Still holding the prospect of masssive conflict killing enormous numbers of people on the embattled peninsula, the Korean War turns 60 years old today, and while there has been a ceasefire in place for decades there is still no end to the conflict in sight.

In fact if anything the war is more likely to flare up again, with North Korea warning just weeks ago that all out war could break out again at any moment. Tensions have been on the rise for over a year, since North Korea successfully tested a nuclear weapon.

But it all started on June 25, 1950 when North Korean troops marched into South Korea. President Truman ordered the US into the war just two days later, and over three years of bloody conflict which left millions dead was the result.

Sixty years later the United States is still involved in this war, with tens of thousands of American troops committed along the disputed border just waiting for the moment when this ceasefire comes to an end.

The war could have ended earlier this year, in fact, as North Korea openly offered a formal peace treaty ending the war. The US State Department angrily rejected the offer, saying it would never allow normal relations with North Korea unless they abandon all nuclear technology and make dramatic changes on human rights. And so the war continues, three fifths of a century later.

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