The Korean War: A War That Never Officially Ended한국전쟁 6.25, 그리고 아직 끝나지 않은 전쟁

On June 25, 1950, North Korea invaded the South, beginning a three-year war that drew in the United Nations on one side and China on the other. Seoul changed hands four times; cities across the peninsula were destroyed, millions were killed or wounded, and countless families were separated by the front line.

Here is the fact that surprises many visitors: the war never formally ended. What was signed at Panmunjom on July 27, 1953 — after 158 negotiation sessions spanning more than two years — was an armistice, a military ceasefire, not a peace treaty. South Korea's president at the time refused to sign it at all. The agreement created the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ), a 4-kilometer-wide buffer that still cuts across the peninsula, and 'until a final peaceful settlement is achieved' remains, technically, unfinished business seven decades later.

This is why South Korea maintains mandatory military service, why civil-defense sirens are tested, and why reunions of separated families make national news. Yet daily life in Korea is famously safe and vibrant — Koreans live with this reality, not in fear of it.

To grasp the war, start at the War Memorial of Korea in Yongsan, Seoul — part museum, part memorial. Then, if you can, take a DMZ tour to Imjingak and the Third Tunnel, where the unfinished war becomes something you can actually see.