how important the war is to their freedoms and way of life and how the enemy then remains on the border today in the form of the North Korean dictator Kim Jung-Un,
Also Obama marking 60th anniversary of Korean war truce - Businessweek
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