Sixty-three years ago today, on July 27, 1953, the Korean Armistice Agreement was signed, ceasing hostilities between North Korean Communist forces, backed by China, and South Korean forces, backed by the United Nations. The war had raged across the Korean Peninsula for three years, leaving hundreds of thousands of soldiers and civilians dead. The Armistice formed the famous Demilitarized Zone that still separates North Korea and South Korea, technically still at war with each other. On this anniversary of the armistice agreement, a look back at the people and places involved in the conflict sometimes called "the forgotten war.”
Remembering the Korean War
-
-
In this undated photo from North Korea's official Korean Central News Agency, distributed by Korea News Service, North Korean combatants plunge together with the tank unit in Seoul during the Korean War. #
Korean Central News Agency / Korea News Service via AP Images -
-
Singer Paul Robeson addresses a "Hands Off Korea" rally from a sound truck at the corner of 126th Street and Lenox Avenue in the Harlem section of New York, on July 3, 1950. #
Marty Lederhandler / AP -
-
This picture was taken by a USAF RF-80 photo reconnaissance plane of actual strafing attacks by 5th Air Force planes on North Korean targets. This shows a small village housing North Korean vehicles and troops. Burning jeep in the background and a T-3V Tank. #
Bettmann Archive / Getty -
A U.S. Marine (right) orders captured North Koreans to keep their hands up on September 20, 1950. In the background is one of the tanks which came ashore in the assault at Inchon. #
Bettmann Archive / Getty -
A Korean child sits in smoldering ruins of his home destroyed by fire in the Suwon area on February 3, 1951, as allied troops burned dwellings which might provide shelter for red troops. Native water jars are the only possessions recognizable in ruins of other native homes in background. #
Jim Pringle / AP -
-
Captured by American forces in the Taegu area of South Korea on October 8, 1950, these North Korean girls are marched to a train which will take them to a prisoner of war camp at Pusan. #
Gene Herrick / AP -
Bodies of some 400 Korean civilians lie in and around trenches in Taejon's prison yard during the Korean War, on September 28, 1950. The victims were bound and slain by retreating Communist forces before the 24th U.S. Division troops recaptured the city September 28. Witnesses said that the prisoners were forced to dig their own trench graves before the slaughter. Looking on, at left, is Gordon Gammack, war correspondent of the Des Moines Register and Tribune. #
James Pringle / AP -
-
Helicopters were used on the battlefront as liaison planes and for evacuating the wounded. Here, one of the helicopters takes off over the heads of First Marine Division troops in a forward position on a mountain slope. #
Bettmann Archive / Getty -
A mobile army surgical hospital somewhere in Korea on October 26, 1951. The patient in the left foreground is receiving blood plasma, while behind him two operations are taking place, one at left and one in the center. Photographer Healy took the photos as he found them. Everyone was so busy that no one had time to pose. #
Bettmann Archive / Getty -
-
-
Supply warehouses and dock facilities at this east coast port explode after para-demolition bombs were dropped from the Fifth Air Force's B-26 Invader light bombers. Wonsan, North Korea, 1951. #
USAF -
-
A U.N. soldier (left) stands guard at prisoner of war enclosure where a great mass of communist troops line up after their capture somewhere in Korea on March 21, 1951. #
AP -
Crew members stand on top of their tank after they got stranded in river bed dip as they attempted to find a shallow crossing in the swollen Pukhan river. The tank was later towed out to safety by a tank retriever, April 7, 1951 in Korea. #
AP -
-
Bomber Command planes of the U.S. Far East Air Forces rain tons of high demolition bombs on a strategic military target of the Chinese Communists in North Korea on January 18, 1951. #
AP -
South Korean WACs trained and ready to join their men in the battle against Chinese invaders, display military precision as they parade through Pusan, main United Nations' fort city in Korea, on September 12, 1950. #
Gene Herreck / AP -
High explosives rip through several spans of a railroad bridge outside Hamhung as United Nations forces blow up the bridge as part of their withdrawal to prevent its being used by Chinese Communists on December 19, 1950. #
AP -
-
A pair of bound hands and a breathing hole in the snow at Yangji, Korea, January 27, 1951 reveal the presence of the body of a Korean civilian shot and left to die by retreating Communists during the Korean War. #
Max Desfor / AP -
All Sgt. Bernard Young lacks is a private secretary to complete his "office" setting, on May 3, 1951. The Detroit, Michigan, military policeman takes his ease in almost deserted Chunchon, South Korea after the bulk of UN forces had withdrawn southward. Only an infantry rear guard unit remained between him and the advancing Communists. #
James Martenhoff / AP -
-
A long winding stream of Korean refugees board a vessel in Hungnam harbor, North Korea on December 21, 1950, as they flee the advancing Chinese Communists and North Koreans. #
AP -
Tanks of the 1st Marine Tank Battalion bark death and devastation into the briefly day-lighted Korean night, as Marines fire a night mission at supply installations somewhere in Korea on January 16, 1952. #
R. H. Morier / AP -
-
Korean women weep as they identify bodies on October 28, 1953. The army said the victims were among political prisoners killed by suffocation by the Communists outside Hambung, Korea. The Army said the victims were forced into caves which were then sealed off. #
AP -
GIs and Korean service corpsmen stack up an enormous pile of empty artillery and mortar shell casings at a collecting point near the front, pointing to the huge amount of lead thrown at the enemy in four days of fighting for outpost Harry, on June 18, 1953. #
Gene Smith / AP -
-
Maj. Gen. Blackshear M. Bryan, left, exchanges credentials with Communist Lt. Gen. Lee Sang Cho at the opening session of the Military Armistice Commission at the Panmunjom Conference House on July 27, 1953. At Lee's right is Chinese Gen. Ting Kuo Jo, and next to him is Chinese Gen. Tsai Cheng Wen. #
AP -
Three happy fliers of the 18th Fighter Bomber wing let the world know how they feels as they returned from a combat mission over North Korea to learn of the armistice signing on July 29, 1953. Left to right are: 2nd Lt. John Putty, Dallas, Tex.; 1st Lt. James A. Boucek, Ottawa, Kansas,: and 1st Lt. Richard D. Westcott, Houston, Tex., waving from the back seat of the jeep. #
AP -
South Korean women weep as they listen to President Syngman Rhee speak at a memorial service in Seoul, October 17, 1953. The service honored the 33,964 South Koreans killed in the last year of the war. #
Gene Smith / AP -
We want to hear what you think about this article. Submit a letter to the editor or write to letters@theatlantic.com.