COLOMBIA: Korean War veterans cast wary eye on rising North-South tensions

Record ID: 587530

  • Title: COLOMBIA: Korean War veterans cast wary eye on rising North-South tensions
  • Date: 2nd April 2013
  • Summary: UNIDENTIFIED LOCATION, KOREA (FILE) (SOUTH KOREAN EMBASSY IN COLOMBIA) VARIOUS OF ARCHIVE IMAGES OF KOREAN WAR
  • Embargoed: 17th April 2013 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Colombia
  • Country: Colombia
  • Reuters ID: LVABDCOFX52KLJ5B0IIVYHV03NUY
  • Story Text: Colombia's Korean War veterans have been keeping a close eye on events in an increasingly-tense Korean peninsula, after North Korea announced last month it was entering a "state of war" with the South.
    Tensions in the region have ramped up since North Korea's new young leader Kim Jong-un ordered a third nuclear weapons test in February, breaching U.N. sanctions. Joint U.S., South Korean military exercises have also been labelled as "hostile" by North Korea.
    Korean War veterans met in Bogota on Tuesday (April 02) to discuss developments on the peninsula, keen to stop history repeating itself.
    Former soldier Josue Orlando Bernal warned a new outbreak of war between the Koreas would take on a nuclear element.
    "It would not be a ground war of positions but now a nuclear issue and the victims it would leave behind would be too terrible to think about. For us it is sad because we feel like we are Korea's brothers," he said.
    As tensions continue to mount, Pyongyang has threatened a nuclear strike on the United States, missile strikes on its Pacific bases and war with South Korea, prompting Washington to bolster forces in the region. Earlier this week, the North said it would revive a mothballed nuclear reactor able to produce bomb-grade plutonium.
    Korean War veteran Carlos Latorre told Reuters an escalation in the conflict would benefit no one.
    "If I were in North Korea and would ask this inexperienced young man to be very careful because he does not know what he is getting into. A war at this point would not help anything, the world, nobody because it would also hurt us. If we were younger, on my part, I would go back but we are too old to go back," said Latorre.
    Earlier this week, United Nation's Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon stated that the crisis over North Korea had gone too far and appealed for dialogue and negotiation to resolve the situation.
    Echoing Ban Ki-moon's message, war vet Raul Martinez cautioned both sides to proceed with caution to avoid new military conflict.
    "Think with your head and not with your heart and think of the two peoples, especially North Korea and South Korea, who will suffer the consequences of a military conflict that is emerging. God forbid that it will ever happen," said Martinez.
    Colombia was the only Latin American country to fight alongside South Korea against Chinese-backed North Korean forces. On November 1, 1950 an estimated 5,000 troops were dispatched from the port of Cartagena for the war effort. An estimated 200 Colombian soldiers were killed in the war and a further 500 wounded.
    The two Koreas have been technically in a state of war since a truce that ended their 1950-53 conflict. Following recent tensions, North Korea has cancelled an armistice agreement with the United States that ended the Korean War and cut all hotlines with U.S. forces, the United Nations and South Korea.
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