...commemorations will be somber Sunday in the South to mark the 50th anniversary of the armistice that ended the war. More than 1,000 war veterans, many from the U.S.-led United Nations (news - web sites) force that backed South Korea, will gather at Panmunjom, the truce village where the ceasefire was signed. An evening ceremony will be held at the U.S. military headquarters in Seoul.
North Korea, however, is marking the anniversary with celebrations because its propaganda machine has always described the war as a victory for communist forces, rather than as the stalemate it was. Red banners recalling the North's "triumph" hang prominently in Pyongyang's main square.
In a reminder of the uneasiness that lingers along the world's most heavily armed border, the North's military used characteristically belligerent rhetoric Saturday to warn of the potential for a new war.
North Korea "will promptly beat back any precision strike, surgical operation-style strike and pre-emptive nuclear attack with the powerful war deterrent force," said Kim Yong Chun, chief of the North Korean army's General Staff.
Christopher Torchia AP Yahoo News Jul 26South Korea- A Country Study
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