A hush settled over the blasted land scape at 10 p.m. on July 27, 1953. General Matthew Ridgway, commander of the United Nations forces, later recalled that "there was no wild celebrating or fraternizing such as had marked the end of other wars." Men slumped wearily around a bottle of whisky or tried the unusual sensation of standing upright without flinching. Thus, after two years and 17 days of simultaneous fighting and negotiating, the Korean War came to an end just 15 years ago this week. The U.S. suffered 140,000 casualties, including 34,000 dead, in the more than three years of bitter fighting that followed the North Korean invasion of South Korea, but it kept the South from being overrun.
Actually, the Korean War—or "conflict," because no one ever officially declared war—has never legally ended. The armistice that the combatants signed 15 years ago led to one of the longest truces in the modern history of warfare. Since its signing, the Military Armistice Commission, composed of U.N. observers and U.S. and North Korean officials, has met 273 times at Panmunjom, right in the middle of the Demilitarized Zone set up by the truce. The meetings have always been bitter and hostile, but lately they have taken on an even harsher tone as the result of North Korea's seizure of the Pueblo and its increased attempts at infiltration into the South.
Improper Bands. Since Lyndon Johnson's visit to South Korea in late 1966, more "serious incidents" have occurred than in all the previous 13 years of truce. So far this year, there have been more than 200 such episodes, in which six G.I.s, 36 South Korean soldiers and 55 North Korean infiltrators have been killed. North Korean Premier Kim II Sung recently declared a "month of struggle" against the South to mark the truce anniversary. Only last week, seven North Korean infiltrators were killed by U.S. and South Korean troops in two separate clashes along the 151-mile Demilitarized Zone, and a U.S. soldier was also killed.
Everyone keeps track of the statistics, grim or absurd. Since the Military Armistice Commission began meeting, North Korea has charged the U.N. command with no fewer than 56,889 truce violations, most of them such minor procedural matters as the presence of improper arm bands on U.N. guards. The U.N. has admitted 93 violations and charged North Korea with 6,313. Pyongyang has admitted only two, the last one in 1953. It is so adamant about not taking blame for the increased tensions along the DMZ that it refuses to accept the bodies of slain North Korean soldiers, insisting that they are South Koreans deliberately disguised in Communist uniforms.