This week marks the 70th anniversary of the signing of the armistice which put a halt to fighting in the Korean War. The war was among the first of a series of conflicts involving the Cold War superpowers and their allies, and caused the deaths of over three million people, 1.2 million of them North Korean civilians killed by US carpet bombing.
North Korea’s “miraculous” ability to withstand US aggression during the Korean War shattered the air of invincibility surrounding the US military, and helped prevent a new global conflagration between the Eastern and Western blocs, North Korean leader Kim Jong-un has said.
“The miracle of July 27, [which] the first defenders of the DPRK brought about while reliably safeguarding the outpost of anti-imperialist struggle in the eastern part of the planet, is a victory of the distinguished and ardent patriotic cause of the army and people of the DPRK, who devotedly defended the honor and sovereignty of the country and, at the same time [won] a great victory of significance in human history as they inflicted eternally indelible disgrace and defeat on US imperialism, the chieftain of aggression, and prevented a new world war,” Kim said Wednesday, while paying tribute to fallen soldiers at a military cemetery in Pyongyang.
Stressing that nations which are “great in history and tradition and steadfast in succession” are “invincible,” Kim stressed that the DPRK, “the most dignified and independent, powerful country in the world, will always emerge victorious” against foes while guided by the heroism of those who forged the Korean Revolution.
Kim visited the Fatherland Liberation War Martyr’s Cemetery and the Chinese People’s Volunteers Martyrs’ Cemetery on Wednesday, accompanied by senior military officials and Korean Workers’ Party members, laying wreaths to fallen soldiers at both.
North Korean media said Shoigu’s visit would “significantly contribute” to the further strengthening of the “strategic and traditionally friendly” ties between Moscow and Pyongyang.
During the visit, Shoigu laid flowers at the Liberation Monument in Pyongyang – dedicated to the Red Army troops who died liberating Korea from Japan during Operation August Storm in August of 1945. Russian officials also laid flowers at the monuments to Kim Il Sung, North Korea’s founder, and Kim Jong Il, in downtown Pyongyang.
China’s delegation was led by Li Hongzhong, the vice chairman of the People’s National Congress parliament’s Standing Committee.
Korean War: Deadly Cold War Conflict
The Korean War is one of the top five deadliest conflicts of the 20th century after the First and Second World Wars and the Russian and Chinese civil wars, with an estimated 3-4.5 million people killed in brutal fighting.
A war between the divided Koreas became inevitable after the United Nations proved unable to reconcile differences between the socialist and capitalist governments established in the two countries in the mid-to-late 1940s.
After Pyongyang declared war on Seoul in 1950, the US and its allies mobilized an international coalition, which landed on the peninsula and began pushing DPRK forces to the Chinese border.
This prompted the newly-declared People’s Republic of China to join the conflict, sending volunteers who helped push US and allied forces back towards the 38th parallel, where the war began.
Pyongyang – Sputnik International, 1920, 28.06.2023
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Moscow assisted Pyongyang with arms deliveries, and secretly sent a contingent of volunteer Soviet ace fighter pilots who helped slow the systematic carpet bombing of North Korean cities and infrastructure by US bombers.
The US Air Force ended up dropping more tonnage of bombs on the country between 1950 and 1953 than it had across the entire Pacific Theater of operations during WWII, resulting in the destruction of nearly three quarters of North Korea’s population centers and the deaths of well over a million civilians.
Modern Tensions
This week’s armistice commemorations come amid a fresh escalation of tensions between North Korea on one side, and the US and South Korea on the other, with Washington sending nuclear submarines to the peninsula this month amid negotiations to ramp up its defense commitments to Seoul related to Pyongyang’s nuclear and missile capabilities.
Pyongyang’s relations with Seoul and Washington enjoyed a brief thaw in the mid-to-late 2010s after Kim Jong-un and South Korean and US Presidents Moon Jae-in and Donald Trump established close personal rapports and began talks to normalize ties and deescalate tensions.
This thaw was undermined following the election of Joe Biden, who had attacked Trump for meeting with Kim. Last year’s election of a new South Korean president and Seoul’s reversion to classifying North Korea as an “enemy” state strained relations further. North Korea, in its turn, conducts responsive critical rhetoric against the collective West.
In this photo provided by South Korea Defense Ministry, the USS Ronald Reagan aircraft carrier and the USS nuclear-powered submarine USS Annapolis participate in a joint anti-submarine drill between South Korea, the United States and Japan in waters off South Korea’s eastern coast, file photo. – Sputnik International, 1920, 24.07.2023
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By Ilya Tsukanov
Published by Sputnik Globe
Republished by The 21st Century
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