El Paso veterans remember those killed in Korean War

It’s known as the “Forgotten War.”

Thursday veterans gathered in Northeast El Paso to mark the 65th anniversary of the start of the war.

More than 100 El Pasoans were killed in Korea.

“Everybody refers to it as the Forgotten War but we like to say it’s the ‘Forgotten Victory’ because South Korea went from the most impoverished nation in the world to a member of the G-20. And they’re the No. 2 industrialized nation in the Pacific Rim countries,” said Roy Aldridge, president of Col. Joseph C. Rodriguez Medal of Honor Korean War Veterans Association, Chapter 249 El Paso, Texas.

Though often called the “Forgotten War” in the United States, the 1950-53 Korean War is anything but forgotten in North Korea. As the anti-U.S. fervor reached its crescendo this week, The Associated Press took a look at what North Koreans, who aren’t privy to conflicting versions of the history of the war, are taught about it – and how they are constantly told they “can never trust the American imperialists.”

There is no dispute that the Korean War was particularly brutal, claiming millions of Korean lives, possibly hundreds of thousands of Chinese who were sent to fight with them, and tens of thousands of Americans left dead or missing in action.

But the North Korean version of the war, including the claim that it was started by Washington, is radically at odds with that of the United States and often doesn’t even jibe well with documents released over the years by its wartime allies, China and the Soviet Union.

For Pyongyang, however, the conflict isn’t just about history.

What’s more important to the ruling regime is the official moral of the story – that it was thanks to the wise leadership of the country’s founder, Kim Il Sung, and since then his son Kim Jong Il and now grandson Kim Jong Un, that the country has managed to survive in its struggle against the ever-present threat of the American Goliath.

The Associated Press contributed to this article.