The Korean War was a proxy war enacted on the Korean Peninsula by neighbouring great powers. Millions of people were butchered over those three brutal years, and the former national territory was utterly destroyed. – Han Kang (Oct 7, 2017)
Relatively few understand today that what we term ‘The Korean War’ – was among the most brutal and savage wars in the history of humanity; a staggering 10% of the domestic population was killed (some estimates go even higher).
Although we adamantly are instructed to call it ‘The Korean War’ – the weapons involved were provided by ‘outside’, non-Korean actors and entities; it was fought over an artificial border no Korean had a say in establishing (there were, in actuality, family members ‘stuck’ in ‘opposing’ zones – thoroughly against their wishes – and not a few); obviously, the money involved was ‘foreign’ – Korea then being indigent, having endured several brutal decades (c. 1910-1945) as a colony prior to being divided into the two ‘spheres of influence’.
Much more can be said, but the last thing I will be emphasizing here, in the interest of prayer, is that violence did indeed play a role in establishing within a single country on the one Korean Peninsula two rather diametrically opposed regimes (ideologically, etc.), made over in the image and political/economic/‘hegemonic’ interests of their respective ‘patron-superpower’; there were no ‘free and fair elections’, for either side (at that time); those who did not consent to such dehumanizing processes were further brutalized, imprisoned, libeled, smeared, and killed – and, as if but ‘a matter of course’.
Peradventure, it is for the above cited and other like reasons that Korea’s is also known as ‘the forgotten war’. In one’s humble, broken opinion: there’s, ultimately, absolutely nothing to commemorate here (and I somewhat pity the ones whose ‘job’ it might be to attempt an extraction of meaning out of all of this).
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June 25th marked 76 years since the outbreak of ‘The Korean War’. With the 2024 Nobel Prize in Literature having been awarded to Korean author Han Kang, awareness is thankfully on the rise concerning the fact that there were ‘diabolical’ massacres and mass atrocities which took place prior to June 25, 1950; the bottom line as to why these truly shocking mass killings and crimes against humanity happened is, arguably, in a word: ‘power’ – the sinful/rapacious aspiration to it, a murderous idolatry surrounding it – amid the fog of which, human beings ceased to be seen as sacred, as having basic dignity. An all-too-familiar pattern.
Prior to this, and maintain-ably, the primary contributing factor, or determinant, that paved the way for unprecedented blood-letting, was: the 1945 Division of Korea – which, after some 81 years, strikes many who’ve laboriously studied this particular issue as having been non–‘accidental’ (cf. the Aug. 1939 Nazi-Soviet Pact concerning the partition of Poland into two spheres of influence – culminating into WWII – which rather appears to be quite ‘analogous in spirit’). Unanswered questions persist.
(*In the realm of power politics – ‘accidents’ of this magnitude are not likely to occur. There is, for instance, considerable evidence that a 40-year ‘multi-power trusteeship’ – which portended a partitioning vis-à-vis Korea – was in fact being mapped out, for years [and, circa Dec. 1943, ‘40-years’ for Korea under an international trusteeship framework was indeed specified at the Teheran Conference]; for some, ‘40 years’ appears to have been quietly extended to a period of indefinite duration; whatever the case may be: our most basic and human wishes – for a simple reunion with family, etc. – have not materialized. Everything’s apparently far too late, anyways… A theological brick wall –)
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Have been seemingly coming to the conclusion that entering into an existential struggle with God Himself, à la Job, could well be, or become, a necessary aspect of any of our spirit’s journeys – and, one of this life’s ‘final meanings’.
I have come to see the discourses and lamentations of Job as possibly the only proper ‘theological response’ to the ghastly mercilessness of ‘The Korean War’ and all such world-historical, cataclysmic ‘tragedies’ (the word ‘tragedy’ somehow feels euphemistic here) – that, and wholly giving oneself over to be an instrument of compassion, and prayer…
(Which, of course, is far easier said than done. But one must try.)
A prayer:
O, Adonai Elohim: daresay, we’ve inherited unfathomable trauma from such events and realities. Somehow, and now, answer all those who mourn, with comfort, O truly; also, those who have tearfully and genuinely hungered and thirsted for justice, with satisfaction, O truly. In the most blessed and sacred name of Yeshua ha Mashiach ha Notzri.
We humbly ask for a thoroughly redemptive reckoning, out of compassionate concern: for each and every one who unjustly suffered the loss of all things, the destruction of their innocence, the premature loss of their lives – internationally – and, please, bring healing now as only You can do. In the most blessed and sacred name of Yeshua ha Mashiach ha Notzri.
O, Adonai Elohim: somehow, and now, most lovingly and tenderly wipe away the tears of Your international people – such as those of us Koreans who suffered the singular humiliation of praying for one mere reunion with their beloved ones ‘in the other zone’ after decades apart, some 81 years – yet to no avail. Won’t You, at-long-last, decisively remove ‘the veil that is spread over all nations’ (Isa. 25:8) and ‘wipe away tears from off all faces’ (Isa. 25:8) – (‘all faces’, it indeed says –) – for some of Your international people have grown quite weary, Holy Lord, and You must know far better than anyone that this cannot entirely be their/our fault. Kindly reveal Thyself, and take note of our sufferings, and act – in goodness and in mercy, and internationally, O please. In the most blessed and sacred name of Yeshua ha Mashiach ha Notzri – Amen, amen.
(For further relevant information, author’s prior article on Korea’s division: https://redletterchristians.org/2025/08/09/an-ocean-of-tears-on-the-80th-anniversary-of-koreas-partition/)
