Opinion

70 years since the Korean war, the threat of armed conflict still hangs over the peninsula

North Korea’s destruction last week of the inter-Korea liaison office in Kaesong dashed hopes that international diplomacy over the past few years was finally healing divisions

A dual-track approach is needed to defuse Pyongyang’s nuclear threat and bring peace to a divided Korea

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A propaganda loudspeaker (left) is seen near a North Korean guard post (right) inside the demilitarised zone, in this photo taken from the South Korean border city of Paju on June 23. Pyongyang began to reinstall loudspeakers on June 21, two years after the two Koreas removed their loudspeakers from the DMZ in adherence to the 2018 Panmunjom declaration. Photo: EPA-EFE / Yonhap

John Barry Kotch lived and worked in Asia for more than a decade as an instructor at LG Academy and visiting professor at Hanyang University’s Graduate School of International Studies in Seoul.

Published: 9:00am, 24 Jun 2020Updated: 9:20am, 24 Jun 2020

The North Korean attack on South Korea in June 1950 upended the political universe of the day, occasioning a seismic shift in northeast Asia’s geopolitical tectonic plates. The Korean war, which began 70 years ago on June 25, never formally ended.

And in reality, little has changed on the ground over the intervening years since an armistice was signed in July 1953 ending the hostilities, in terms of a deeper understanding of the war itself as well as its underlying causes and meaning. For some, the mantra “We’re still at war, it’s only a truce” still rings true.

Historically, the 1950 war was the last of five conflicts over the last 150 years in and around the Korean peninsula, during which there has been a discernible shift from the hegemonic power projection by a single state actor to a duopolistic power configuration.