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Found at: http://www.edmontonsun.com/News/Canada/2006/10/12/2007930-sun.html
By CP
OTTAWA -- As a nuclear crisis brews on the Korean peninsula, few Canadians know that Canada retains a legacy from two generations ago: a pledge to defend South Korea.
It's a remnant of another Korean crisis five decades ago, which drew Canada into a bitter war, cost 10 times the casualties recorded so far in Afghanistan, and produced a Canadian promise to return if necessary.
"We still have a commitment to South Korea," says Jim Fergusson, director of the Centre for Defence and Security Studies at the University of Manitoba.
"When the war wound down and the Panmunjon agreement was signed, Canada, along with the other UN countries that had participated, committed to the defence of South Korea.
"There's an opt-out clause in it, but technically we committed that we would come to the defence of South Korea."
Canada has never opted out of that promise.
The three-year Korean War began in June 1950, when the Russian-trained and equipped North Korean army slashed across the 38th parallel, the arbitrary boundary drawn across the peninsula at the end of the Second World War.
The North, led by Kim Il Sung, father of the present-day dictator Kim Jong Il, calculated he could overrun the south before anyone could do anything about it. He was wrong.
By CP
OTTAWA -- As a nuclear crisis brews on the Korean peninsula, few Canadians know that Canada retains a legacy from two generations ago: a pledge to defend South Korea.
It's a remnant of another Korean crisis five decades ago, which drew Canada into a bitter war, cost 10 times the casualties recorded so far in Afghanistan, and produced a Canadian promise to return if necessary.
"We still have a commitment to South Korea," says Jim Fergusson, director of the Centre for Defence and Security Studies at the University of Manitoba.
"When the war wound down and the Panmunjon agreement was signed, Canada, along with the other UN countries that had participated, committed to the defence of South Korea.
"There's an opt-out clause in it, but technically we committed that we would come to the defence of South Korea."
Canada has never opted out of that promise.
The three-year Korean War began in June 1950, when the Russian-trained and equipped North Korean army slashed across the 38th parallel, the arbitrary boundary drawn across the peninsula at the end of the Second World War.
The North, led by Kim Il Sung, father of the present-day dictator Kim Jong Il, calculated he could overrun the south before anyone could do anything about it. He was wrong.
