Veterans mark Korean War armistice at DMZ

South Korean president Roh Moo-Hyun (R) and New Zealand Prime Minister Helen Clark (L) arrive for the unveiling of the monument marking the 50th anniversary of the Korean War ceremony at the War Museum at Seoul on Sunday. Photo: AFP

More than 1,000 veterans gathered out of the rain in a tent in Panmunjom, the truce village in the Demilitarised Zone where the ceasefire was signed, ending three years of war that left up to 5 million people dead, injured or missing.

"The most difficult part of the war was what was left behind. Your buddies, people who didn't make it," said a tearful Fred Daniel Bertrand, who was a US Marine sergeant in the final year of the Korean conflict. The war pitted South Korea and a US-led United Nations force against North Korea, which was backed by Chinese ground troops and Soviet aid.

Tap Here to Add The Daily Star As A Trusted Source

The ceremony was held near the Military Demarcation Line that separates the two Koreas, but there was little sign of activity on the Northern side, where a lone sentry stood guard. Veterans on the Southern side toured a military hut straddling the demarcation line, and took snapshots with the North as a backdrop.

The 1950-53 Korean War ended without a peace treaty, and tensions that simmered over the decades have spiked again in the past year because of North Korea's suspected development of nuclear weapons.

"The North Korean nuclear program poses a very critical challenge," New Zealand Prime Minister Helen Clark said in a speech to the veterans. "The world community must make it very clear to North Korea that the development of nuclear weapons is provocative and unacceptable."

The morning ceremony at Panmunjom was timed to coincide with the hour that the armistice was signed: 10 a.m. local time on July 27, 1953. An evening ceremony was planned at the US military headquarters in Seoul to mark the time that the cease-fire took effect, 12 hours later.

Over the past week, North Korea has marked the anniversary with celebrations because its propaganda machine has always described the war as a victory for communist forces, rather than as the stalemate it was. Red banners recalling the North's "triumph" hang prominently in Pyongyang's main square.

In a reminder of the uneasiness that lingers along the world's most heavily armed border, the North's military used characteristically belligerent rhetoric Saturday to warn of the potential for a new war.