The end of America’s other Longest War: The search for a Korea peace treaty

After America’s withdrawal from Afghanistan, some in Washington are turning their attention to another long-standing conflict, reports Donald Kirk from the US capital

North Korean troops wearing gas masks and bright red suits parade during a celebration of the nation’s 73rd anniversary this week (AP)

America’s “longest war” is far from over. In fact, if you listen to America’s leftist critics, it’s been going on for more than seven decades.

That’s the Korean War, not America’s plunge into Afghanistan 20 years ago after terrorists flew planes into the World Trade Centre in New York and the Pentagon on 11 September 2001, killing nearly 3,000 people.

A forceful, energetic band of progressive American politicians and activists would have the world believe US forces are still at war in Korea though no shots are being fired. The logic behind this trope: the document the US, China and North Korea signed in July 1953 at the “truce village” of Panmunjom was not a peace treaty but an armistice that South Korea’s first president, Syngman Rhee, refused to endorse for fear it would sanctify division of the peninsula.