South Korea brings out big guns for battle re-enactment (News Feature)

By Hannah Bae Jun 21, 2010, 5:58 GMT

Seoul - The Korean War is now referred to as the 'The Forgotten War' 60 years after it began, but some South Koreans are hoping to change that as they prepare to re-enact one of its early battles this week.

As the country commemorates the 60th anniversary of the June 25, 1950, start of the war, which ravaged the Korean Peninsula, the government, military and civilians are working together to re-enact the conflict's first naval engagement in the port city of Pusan, about 450 kilometres south-east of Seoul.

'This is the very first victory that South Korea achieved in the war, so we want to shed light on what happened in the past,' said Park June Su, head of public affairs at the Pusan office of the Ministry of Patriots and Veterans Affairs.

Called the Korea Strait victory celebration, the event commemorates South Korea's sinking of an armed North Korean steamer carrying 600 Korean People's Army troops about 29 kilometers off Pusan's coast, Park said.

'Pusan was an opening to the inland, which was used to receive all the logistical equipment needed to fight a war, and the North Koreans were trying to cut off that supply,' Park explained.

Early on June 25, 1950, the South Korean Baekdusan patrol craft spotted and sank the North Korean steamer. The city of Pusan has celebrated the event annually in some form or another, but this year's event would be on a bigger scale, Park said.

The re-enactment, which is to take place over two days starting Thursday, was scheduled to involve 10 ships, including the 14,000-ton landing ship Dokdo and a 4,500-ton destroyer, a P-3C maritime patrol aircraft, Lynx helicopters and two submarines, the navy said.

'During the event, the navy will fire at a mock North Korean steamer,' a navy official was quoted by South Korea's Yonhap News Agency as saying last week.

In addition to the re-enactment, there is to be a parade, a marine inspection and the unveiling of two busts of soldiers lost in that battle.

The events are to involve the crew of the Baekdusan, retired soldiers, and civilian and military management, the navy said.

'About 1,000 civilians have also been invited to the event,' said Kwon Ki Hyeon from the Ministry of Patriots and Veterans Affairs in Seoul.

Meanwhile, tensions between the two Koreas remained high after the sinking of the South Korean naval corvette Cheonan in March, in which 46 crew lost their lives.

South Korea last week presented the UN Security Council with the results of a multinational investigation into the incident, which concluded that the corvette was sunk by a North Korean torpedo.

Seoul has asked the council to condemn North Korea for the sinking. North Korea has denied any involvement.

The Ministry of Public Affairs said the incident had no connection to the plans for the battle re-enactment in Pusan.

'This is an annual event that would have happened regardless of the Cheonan,' Park said.

There has been some public skepticism of the investigation into the Cheonan sinking, but Park and Kwon said citizens have not expressed any negative sentiments over this week's re-enactment.