 It's been 70 years since the armistice in the Korean War, and today, many of the divisions continue and in fact have intensified, mainly due to US intervention. A few years ago, the momentum towards peace was building up, as North Korea and South Korea held multiple meetings. But ever since Yoon Su-kyul became South Korea's president, things have taken a turn for the worse, and the Ukraine War has not helped. Today in Daily Debrief, we'll be looking at recent news developments, as well as a legacy of this bloody war. But before we go any further, please do hit that subscribe button, so that you can watch more episodes of this show and our coverage from across the world. And now let's get started on this episode of Daily Debrief. Let's start with the latest news. Over the past few days, delegations from Russia and China visited North Korea on the 70th anniversary of the armistice of the Korean War. Now, there was a lot of buzz in the western media about the missiles that North Korean leader Kim Jong-un displayed before Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu. But this is more than just some military showmanship. Russia, North Korea and China are becoming increasingly close, also due to US involvement in the region. We have with us Anish for more on this. Anish, so usually news about North Korea is always from a very militaristic perspective. It's about North Korea's missiles and all that kind of stuff. But it would seem like the Russia-China-North Korea relationship is more than just about defense. So, of course, defense is an important part of it because US maneuvers will come to that in the next question. But before that, maybe could you expand a bit on what is the nature of the relationship right now? The nature of the relationship is pretty much something of a continuation that we've seen for a very long time since the Korean War. Basically, these three have been part of the, I mean, like we could say, a de facto coalition that has resisted imperialistic designs in the region, especially the Korean Peninsula. And the fact that the involvement of China and Soviet Union as supporters of the DPRK and the communist forces during the Korean War actually also kind of builds the foundation of it. Pretty much, they haven't moved. The three of them haven't really moved away from that or veered away from that kind of foreign policy framework even after the Cold War, even after when we talk about the Semi-Polar War that supposedly existed in the post-Cold War era and even after the fall of the Soviet Union. So, the current scenario that we are seeing, it's pretty much a reinforcement of the set of friendly relations that already exist. So the invitation to the two countries, delegates of the two countries also indicates a sort of reinforcement of that friendship because, obviously, apart from the fact that they were involved in the Korean War as well as supporters of the DPRK forces, they're also the countries that have kind of protected from the worst of the isolationist policy that the US has been trying to impose on the North Korean people. And that is something that will always be remembered, obviously. And this is something that usually is used as some kind of a roundabout way to criticize or even attack China and Russia, but at the current juncture that we see with what's happening in East Asia, this is definitely a sort of, I don't want to say doubling down, but definitely a sort of reinforcing that sort of friendship that it is not shakeable at this point in time. And it's not the same that we see the kind of coalition that is happening on the other side of the water. Right, Anish. Also, I think economically the three countries also have quite a bit to offer, which is something that's not too much talked about as well. Definitely. I mean, like the fact that China cannot be at the current point when we see what happened with the trade wars and even the chip wars and how the US eventually and the US side definitely had to cave in significantly, primarily because A, these countries are the repositories of rare of minerals, which will be necessary not just for chip production, but also for any kind of major technological development that we are looking forward to in the current few decades. But on top of that, these are going to be the biggest manufacturers as well, like China especially, is the biggest manufacturer. It is not for nothing that it is called the factory of the world, because pretty much everything that we use and especially every kind of technologically advanced kind of equipment or any kind of electric cars, electric vehicle, advanced things that we're seeing has to be manufactured in China at some point. And this that it cannot be isolated out of that equation. It is not the Soviet Union that we're looking at, like despite Soviet Union's greatness at this time and it existed, it was kind of kept itself out of international trade and international production cycles. And that pretty much was also in part one of its undoing. But that is not something that you can expect from China. It is a very well integrated globalized economy. And it definitely is an important factor in deciding global supply chains at this point and whatever happens in China will obviously affect everybody. So this is something that is very, you know, not focused upon very, very much when we look at some kind of any kind of alarmist or any kind of water hawkish news headlines or even policy statements by different governments. Anish, moving on to the other side, we know that President Joe Biden has invited the heads of the Japanese and South Korean governments for the summit in Camp David, I believe, and I think it's on the August of 18th. And it seems like a follow up to the earlier meetings that have taken place, for instance, the Washington Declaration. And it does definitely look like, you know, tensions are definitely going to ramp up further in the region from both sides at this rate. Yeah, I mean, like it's a very classic situation because we're looking at when we talk about like as you talked about it, sure, earlier 70 years of promises and right now instead of actually, you know, de-escalating the situation, what we're looking at are, you know, policy decisions and meetings and all sorts of, you know, military alliances, that is just escalating the situation to a point where talks may not be the first option at the moment. It is becoming a very serious situation at the current point of time. We have already seen like the escalation happening very recently with the arrival of the nuclear subs in South Korean ports. And obviously the response from the North Korean side by ballistic tests and fireings happening at the same time. And obviously the victory parade was part of that in a way that it was trying to show, it was a show of strength on the part of the North Korea showing that we have allies too and we cannot be completely isolated from the world at this point in time. And so this is something that the South Korean government definitely does not consider. Obviously we're looking at UN administration being one of the most provocative, one of the most war-ockish governments that South Korea has seen in recent times. Even there have been conservative governments in the past, but even some of them haven't found this far in actually, you know, trying to push all the envelope, push the red line as far as much as possible to actually provoke the other side, which actually has new developments to begin with. And what you pointed out with the Washington declaration, it is quite interesting and quite important to note because once South Korea also becomes part of the nuclear umbrella, then we are looking at something far more serious where any kind of peace process will be impossible without the US involvement and giving US far more control over any kind of Korean resolution or peace process or unification, which is like a distant dream right now that things stand. So this is what things standard like August 18 summit will obviously be very military-centric and will obviously come like the focus I believe would be to make a historic deal out of it because obviously that is what Camp David has been used in the past as well by different presidents. So definitely Biden is looking at something historic or to give himself a mark in history that will be not erased. But what will it take, what kind of shape it will take is going to define how things function in a, you know, erstwhile tension, not tension-free but kind of like not a place where escalations were as easily possible as it is right now. Right, Anish. Thank you so much for that analysis. It's quite striking because just a few years ago, despite the fact that Donald Trump was president, there seemed to be so much momentum in the Prime Minister's declarations, Moon Jae-in's administration, all that, and all of that has been so drastically reversed just in a course of maybe a year or two very, you know, like I said, very striking developments and we'll be tracking of course the summit on the 18th of August and we'll get back on this issue with you as well. Thank you so much for talking to us. And now we go for the historical picture. The Korean War was one of the opening salvoes of the Cold War and had an impact not only on that region but across the world. It's important to remember that the war never officially ended. Only an armistice has been signed. The pattern of the Korean War went on to be repeated in many countries across the world. To think through some of this, to think through why it was relevant and why it continues to be relevant, we have with us, Praveepur Kaisal. Praveep, we're taking a historical look right now at the Korean armistice. Say it's been 70 years, we'll come to some of the more recent phenomenon but first, going back to that time, could you maybe take us to what was the significance of the Korean War itself in general? It's kind of marked the beginning of the Cold War of course. But at that time, what did it signify and the kind of forces that were ranged? You know, this is the first war which is fought post the Second World War and it's the first clash and logical as well as military between what could be called the socialist world and that time the capitalist world led by the United States of course. It started with what will happen in Korea. In fact, South Korea, North Korea division as we see today was not there at that time. At that point of time, Korea had participated on the side of the, essentially of the Japanese, certain sections over there and those who had participated with the Japanese were the ones who were picked essentially by the United States to rule over Korea after the Second World War is over and this was the genesis of the problems that took place. The certain sections which had been led by the time by Kim Il-sung who led the resistance against the Japanese. They were not going to accept somebody who was a traitor to the Koreans as they saw them to be put over then and Seung-bin Lee who was put over there was not even a Korean in the sense that he was in Korea at that time. He was really imported from the United States to take over this so-called regime which was going to be put in place and the army which had been co-opted by the Americans were the ones who sided with the Japanese. So, this is the genesis of what the Korean War was and of course both sides fought the Korean War. Who would be in that sense who would be Korea after Japan fell and in that the first of course the Americans the pro-American forces were pushed back. America entered the war directly at that point of time and then started not only pushing back the Koreans led by Kim Il-sung but also at one point of time threatened to crossover into China. China had been warning them that if we cross the 38th parallel which has become the de facto boundary at the moment then we are going to enter the war. At that point of time General MacArthur who was the leader of the armed forces of the United States there said let the Chinese come the slaughter will be great we'll slaughter them but as we know in history the slaughter was not of the Chinese of course they died in very large numbers also but also the American troops were pushed back quite a bit from near the Chinese border to the 38th parallel. Now the interesting part of all of this is that when finally the armistice is declared at that point Americans had bombed what is today North Korea in a way that is unimaginable as their own generals deposing in the Congress said not a single structure was standing in North Korea they had flattened everything but all that bombing still did not mean the military balance had shifted in the United States favor of course if it was only Koreans versus the forces that the Americans had gathered there as well as the United States yes but once China entered unlike what MacArthur had said it really wasn't the way they thought it would go and they were really pushed back at that point of time MacArthur threatened to use nuclear bombs in fact it was ultimately the US political power President Truman who decided that was a step too far and it could precipitate a nuclear war between Soviet Union and the United States because obviously Soviet Union was on China side at that point at that time he pulled back General MacArthur and said that ultimately is a President's writ which has to run finally when the 1953 armistice is declared at that point it's also interesting that apart from the first Cold War-Hot War battle that takes place the threat of nuclear weapons being used takes place also the emergence of non-alignment because at that point India's role it is only 6 years it has become independent 47 to 53 Indian role becomes crucial because at that point both the United States and the Soviet Union and China need somebody with an authority enough to be able to talk to both sides and decide how finally the military separation would take place what would happen to the prisoners of war on both sides so this is that history where actually India becomes first non-aligned power to play an important role in world history that is one part of the Korean War the other part of the Korean War again which is not well known is that there is a Unit 731 of the Japanese which involved itself in bacteriological war and other horrific experiments on prisoners of war as well as on civilians this is the Unit 731 in fact the kind of experiments it conducted were in part with what would be called the Nazi experiments which are so much talked about interestingly this unit of the Japanese army which was involved in the chemical and biological war was co-opted by the United States wholesale and they were not put on trial as for instance the Nazi scientists were who collaborated with this kind of same experiments on the prisoners of war and against the Jewish population whom they had done all these experiments and also on the Roma people these were the people on which these experiments had been done in Europe but when it came to Japan the Americans decided that the research results of what the Japanese had been done were of interest to them they protected them, took them over in fact the international scientific community which was at that time the peace movement they set up a committee to go into the allegations of chemical and biological war in Korea and their verdict was that yes there were these experiments which took place and it is true that now the historical evidence the archival evidence is public that the US did experiment using biological war and chemical war against the Chinese as well as the Korean people during that war so I think there is a lot of history which is not known which is still important but I think the most two important issues were that it was the first clash between the Soviet the post-Soviet Union between socialist countries in this case China and Korea and the Americans and their supported Korean forces the first military clash that took place the possibility of nuclear weapons being used which finally did not happen and also the emergence of non-aligned movement in the world so I think that is the backdrop which we should see the Korean War today Thank you so much Fibir, I think those three points very relevant to today's world also in some cases we have been I think the Korean region is now the farthest from peace since it was at that point of time very worrying for people across the world thank you so much for that overview that's all we have in this episode of Daily Debrief we took a detailed look at the Korean War 70 years of the Armistice, its legacy and also how some of those developments from 70 years ago are playing out today and in fact are a grave cause for concern we will be back with many more stories in future episodes of Daily Debrief see you on Monday and hit that subscribe button