Wreath laid by Rochdale councillor

Councillor Alan McCarthy, Lead Member for the Armed Forces

A wreath has been aid by Rochdale Council Lead Member for the Armed Forces, Councillor Alan McCarthy in remembrance of all who lost their lives in the Korean War.

On 25 June 1950, the Korean War began when some 75,000 soldiers from the North Korean People’s Army poured across the 38th parallel, the boundary between the Soviet-backed Democratic People’s Republic of Korea to the north and the pro-Western Republic of Korea to the south. This invasion was the first military action of the Cold War.

By July, American troops had entered the war on South Korea’s behalf. As far as American officials were concerned, it was a war against the forces of international communism itself. 

After some early back-and-forth across the 38th parallel, the fighting stalled and casualties mounted with nothing to show for them.

Meanwhile, American officials worked anxiously to fashion some sort of armistice with the North Koreans. The alternative, they feared, would be a wider war with Russia and China–or even, as some warned, World War III.

Finally, in July 1953, the Korean War came to an end. In all, some 5 million soldiers and civilians lost their lives during the war. The Korean peninsula is still divided today.

The 1950-1953 Korean war pitted North Korean and Chinese troops against U.S.-led United Nations and South Korean forces. It ended on July 27, 1953 — 60 years ago Saturday — with the signing of an armistice.

But a formal peace treaty was never signed, leaving the Korean Peninsula in a technical state of war and divided at the 38th parallel between its communist north and democratic south.

At least 2.5 million people were killed in the fighting.

According to United Nations figures, the United Kingdom casualty figures:
686 Killed,
2,498 Wounded,
1,102 Missing/Prisoner of War
Total: 4,286