S Korea Cannot Afford Another War

The Korean War broke out 75 years ago on 25 June 1950.

- KIM SEONG-KON

Those who fought in the war, if not already dead, would now be in their mid-90s, and those who were born at that time are now at least 75 years old. That means that today, no one under 75 in Korea experienced the atrocity of the Korean War. In that sense, the Korean War has become a "forgotten war" not only internationally, but even in Korea, too.

However, we must not forget the soldiers, both domestic and foreign, who fought for freedom during the war. It was not an easy war because soldiers had to fight in mountainous terrain with conventional weapons. One thing that foreign soldiers especially recollected was the severity of the Korean winters. Many of them got frostbite or even died of hypothermia while fighting in the snow-covered, icy mountains at night. This is just one example of their noble sacrifice, without which today's South Korea could not have existed.

The war was over in 1953. The post-war landscape of war-ridden Korea was barren and bleak. Refugee camps were ubiquitous, jobs were scarce, and mothers had to borrow rice from neighbors for their family's supper. People were destitute and impoverished: parents had to make their five or six children live in a small, rented room and crippled war veterans were reduced to begging for coins or food on the street because the government was not capable of compensating their sacrifices.