Usually in October, towards the beginning of the month, Korean and American flags are raised in honor of 국군의 날. 국군의 날 is Armed Forces Day. 국군의 날 is not a national holiday and people do not get the day off. Nonetheless it’s a day created to reflect upon the military sacrifices made when the South Korean forces reached the 38th parallel. To put it in an oversimplified way, the miltary forces of South Korea consists of the ROK Armed Forces (ROK = Republic of Korea) or 대한민국 국군 and KATUSA (Korean Augmentation to the US Army) or 카투사.

The history behind the 38th parallel is a source of national regret and sorrow. Before I introduce the history behind the 38th parallel, I’ll just briefly mention what it is. The 38th parallel is a latitudinal boundary set between North and South Korea. South of the 38th parallel lies South Korea and accordingly north of the parallel is North Korea. Sometimes the 38th parallel is referred to as the DMZ or the Demilitarized Zone (한반도 비무장지대).

The DMZ was created in 1953 as an armstice between North and South Korea. Before the armistice, North Korea had formed an alliance with the Soviet Union and South Korea had an alliance with the US. From 1950 to 1953 the two sides fought for territorial gains and political/ideological supremacy. Although the fighting ended with an armistice, there was never a peace treaty that followed afterward. Therefore, technically speaking North and South Korea are still engaged in a type of cold ‘war’. Both sides have agreed not to cross the DMZ, but there were periodic violations of this agreement.

There is a lot more to this story, but since we’re short on time, I’ll just say that it’s been estimated that around 36, 940 US troops were killed, with 245,000 – 415,000 South Korean troops killed and around 2,000,000 civilians who were also the casualities of the war. With these casualties in mind, let us not forget the sacrifices of these lives on 국군의 날.