As US and South Korea Strengthen Ties, a Look Back at the Korean War and Its Significance

Members of U.S. Marine Corps Forces Korea pose in front of the stage following the 73rd Commemoration of the Battle of the Chosin Reservoir, in Seoul, South Korea, on Oct. 12, 2023. (1st Lt. Tyler Judd, U.S. Marine Corps)

The Israel—Hamas conflict has left South Korea on edge over reports that North Korea supplied Hamas with weapons used in its deadly attack on Oct. 7. Further, the surprise incursion over the heavily guarded Israeli border has raised concern about the security of  South Korea’s northern border, say experts.

In the face of those concerns, together with an advancing nuclear threat from North Korea, the United States–South Korea relationship is more important than ever.

Speaking at a ceremony to mark the 73rd anniversary of the Battle of Lake Changjin on Oct. 12, South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol said the alliance was “forged in blood” during the Korean War.

Attendees of the ceremony included the U.S. Ambassador to Korea, Phillip Goldberg, U.S. Marine Corps Forces Korea Commander, Maj. Gen. William E. Souza, and deputy commander of the United Nations Command Lt. Gen. Andrew Harrison.

The United States–South Korea alliance “has developed into the most successful alliance in the world over the last 70 years, and the South Korea–U.S. alliance today is stronger than ever,” Mr. Yoon said in remarks at the ceremony.

Just ten days later, on Oct. 22, the United States and South Korea, together with Japan, held their first-ever combined aerial exercises near the Korean Peninsula, sending a strong message about the strength and purpose of their relationship.

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Mr. Yoon also spoke of the significance of the U.S.-led battle, in which a United Nations force led by U.S. Marines fought off a massive Chinese force and rescued thousands of Korean civilians.

A Frigid Two-Week Bloodbath

The Battle of Lake Changjin (or Chosin Reservoir) was a military operation by 30,000 United Nations forces, led by U.S. Marines, from Nov. 27 to Dec. 11, 1950.

The two-week-long bloodbath is regarded by some historians as the most brutal in modern warfare. Enduring temperatures colder than minus 40 degrees in hazardous mountainous terrain, U.S. troops fought their way through 120,000 Chinese troops that had surrounded them.

In the process, they rescued a large number of civilians. “Through this battle, about 100,000 civilians from the Heungnam (a port in North Korea) region could enter the arms of freedom,” Mr. Yoon said.

More than 7,000 U.S. troops and personnel died in the fighting. There were almost as many non-battle casualties due to the extreme temperatures and terrain. Meanwhile, more than 60,000 Chinese troops died in the conflict—including a large number of deaths from cold and starvation.

Addressing the U.S. Congress in April, Mr. Yoon said the “sons and daughters of America sacrificed their lives to defend a country they never knew and a people they never met.”

Misrepresented by CCP

Not surprisingly, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has consistently misrepresented the Battle of Lake Changjin, just as it has referred to the 1950–53 Korean War as a war to “resist U.S. aggression and aid Korea.”

The 2021 film “The Battle of Lake Changjin,” was the most expensive film ever produced in China, with a budget of $200 million. Outside China, critics of the movie—dubbed “historically dubious” by The Guardian—noted that it fails to mention that the Korean War was triggered by the North’s invasion of the South.

An audience member passes a movie poster for “The Battle At Lake Changjin," in Wuhan, China, on Oct. 2, 2021. (Getty Images)

Within China, the government-sponsored movie was billed as “the most commercially successful movie of 2021” by the South China Morning Post. Any questions that it raised among China’s younger generation were quickly silenced.

In the film, Chinese conscripts (“volunteers,” in CCP parlance) are led to believe that they are fighting to protect China from a U.S. invasion. Journalist Luo Changping called the Chinese soldiers “stupid” in a social media critique of the movie. Shortly after, Mr. Luo was jailed and charged with “defaming heroes and martyrs.”

In a post on X, Chinese political scholar and dissident Cai Xia called the propaganda film “a preemptive ‘warm-up’ for Xi’s invasion of Taiwan.”

The movie spawned a sequel last year, “Battle of Lake Changjin II.”

The Korean War: a Warning for Our Time

In the face of Pyongyang’s nuclear missile threat and its alliance with Moscow, plus Beijing’s aggressive attitude toward the Taiwan Strait, and East and South China Seas, South Korea is more wary than ever of the communist threat to its national security.

“Anti-state forces, communists, and their sympathizers are threatening our democracy with fabrication and manipulation,” Mr. Yoon said in a Sept. 15 speech commemorating the 73rd anniversary of the Incheon landing that led to the recapture of Seoul from communist forces.

The landing of UN troops—comprised mainly of U.S. and South Korean troops, along with ships from seven navies—was a dramatic turning point in the Korean War, essentially saving the young South Korean republic.

Mr. Yoon’s attendance at this year’s ceremony was significant. The first for a serving South Korean president, it sent a message about the importance of the South Korea–U.S. alliance.

The Incheon landing is “a proud history of the victory of liberal democracy over communist totalitarianism,” the South Korean President said at the ceremony.

Mr. Yoon vowed to adhere to the “ironclad South Korea-U.S. joint defense posture,” as well as reinforce trilateral security cooperation with the U.S. and Japan and work in close solidarity with ally nations.

A column of troops and armor of the 1st Marine Division move through communist Chinese lines during their successful breakout from the Chosin Reservoir in North Korea during the Korean War. (Cpl. Peter McDonald, US Marine Corps)

The Korean War serves as a warning to the present time, said Li Yuanhua, an expert on China and former professor of history at Beijing’s Capital Normal University.

“[The] Yoon government has recognized from past historical experience that the greatest threat facing South Korea comes from the communist totalitarian CCP and North Korea, and that only an alliance with the free world’s U.S. and Japan can effectively curb this threat,” Mr. Li told The Epoch Times on Oct. 19.

Jon Sun and Kane Zhang contributed to this article.