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CNN Live Saturday
Sunday Is 50th Anniversary Of The Armistice Ending Korean War.
Aired July 26, 2003 - 18:52 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
SOPHIA CHOI, CNN ANCHOR: Sunday is the 50th anniversary of the armistice which ended the major fighting in the Korean War. The fighting began in 1950 when the Communist North invaded the South. U.S. troops spearheaded a United Nations intervention force, while the North was backed by China and the Soviet Union.
As hundreds of veterans and their loved ones looked on quietly, Vice President Dick Cheney today laid a wreath at the tomb of the unknowns in Arlington National Cemetery. Veterans from other nations gathered for a solemn ceremonies on South Korean battlefields. CNN's Kathleen Koch looks at what's changed and what hasn't since that bloody conflict.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
KATHLEEN KOCH, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): More than 36,000 Americans died, along with nearly three million Koreans, but though the 1953 armistice halted the fighting, there was never a peace treaty. So technically, North Korea is still at war with South Korea, the U.S., even the United Nations, and North Korea is still ruled by a strict communist regime.
But North Korea, richer and more industrialized than the South 50 years ago is now impoverished and isolated. Even militarily, its million-man army has lost its edge.
MICHAEL O'HANLON, BROOKINGS INSTITUTION: It is a hyper- militarized society, and yet its military is not very good. It has atrophied. The weaponry is not nearly as capable as it once was.
KOCH: South Korea's military is now a powerful force of 650,000, and the 37,000 U.S. troops stationed there are far more prepared than the U.S. military was in 1950. So the Pentagon insists a conflict today would end differently.
GEN. RICHARD MYERS, CHAIRMAN, JOINT CHIEFS OF STAFF: If North Korea were to start a conflict like that, that it would end with the end of that regime. There would not be a question, militarily anyway, there would not be a question.
KOCH: Such unfaltering confidence is just one reason some South Koreans now see the U.S. as a greater threat to their stability than North Korea.
JON WOLFSTHAL, CARNEGIE ENDOWMENT: And I think they are worried that they're going to end up in the middle of a shooting war between their brethren, the North Koreans, and the Americans, who may not really care about what a war would do to South Korea.
KOCH: Most agree it is North Korea's nuclear weapons program that now most threatens South Korea and its allies.
DANIEL PONEMAN, FORMER NATIONAL SECURITY OFCL: I am gravely worried that the plutonium that they separate from their own spent fuel could wind up in the hands of some terrorists who wish us ill.
KOCH: Dubbed part of the axis of evil by President Bush, North Korea has admitted efforts to build nuclear weapons, and rebuffed U.S. proposals to negotiate an end to the program. So it was a solemn President Bush Friday visiting the Korean War memorial.
GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: This memorial is -- and those who served in Korea also remind us of the challenges we face today.
KOCH: Challenges that haven't faded with time.
Kathleen Koch, CNN, Washington.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
War.>
Aired July 26, 2003 - 18:52 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
SOPHIA CHOI, CNN ANCHOR: Sunday is the 50th anniversary of the armistice which ended the major fighting in the Korean War. The fighting began in 1950 when the Communist North invaded the South. U.S. troops spearheaded a United Nations intervention force, while the North was backed by China and the Soviet Union.
As hundreds of veterans and their loved ones looked on quietly, Vice President Dick Cheney today laid a wreath at the tomb of the unknowns in Arlington National Cemetery. Veterans from other nations gathered for a solemn ceremonies on South Korean battlefields. CNN's Kathleen Koch looks at what's changed and what hasn't since that bloody conflict.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
KATHLEEN KOCH, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): More than 36,000 Americans died, along with nearly three million Koreans, but though the 1953 armistice halted the fighting, there was never a peace treaty. So technically, North Korea is still at war with South Korea, the U.S., even the United Nations, and North Korea is still ruled by a strict communist regime.
But North Korea, richer and more industrialized than the South 50 years ago is now impoverished and isolated. Even militarily, its million-man army has lost its edge.
MICHAEL O'HANLON, BROOKINGS INSTITUTION: It is a hyper- militarized society, and yet its military is not very good. It has atrophied. The weaponry is not nearly as capable as it once was.
KOCH: South Korea's military is now a powerful force of 650,000, and the 37,000 U.S. troops stationed there are far more prepared than the U.S. military was in 1950. So the Pentagon insists a conflict today would end differently.
GEN. RICHARD MYERS, CHAIRMAN, JOINT CHIEFS OF STAFF: If North Korea were to start a conflict like that, that it would end with the end of that regime. There would not be a question, militarily anyway, there would not be a question.
KOCH: Such unfaltering confidence is just one reason some South Koreans now see the U.S. as a greater threat to their stability than North Korea.
JON WOLFSTHAL, CARNEGIE ENDOWMENT: And I think they are worried that they're going to end up in the middle of a shooting war between their brethren, the North Koreans, and the Americans, who may not really care about what a war would do to South Korea.
KOCH: Most agree it is North Korea's nuclear weapons program that now most threatens South Korea and its allies.
DANIEL PONEMAN, FORMER NATIONAL SECURITY OFCL: I am gravely worried that the plutonium that they separate from their own spent fuel could wind up in the hands of some terrorists who wish us ill.
KOCH: Dubbed part of the axis of evil by President Bush, North Korea has admitted efforts to build nuclear weapons, and rebuffed U.S. proposals to negotiate an end to the program. So it was a solemn President Bush Friday visiting the Korean War memorial.
GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: This memorial is -- and those who served in Korea also remind us of the challenges we face today.
KOCH: Challenges that haven't faded with time.
Kathleen Koch, CNN, Washington.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
War.>
