As much as I hate to push the Marmot’s fine post on Henry Hyde (a must read, IMHO) further down, here is some shameless promotion of my latest piece at The Korea Times, which is on the DMZ War:
The last time I checked, Seoul was not a sea of flames and children at the elementary school near my apartment do not start their day singing praises of the Dear Leader.
By that measure alone, the alliance between the Republic of Korea and the United States can be declared a success.
It was an alliance built for a single purpose; to prevent North Korea and its communist allies from attempting a second invasion of South Korea or, failing that, to repel an invasion.
The North Koreans tested that alliance and the resolve of its partners numerous times over the past several decades. The greatest challenge was during the 1966-1969 DMZ (Demilitarized Zone) War (also known as the Second Korean War), during which the North Korea attempted to instigate conflict.
Most of the rest of the piece is a quick review of this little-known conflict and its effects on Korea and the alliance with the USA.
5 Comments
Are those the events that the movie Sil-mi-do is built on? And is that movie real? When I first came to Korea I was living with two other foreigners, a guy from South Africa and a guy from New Zealand. One of our mutual korean friends gave us a DVD of Sil-mi-do to watch. I and the South African saw it without any context or explanation at all and couldn’t believe our eyes, and were laughing incredulously at times. The New Zelander told our Korean friends that we laughed at the movie, and their faces became very dark. Didn’t talk to us much after that. I never got an answer about whether that movie was real or not.
I mean, come on. Beating people in the back with bats every single day?? Who does that?
Movie “Sil-mi-do”? Here’s some info from a movie website. No editorial comment by me is implied, I’m just quoting in case someone else other than me is equally unaware.
There appear to be other reviewer comments there that are not in English.
http://www.ehit.com/viewitem?idproduct=12931
Description:
January 1968, 31 members of North Korean Special Unit 124 infiltrated South Korea with the ultimate mission of assassinating President Park Chung-hee. This unit is composed of social outcasts and criminals under death sentences and their mission is to behead Kim II-sung. They survive the most hellish inhumane training in Silmido and are reborn as human armories. However, in 1970, with a growing peacemaking movement between the North and the South, the government decides to demolish the Unit and executes all the members…
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This movie was very well made. emotional, and nice plot. a chance for someone to really feel like being on an island jail. But there is doubt on the true accounts as this movie uses “artistic liberty” since the real accounts are locked up. If this doesn’t bother you, then this will do…..
Review by: anonymous
[Submitted] on: [Wednesday], January 12, 2005
Here is an article about “the Second Korean War”, from a US Army perspective (Military Review, monthly magazine of US Army Command & General Staff College, May 1988):
http://www.koreanwar.org/html/dmz_war.html
Here’s a more extensive publication, also from CGSC. A Pdf in several parts so not as readily accessible, but it’s free; I think this is an on-line copy of a monograph that I saw in distribution channels years ago. I haven’t looked at it to verify, also don’t know how much of it if any covers events (such as the NK commando raid) from an ROK/DPRK perspective:
http://www.kwva.org/second_korean_war.htm
When is the follow up piece on the period including the Axe Murder Incident in 1976 and the Rangoon bombing, when (at least relative to the first) KIL and KJI seem to have been emboldened by the manner in which the Vietnam War was ended to remount their campaign? What was the rate of border incidents in that or those periods?