2020: 70 Years After the Onset of the Korean War!
Having spent more than ten years living and working in North Korea, I can testify that the Korean people are suffering as a result of a constant state of war.
What we in the United States often fail to realize is that North Koreans are people just like us. They, too, have families with the same needs as ours. Children with developmental disabilities, such as children with cerebral palsy or autism, are just now starting to receive proper medical care and education thanks to cooperation between DPRK’s Ministry of Public Health and international humanitarian organizations. Surgical units in Pyongyang are reusing syringes, scalpels, and even gauze due to a lack of medical supplies from global sanctions against the DPRK. And according to a recent report on “The Human Costs and Gendered Impact of Global Sanctions on the North Korea”, humanitarian aid is critical for more than 10 million people, or 40 percent of the population, in the DPRK.
The state of North Korea is due in part to the fact that the United States is still technically at war with them. The Korean War is the longest standing war in U.S. history. Seventy years ago, war broke out on the Korean Peninsula on June 25th, 1950 as a direct consequence of the United States and Russia dividing Korea along the 38th Parallel. As a result, the Korean people were split into two halves: the North and the South. With both countries establishing stark opposite governments and systems on each side, the newly created countries quickly conflicted with each other. Both sides insisted on a unified Korea, but it was impossible to reconcile Russia’s and U.S.’s-imposed differences. Thus, the Korean War broke out costing the lives of nearly 5 million people, including 40,000 U.S. servicemen.
The Korean people, especially those in the North, now live under the constant threat of war. With never-ending insecurity and fear, they have prioritized military defense over other national programs. They have become unjust victims of violence and war. And even though the United States may have forgotten about the Korean War, I guarantee that the Korean Peninsula has not. As an American, I live in relative peace and prosperity, but North and South Koreans live under perpetual tension. Seventy years is too long for thousands of families who have been separated to be breathing their last breath without being able to see their loved ones again.
[The memory of the war is fresh and alive for North Koreans, kept so by yearly national remembering and commemoration. In the capital city of Pyongyang, there is a newly built, vast museum to the Korean War as well as a memorial to those who gave their lives in the war.
The Victorious Fatherland Liberation War Museum Pyongyang, DPRK
In the spring of 2014, our family had the privilege of touring the Korean War Museum shortly after its opening. The building is enormous, built of limestone and granite and divided into two sections. One section is for the main exhibits. The second building is connected by a walkway and consists of a domed structure housing a virtual experience of the Battle of Daejeon.
The museum surprised me. I was expecting violent depictions of war, but for the most part the displays avoided gruesome details. Instead, the main objective of the museum is the tyranny of American imperialism. U.S. soldiers are depicted in exaggerated postures of utter defeat, some holding crosses on chains or even clutching Bibles. It is as if North Korea is likening the U.S. defense of South Korea to the Crusades in the Dark Ages. The propaganda of the state of North Korea declares that as a Christian nation, the United States intended to take over North Korea primarily to serve their own political gain. Americans and Christians are lumped together, sharing the purpose of the advancement of Western civilization. At the end of the exhibit, North Korea heroically prevails over their enemies, victoriously fighting off the foreign invaders.] (Excerpt from Discovering Joy: Ten Years in North Korea)
Now as we celebrate a new year, it is time that we put an end to this 70 year-long war. Ending the Korean War should be a humanitarian imperative, liberating those who have lived under the tyranny of war for far too long. Now is the time to act. This process towards peace will not be easy, and it will not happen overnight. But the first step to peace is to officially sign an end to the Korean War. I believe that this will lead towards newfound peace on the Korean Peninsula that the world is so eagerly waiting for.