Imagine Your Korea: Scars of war (1)

"Imagine Your Korea" is South Korea's new tourism tagline, proclaiming they have so much more to offer than visitors can possibly imagine. I guess I can test that hypothesis since I am a first-time visitor; finally, after so many years of being egged on to visit by my daughter, Anne, who lives in Seoul with her hubby, Virgile, a French finance expat with Coupang — Korea's homegrown version of Amazon — together with their two lovely daughters, Noemie and Eva.

My image of Korea had been greatly influenced by historical and current events that had caught my attention. Let me start with some historical tidbits about the Korean War.

I love history. A war history enthusiast from childhood, my early impressions of this so-called "Hermit Kingdom" (moniker due to the country isolating itself from all Western contact in the 1800s) were far from today's famous Korean personas of K-Pop and K-Drama.

My mind's prior associations with Korea were quite grim due largely to the Korean War when North Korea, supported by Russia and China, crossed the 38th parallel (a US-Soviet imposed division of Korea, with the North of the parallel line under Russian control and South under the US brought about by the defeat of Japan which until 1945 had been occupying Korea), stealthily and massively invaded the South on 25 June 1950.

The North Koreans initially completely overran the South except for the southeastern area of Busan, which comprises only about 10 percent of the land area of Korea. Then, as in today's proxy geo-political warfare, keeping South Korea firmly entrenched under the US orbit serves as a critical buffer to Japan, the US's most important ally in the Pacific.

The US under General Douglas MacArthur as Supreme Commander, together with a contingent of UN Forces composed of military fighting units from Great Britain, Canada, France, Belgium, the Netherlands, Colombia, Ethiopia, New Zealand, Turkey, Greece, Thailand, Luxembourg and, most notably, the Philippines (note: our very own Carlos P. Romulo was the President of the UN General Assembly; participated in by 7,420 Filipino soldiers, including President Fidel Ramos and war correspondent 17-year-old Ninoy Aquino) came to South Korea's rescue and pushed back the invaders to the Yalu River that borders China, occupying practically all of North Korea.

The US/UN advance proved to be fleeting as soon after the Chinese engaged in a massive counterattack and successfully pushed back the MacArthur-led forces. But by September, the US threat of using atomic bombs on North Korea and China forestalled further Chinese advances.

Interestingly, MacArthur was eventually fired by US President Harry Truman when the General vigorously and quite publicly disagreed on the issue of bringing the warfront to China, raising the distinct possibility of turning the Cold War with Russia into a nuclear-powered Hot War.

This back-and-forth — now you have it, now you don't — stalemated war of attrition dragged on until 1953 when the Soviets, saddled by their own internal power struggles following the demise of Josef Stalin, grew tired of supporting North Korea and encouraged Kim Il Sung to relent to an armistice, and a ceasefire took effect in 1953. However, no peace treaty was ever signed, and to this day, technically, both the North and the South are still at war.

The war proved to be disastrous to Korea, both North and South. Casualties were reported to be as high as 4 million, and the economies of both sides were left in shambles. The GDP of South Korea was $67 in 1953, and it was ranked the second poorest country in the world. Against this backdrop of devastation, I imagined Korea when I landed.

But immediately after effortless processing of my travel documents and easy retrieval of my baggage, my senses were greeted by the ultra-modern facilities of Incheon International Airport, rated in 2021 by SkyTrax (a UK-based international research institute that rates and ranks airports and airlines) as the 4th best airport in the world, the world's best international airport, best airport security and one of the cleanest airports in the world. Soon after, an airport car wheeled me onto the dual 4-lane (in both directions) Incheon International Airport Expressway and a 40-km ride from Yeongjong Island to Seoul going over the 4.4-km Yeongjong Bridge, the 2.5-km Banghwa Grand Bridge and the 630-meter Gaehwa Tunnel, all built in only over five years, a feat of infrastructure to behold for a devastated country that had risen from the ashes of war.                

  (To be continued)

Until next week… OBF!

For comments, email bing_matoto@yahoo.com.