[Opinion] Korean War Lessons

“Meanwhile, an ad hoc people`s committee was set up in North Korea led by Gen. Kim Il-sung in February 1946, and began to play the role of a de-facto government. After laying the foundation for a communist state, the committee declared establishment of the Democratic People`s Republic of Korea on Sept. 9 1948. The regime began to prepare a war with its southern counterpart. At dawn on June 25 1950, North Korean forces invaded the South across the 38th parallel. The war lasted for three years, devastating the country and its people. A great number of people were killed and most of the country`s infrastructure was destroyed. It resulted in hostility between the two Koreas, dividing the peninsula in half,” a high school history textbook published by the Ministry of Education and Human Resources Department gives a brief explanation about the Korean War.

With a single book covering the country`s 5,000 years of history, we cannot expect the textbook to elaborate on the war. Still, the brief explanation seems too short to explain the reason why we are what we are today. ‘A great number of people` apparently fail to drive home the fact that a million people were killed and 3 million displaced as refugees. `Hostility between the two Koreas` hardly hints at the confrontation of political ideologies that has long plagued this society. History textbooks used for middle school students at least help young students understand how the war unfolded, describing chronic pre-war social instability, poverty, withdrawal of South Korean forces in the war`s early stages, U.N. intervention, success of the Incheon operation, Chinese involvement, the recapture of Seoul and the cease-fire.

According to `Reunification for Prosperity`, a textbook published by the Korea Teachers and Education Workers Union, pre-war South Korea was plagued with corruption and conflict while the North was free from corruption due to the socialist revolution. It went on to explain that the war broke out due to a desire to avoid the division, and that which side initiated the war is not important.

It has been 53 years since the Korean War broke out and half a century since the truce agreement was signed. We were able to recover from the devastation and have become one country that was previously unimaginable at that time. Yet, the Korean War is not just a part of the past. The shadow of the war has continued to divide the country and distort our senses. To clear the shadow from society, we need to teach our young the truth about the Korean War.

Suh Ji-moon, Guest Writer, Professor of English Literature at Korea University, jimoon@korea.ac.kr