Along the Korean Demilitarized Zone / DoD photo
It’s important to remember that the long-ago Korean war has never ended. Hostilities were terminated between the U.N.-backed South and the Chinese-backed North with an armistice on July 27, 1953. Nearly 30,000 U.S. troops remain in South Korea, sworn to defend the South from an attack from the North. The North alleges its latest artillery shelling was in response to provocative war games being conducted by the South. Seoul acknowledged firing test shots in the area but said none fell within the North’s territory. The guidance for such war games is laid out in a recently-revised bilingual document designed to let South Korea command its own defenses, without U.S. help, beginning April 17, 2012. Its guiding principle: “Ready to ‘Fight Tonight’.” You can check it out here.