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Thursday, October 29, 2026Oct 29

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Korea, war without end, casts a long shadow

By CHARLES J. HANLEY

AP Special Correspondent

SEOUL, South Korea – Distant thunder rattled the windows as Hong Il-sik, a 14-year-old schoolboy, awoke that Sunday. It was the sound of artillery fire, the morning of June 25, 1950, the dawn of a war that never ended.

Looking back, “I couldn’t even have imagined that – 60 years,” says the gray-haired ex-university president.

Gen. Paik Sun-yup, on the contrary, is unsurprised by the endurance of Korea’s endless standoff.