SOUTH KOREA: Ceremonial artillery fire echoed over the South Korean capital yesterday to mark the day and the hour 50 years ago when the guns finally fell silent in a war which cost millions of lives but left the peninsula still divided.
Korean War veterans and dignitaries also met earlier in the Demilitarised Zone border area to remember those who did not live to see the armistice. They heard calls for a similar unity of purpose to thwart communist North Korea's nuclear ambitions.
Maj Eric Reynolds, a Canadian padre, said: "As we gather together this evening to remember the ink that was spread on the ceasefire agreement 50 years ago this day, let us never forget it was preceded by the blood, sweat and tears shed on the hills, the plains and the soil of the Land of the Morning Calm."
Maj Reynolds was at a ceremony at Yongsan, the main US base in Seoul, where veterans and others watched displays by soldiers from several countries which fought under the UN flag with South Korea against Chinese-backed North Korea.
As the hour reached 10 p.m. - when the truce began on July 27th, 1953 - a 21-gun salute flashed and roared over the darkened parade ground and beyond to the bustling city which Seoul has become.
Former US secretary of state Mr Henry Kissinger was among the 1,500 veterans and 200 dignitaries in attendance.
The South Korean President, Mr Roh Moo-hyun, in a speech at another ceremony where Seoul unveiled a new war monument, called on Pyongyang to "abandon its nuclear ambition and to opt for the path toward peace and coexistence". North Korea, which says it won the war, has described the ceremony as a disgusting farce. A lone guard stood stone-faced on the far side of the dividing line.