Korean Mainers remain skeptical of peace Emigres recall horror, lost hope for home

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The South Korean people who lived through the Korean War, often called the “Forgotten War,” will never forget the devastation, heartbreak or pain they felt when North Korea attacked their country 53 years ago.

After the war many Koreans believed or hoped the separated countries would unite. Five decades later, that sentiment has mostly been abandoned, according to several Korean-Americans who have settled in Maine.

“In 1950 I was a little girl and I was right in the battlefield,” Bangor resident Yong Jones said recently. “I was born and raised in Inchon City. Nobody wanted the war, we were just thrown into one.”

Jones’ doorstep was located just miles south of the 38th parallel, which served as the border between North Korea and South Korea.

“War is ugly, watching the killing and killing,” said the 1966 Korean emigre to America. “You just don’t want to think about it.”

Around 75 Koreans gathered last Saturday in Freeport for a Korean-American Association picnic. They shared memories of their homeland and the conflict that engulfed it.

On June 25, 1950, at approximately 4 a.m., the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea opened fire on South Korea, known as the Republic of Korea. Hours later, the North made its formal declaration of war against the South. On June 26, the United States and other members of the United Nations stepped in to help South Korea.

Sunday marks the 50-year anniversary of the armistice the United Nations, North Korea and China signed at Panmunjom, Korea, to bring an end to the Korean conflict. The armistice ended the combat but failed to bring a permanent peace to the area, and North and South Korea never signed a peace treaty.

Time, in the case of the Koreas, has healed few wounds, according to those who attended the picnic in Freeport.

“I hope we can reconcile with each other – the North and South – but communism and democracy cannot mix,” Jones said. “Communists are not allowed to have freedom. I hope that the North and South reunite, but as long as they believe in communism, I don’t think [it will be] so. That’s the sad part of it.”

Communism came to Korea at the end of World War II. The former Soviet Union, a member of the victorious allies that defeated Japan, was given administrative charge of Korea above the 38th parallel. It created a communist country in North Korea in 1948.

“Communists, they do not value human life,” Jones said. “I was in the war and I saw how communism works. I do not understand how anyone believes in communism. I’m not talking about a book. I’m talking about reality.”

An early memory for Jones is of U.S. soldiers landing to help the Republic of Korea fight its attackers from the North. She said she “thought [the U.S.] was an angel.”

Portland resident Chi Chong was 16 and lived 12 miles south of the 38th parallel when the conflict started.

“On June 25, we could hear it,” he said. “We didn’t know what it was, but on the 26th people started coming over [the border]. It was very horrible. There were people with partial limbs.”

When Chong and friends went to investigate the loud noises, they saw the North Koreans advancing to his hometown of Uijongbu, near Seoul. When he got back to his hometown, it was destroyed.

“It was a big city of 50,000 people,” he said. “It was all blown up. I saw three houses left.”

Chong was too young to join the military, so he and his family tried to escape the war by moving farther south in South Korea.

“South Korea didn’t have much military,” said Chong, who emigrated to America in 1976. “We needed the Americans for help. We needed help.”

For America, which sent hundreds of thousands of soldiers to fight communism in Korea, the combat was considered a conflict and never officially declared a war. It was always a war in South Korea.

“We had to defend our country, so we had to fight,” said Gil Soo Choi, an 18-year-old soldier at the time for the South Korean Marines. “I was so young I wasn’t afraid of war. I spent 21/2 years fighting. Every moment you worry about dying. At that time, all of my life was fighting.”

Choi, who came to America from Seoul in 1980 and now lives in Portland, worked as a ballistics specialist during the three-year war. His daughter Son Hyea Storgaard and her Korean husband, Scott, live in Veazie.

“There is peace today and I hope for peace, but there is still something wrong with North Korea,” said Choi. “Their front is peaceful and smiling but the behind is not.”

The 50 years since the war has compelled many in South Korea to put the past behind them, Choi said. But he remembers.

“Young people don’t know,” he said. “We worry about North Korea. They’re a very different country and we worry about them.”

The number of Korean War veterans still living is diminishing, and with the loss of these men and women comes the loss of history, said Scott Storgaard. The Veazie resident was adopted when he was 5 and brought to Seattle, Wash., from Pusan, South Korea. Storgaard met his wife while studying at the University of Maine. He said the children of the veterans are unaware of the horrors of the war.

“We were all born in the ’60s; that’s 10 years past the end of the war,” he said. “All Koreans think it was a bad time, so they try to forget that period of time.”

Three days after the armistice was signed in 1953, each opposing force withdrew 2 kilometers from the 38th parallel to form the Demilitarized Zone.

News reports in recent weeks about unrest at the DMZ have sparked displeasure with many Korean-Americans.

“I don’t like what they’re doing,” said Chong. “Most North Koreans will never get their freedom, that’s what I think.”

With 50 years of reprieve from war, Choi said, he hopes the truce will continue, but added he has doubts.

“Since 1953 they are not fighting, but there is always tension,” he said.

The Korean War Veterans Association and others will gather at the Clinton Fairgrounds at 9:30 a.m. today for a 5.1-mile march on Route 100 to a memorial for Medal of Honor recipient Cpl. Clair Goodblood in Burnham.