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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 07 May 2025
On 27 May 2009, the government of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK, North Korea) provoked worldwide alarm and protest by announcing that it no longer considered itself bound by the 1953 armistice ending the Korean War. Amongst the mass of western media reports deploring this announcement, however, only a few noted the fact that the armistice has never been signed by the Republic of Korea (ROK, South Korea), because its then President Yi Seungman [Syngman Rhee] did not accept that the war was over, and wanted to go on fighting. The armistice was therefore signed only by some of the belligerents, and, since negotiations on the Korean Peninsula in the UN framework proved abortive and the US and North Korea have not pursued bilateral peace negotiations, there has never been a peace treaty. [1] More than half a century after the ceasefire, Korea remains uneasily divided along the 38th Parallel, one of the world's most dangerous military flashpoints. Of all the conflicts over history and memory which trouble the Northeast Asian region, this is surely the one most directly linked to contemporary politics: for rival understandings of the unfinished war lie at the heart of continuing political tensions on the Korean Peninsula.
[1] One report which did raise this point appeared in The Australian on 27 May 2009.
[2] Sheila Miyoshi Jager, Narratives of Nation Building in Korea: A Genealogy of Patriotism, Armonk, M. E. Sharpe, 2003.
[3] Bruce Cumings, “The Korean War: What is it that We are Remembering to Forget”, in Sheila Miyoshi Jager and Rana Mitter eds, Ruptured Histories: War, Memory and the post Cold War in Asia, Harvard, Harvard University Press, 2007, pp. 266-290.
[4] Philip West and Suh Ji-Moon, Remembering the ‘Forgotten War’: The Korean War through Literature and Art, Armonk, M. E. Sharpe, 2001. On changing Korean memories of the war, see also Roland Bleiker and Young-Ju Hoang, “Remembering and Forgetting the Korean War: From Trauma to Recollection”, in Duncan Bell ed., Memory, Trauma and World Politics: Reflections on the Relationship between Past and Present, London, Palgrave Macmillan, 2006, pp. 195-212.
[5] See for example, David R. McCann, “Our Forgotten War: The Korean War in Korean and American Popular Culture”, in Philip West, Steven I. Levine and Jackie Hiltz eds, America's Wars in Asia: A Cultural Approach to History and Memory, Armonk, M. E. Sharpe, 1997, pp. 65-83; Paul M. Edwards, To Acknowledge a War: The Korean War in American Memory, Greenwood Publishing Group, 2000, particularly pp. 23-26; West and Suh eds., Remembering the “Forgotten War”; Roland Bleiker and Young-Ju Hoang, “Remembering and Forgetting the Korean War: From Trauma to Reconciliation”, in Duncan Bell ed., Memory, Trauma and World Politics: Reflections on the Relationship Between Past and Present, London, Palgrave Macmillan, 2006, pp. 195-212; Sheila Miyoshi Jager and Jiyul Kim, “The Korean War after the Cold War: Commemorating the Armistice Agreement in South Korea” in Jager and Mitter eds, Ruptured Histories, op. cit., pp. 233-265; Bruce Cumings, “The Korean War” op. cit.
[6] Ha Jin, War Trash, New York, Pantheon Books, 2004.
[7] See Charles J. Stanley, Sang-Hun Choe and Martha Mendoza, The Bridge at No Gun Ri:A Hidden Nightmare from the Korea War, New York, Henry Holt and Co, 2001; Kill ‘em All: The American Military in Korea (producer, Jeremy Williams), BBC TV “Timewatch” series, first broadcast 1 February 2002.
[8] See the Korean War National Museum website, accessed 1 June 2009.
[9] Korean War National Museum website op. cit.; the photograph is uncannily reminiscent of the famous Life magazine photograph of an abandoned little boy taken among the ruins of Shanghai's railway station after it was bombed by the Japanese in 1937.
[10] Sun Hongjiu and Zhang Zhongyong eds., Ninggu de Lishi Shunjian: Jinian Zhongguo Renmin Zhiyuanjun Kangmeiyuanchao Chuguo Zuozhan Wushi Zhounian, Shenyang: Liaoning Renmin Chubanshe, 2000 (English translation as in the original).
[11] See Susan A. Crane, “Introduction: Of Museums and Memory”, in Susan A. Crane ed., Museums and Memory, Stanford, Stanford University Press, pp. 1-16; 2000; Sheila Watson, “History Museums, Community Identities and a Sense of Place: Rewriting Histories”, in Simon J. Knell, Suzanne MacLeod and Sheila Watson eds., Museum Revolutions: How Museums Change and Are Changed, London, Routledge, 2007, pp. 160-172; Tessa Morris-Suzuki, The Past Within Us: Media, Memory, History, London, Verso, 2005, ch. 1.
[12] Jager and Kim, “The Korean War after the Cold War”, p. 242.
[13] War Memorial of Korea, Seoul, n.d., p. 4. The emphasis on Silla as the origin of a united Korea is disputed by North Korean historians.
[14] Jager and Kim, p. 252; Jager and Kim are here citing the work of Pai Hyung-Il on Korean archaeology and national identity.
[15] Jager and Kim, pp. 246-252.
[16] See for example Mun Gyong-Su, Saishûtô 4.3 Jiken: ‘Tamuna“no Kuni no Shi to Saisei no Monogatari, Tokyo, Heibonsha, 2008, p. 8.
[17] Do Khiem and Kim Sung-Soo, “Crimes, Concealment and South Korea's Truth and Reconciliation Commission”, The Asia-Pacific Journal: Japan Focus, 1 August 2008.
[18] For recent discussions of the Nogun Ri and other massacres, see for example Charley Hanley, “The Massacre at No Gun Ri: Army Letter Reveals US Intent”, The Asia-Pacific Journal: Japan Focus, 15 April 2007; Bruce Cumings, “The South Korean Massacre at Taejon: New Evidence on US Responsibility and Cover Up”, The Asia-Pacific Journal: Japan Focus, 23 July 2008.
[19] War Memorial of Korea, op. cit., p. 28.
[20] War Memorial of Korea, op.cit., p. 21.
[21] War Memorial of Korea, op. cit., p. 27.
[22] War Memorial of Korea, op.cit., p. 25.
[23] Hyon Yong Chol, Victorious Fatherland Liberation War Museum, Pyongyang, Victorious Fatherland Liberation War Museum, n.d., p. 6. Since 1997 the North Korean government officially has used the Juche calendar, under which years are numbered from 1912, the date of the late DPRK leader Kim Il-Sung's birth.
[24] Steven Hugh Lee, The Korean War, Harlow, Pearson Education Ltd., 2001, p. 88.
[25] Kim In Il, Outstanding Leadership and Brilliant Victory, Pyongyang, Korea Pictorial, 1993, p. 63.
[26] On the history of the memorial, see Dandong Municipal People's Government, “Memorial of War to Resist US Aggression and Aid Korea”, press release 19 June 2005, accessed 10 June 2009.
[27] Explanatory panel in the Memorial of the War to Resist US Aggression and Aid Korea, Dandong; viewed 2 May 2009.
[28] Gye-Dong Kim's Foreign Intervention in Korea, Aldershot, Dartmouth Press, 1993, p. 123, is among the works that points out the US's seeming hesitation about defending Taiwan in 1950.
[29] Gye-Dong Kim's Foreign Intervention in Korea, Aldershot, Dartmouth Press, 1993, p. 123, is among the works that points out the US's seeming hestation about defending Taiwan in 1950.
[30] Lee, The Korean War, p. 126.
[31] Controversy has surrounded these claims ever since they were first raised in 1952. In 1998 the Sankei, a right-of-centre Japanese newspaper, published excerpts from a set of documents which its Moscow correspondent claimed to have found in the state archives of the former Soviet Union. These documents ostensibly proved that public statements by the DPRK and its allies that the US had used biological weapons were deliberate lies fabricated for propaganda purposes. However, questions still surround the Japanese journalist's research. The Sankei reporter is said to have copied the documents by hand (since photocopying was not permitted), and no other researcher has since managed to obtain access to the originals. Nor has the US government pressed the Russians to release these documents. For further details of the controversy surrounding this issue, see Kathryn Weathersby, “Deceiving the Deceivers: Moscow, Beijing, Pyongyang and the Allegations of Bacteriological Weapons Use in Korea”, Cold War International Project Bulletin, no. 11, 1998; Peter Pringle, “Did the US Start Germ Warfare?” New Statesman, 25 October 1999.
[32] G. Hoffmann, “Rapport confidential concernant l'incident au Compound no. 7 de UN POW Branch Corps 3A, Cheju-Do du 1er octobre 1952”, in archives of the International Committee of the Red Cross, Geneva, file number B AG 210 056-012, Incidents dans les camps, 08.02.1952-13.04.1953.
[33] In December 1957, the Soviet Ambassador in Pyongyang, A. M. Ivanov recorded the content of a meeting with his Chinese counterpart in his official diary. During this meeting the Chinese Ambassador remarked that the withdrawal of Chinese volunteers from North Korea would benefit China-DPRK relations because it would “help to reduce certain abnormalities in the relationship between the [Korean] population and the Chinese volunteers” which were associated with “breaches of military discipline on the part of the latter”. See “Dnevnik Posla SSSR v KNDR A. M. Ivanova za period s 14 do 20 Dekabrya 1957 Goda”, in archival material from the state archives of the former Soviet Union, held by the Jungang Ilbo newspaper, Seoul; file no. 57-4-1-3, entry for 20 December 1957.
[34] Ben Evans, Out in the Cold: Australia's Involvement in the Korean War – 1950-1953, Canberra, Commonwealth Department of Veterans Affairs, 2001, p. 89.
[35] Explanatory panel in the Australian War Memorial, viewed 14 June 2009.
[36] Explanatory panel in the Australian War Memorial, viewed 14 June 2009.
[37] Department of External Affairs, Canberra, Departmental Dispatch no. 23/1949 from Australian Mission in Japan, “United Nations Commission on Korea”, 25 February 1949, p. 20, held in Australian National Archives, Canberra, series no. A1838, control symbol 3127/2/1 part 4, “Korea – Political Situation – South Korea”.
[38] Explanatory panel in the Australian War Memorial, viewed 14 June 2009.
[39] Explanatory panel in the Australian War Memorial, viewed 14 June 2009.
[40] Pak Wanseo, Three Days in That Autumn (trans. Ryu Sukhee), Seoul, Jimoondang International, 2001.
[41] Explanatory panels in the Australian War Memorial, viewed 14 June 2009. As the official history of the International Committee of the Red Cross points out, there was debate about including such a clause in the 1949 Geneva Conventions, but in the end it was shelved. The Conventions include a statement that sick and injured prisoners-of-war may not be repatriated against their will while hostilities are continuing, but in relation to repatriation after the end of a war, state only that “prisoners of war shall be released and repatriated without delay after the cessation of active hostilities”; see Catherine Rey-Schyrr, De Yalta à Dien Bien Phu: Histoire du Comité internationale de la Croix-Rouge, 1945-1955, Geneva, International Committee of the Red Cross, 2007, p. 276; also “Geneva Convention Relative to the Treatment of Prisoners of War,” on the website of the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (accessed 16 June 2009).
[42] Explanatory panel in the Australian War Memorial, viewed 14 June 2009.
[43] Bleiker and Hoang, “Remembering and Forgetting the Korean War”, op. cit., p. 212.
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