Grant our Korean War records Unesco Heritage

Lee Seong-choon
The author is a former president of the Institute for Military History under the Ministry of National Defense.

I once talked about the 1950-53 Korean War with a North Korean defector who had been an elementary school teacher back home. North Korea, he told me, teaches that the United States and South Korea started the war by invading the North and that the conflict ended in the North’s triumph. North Korea celebrates the Armistice on July 27, 1953 as the Day of Victory in the Great Fatherland Liberation War.

He worried that North Koreans would have a hard time accepting the real story behind the war after unification and asked what could be done. In my opinion, the most reasonable way to address the dilemma would be to show the North Koreans historic texts providing clear evidence of the North’s invasion. It will require close attention to correct North Korea’s distortion of history by glorifying the war as a battle against external forces to protect and liberate their fatherland.

Actually, the war began when North Korean tanks rolled into the South at dawn on June 25, 1950. The United Nations immediately called on member states to provide military assistance to South Korea based on Article One of the UN Charter, which stipulates “effective collective measures for the prevention and removal of threats to international peace and security.”

The first international unified command — established and activated since the founding of the international body on Oct. 24, 1945 — included military personnel from 16 countries, medical personnel from six countries and logistics supplies from 39 countries. The forces fought with their blood and life on the line to defend the peace of the Korean Peninsula under the UN flag.

The allied forces’ engagement in the Korean War carried historic significance as the first international effort to ensure world security and stabilize international order under the UN. The UN flag has remained intact at the frontline guard posts for 73 years, a testament to the spirit of collective security.

I propose that the Seoul government apply with the Unesco to recognize the historic documents and records of the Korean War as its documentary heritage. Eighteen Korean historic records — including the Hunminjeongum, the Korean alphabet, and Nanjung Ilgi, a war diary written by Korean naval hero Admiral Yi Sun-sin during the Japanese invasion of 1592 — are currently on the Memory of the World Register aimed at preserving the documentary heritage of humanity. Korean holdings are the fifth largest among UN members, and I believe the Korean War documents are equally worthy of being added to the list.

When the history of the Korean War goes on the documentary heritage list, it will well serve the UN’s goal of contributing to world peace. The momentum can shed fresh light on the so-called Forgotten War and remind the rest of the world that international collective security is still active.

The accreditation also can help lessen potential confusion after the two Koreas become one. North Koreans brainwashed about the South’s invasion will be awoken to the truth.

The Ministry of National Defense, the armed forces across the branches of ground, sea and air and the marine corps must register their war records and invite the countries who sent their combat troops and others who provided medical and logistical supplies to South Korea to submit their files as well. Ideally, Russia and China should share their own documents for the best possible synergy.

It would be even better if Seoul republished a well-coordinated white paper based on the registered files. The work would likely take around 20 years from preparation to publication. I hope the chronicle could be published in 2050, timed with the centennial turn of the Korean War’s outbreak, in a form beyond the current combative narrative so that it could encompass the war’s ramifications on the politics, economy, society and culture of this country.

North Korea promulgated its own narrative of the Fatherland Liberation War across the world in 1959 — eight years faster than South Korea’s narrative, which was released in 1967. We must pursue world documentary heritage recognition for Korean War history as soon as possible to set the record straight.

Unesco opened its first International Center for Documentary Heritage in Cheongju, North Chungcheong on Nov. 1. We must seize the opportunity to place our perspective of the war on the Unesco World Heritage list. If our Korean War history goes on the documentary heritage register and a white paper on the devastating war can be republished, we will establish a firm foundation for the next generation to remember the painful lessons of the brutal war.

Translation by the Korea JoongAng Daily staff.