The War Never Ended
For most people the Korean War begins in 1950 and ends in 1953. The truth is much more complicated. In 1953, North Korea, South Korea, the Soviet Union, China, and the United States (acting as representatives of the United Nations Command) signed a temporary cease-fire agreement. As part of the agreement it was promised that a peace treaty would be signed. To this day that peace treaty has yet to be signed.
The failure to sign a peace treaty might not seem like a big deal when the major players in the war have pulled out and the ceasefire still stands. But without a peace treaty both sides remain at war and that gives the governments of North and South Korea more power in controlling their people. To this day there are families torn apart by a border that they cannot cross and people in North Korea find themselves prisoners in their own country.
The fact that the two sides are still at war gives Kim Jong-un the excuse and the power to continue to divert massive amounts of resource toward building up the country’s military. The North Korean government has even admitted that the war has forced them to divert mass amounts of human and material resources toward building up the armed forces rather than on economic development.
Life is different in South Korea, where there is development and relative stability. There has been political turmoil in the country as of late but most people remain optimistic. Even as their closest neighbor makes threats and shows of force, the people of South Korea go about their daily lives with little fear of North Korea. For them it has been 60 years of saber rattling by the North Koreans and there has been no war to show for it.