The Forgotten War, remembered: Horrors of Korean conflict come back to life in colourised images that show the brutal toll it took on civilians and soldiers
- Black-and-white photographs taken during the Korean War, which lasted from 1950 to 1953, brought to life
- Each photograph has been colourised by a British enthusiast, each snap taking four or five hours to do
- Striking images show young Korean girl with her brother on her back, with stalled tank in the background
- Another shows US Marines stepping over dead body of an enemy soldier partially buried in marshland
The horrors of the Korean War have been brought back to life and laid bare in a series of digitally colourised pictures.
The vivid colour images show many different sides of the war between North and South Korea, which started in 1950 and ended with an armistice in 1953.
One striking photo shows a Korean girl with her baby brother on her back tiredly trudging past a stalled M-26 tank, at Haengju Fortress in Goyang, South Korea.
A Korean girl with her brother on her back tiredly trudging past a stalled M-26 tank, used by the US Army, at Haengju Fortress in Goyang, South Korea in June 1951 in the midst of the conflict that killed nearly five million people. It would be another two years after this photo was taken until the war ended with an armistice in 1953
American Marines run past the body of an enemy soldier partially buried in the marshland on the Korean Peninsula, September 1950. They're carrying semi-automatic and fully automatic rifles and have been soaked up to their chests after running through bogs
Young captured North Koreans put their hands up and surrender as a US Marine (right) points a pistol at them following an ambush on September 20, 1950. In the background is one of the tanks which came ashore in the assault at Inchon, a South Korean city bordering the capital of Seoul
US Marines carrying a wounded soldier on a stretcher through grassland in the large port city of Pusan in South Korea between August and September 1950 during the Battle of Pusan Perimeter. It was one of the first major battles that saw US troops pushed to the brink of defeat by the invading North Korean army
Another shows US Marines carrying a wounded soldier on a stretcher through grassland in the large port city of Pusan in South Korea.
A third image shows a Marine ordering captured North Koreans to keep their hands up and a weapons squad leader pointing out a North Korean position to his machine gun crew.
The original black and white photographs were painstakingly colourised by electrician Royston Leonard, 55, from Cardiff, Wales, with each snap taking between four and five hours to complete.
'Adding colour brings to life the horror of war, of the trenches and not just another old black and white photo from long ago,' he said.
Marines of the 5th and 7th Regiments are forced to retreat during the Battle of Chosin Reservoir in December, 1950 amid blizzard conditions after being defeated by Chinese communist divisions. The battle took place a month after China entered the conflict in November, 1950. A brutal 17-day battle in freezing weather followed
Eight British troops ride into battle on a tank with guns in hand before clashing with 30,000 Chinese troops crossing the Imjin River. Almost 100,000 soldiers from the British Army fought in the Korean War, suffering more than 1,000 casualties
British troops crossing the Imjin River in tanks in 1951. Just 600 soldiers of the British Army took on a force of 30,000 Chinese troops. The British killed 10,000 Chinese soldiers and suffered just 59 casualties during the assault
A mortar crew of The 5th Infantry Regiment - nicknamed the Bobcats - returns enemy fire in the Masan area in 1950. Clockwise from left: Corporal Orville Waldeman loads an explosive shell, Private Carl Cannon, Private Reginal Palmer (drinking from a can), Lt James B. Moore Jr. and Private Oakley Vanalstyn (kneeling)
'We must never forget and teach all our children so that it never happens again. The pictures are not nice but then nor is sending loved ones to war.'
The Korean War was sparked by communist North Korea invading South Korea following a series of clashes by the border.
The United Nations, with the United States as the principal force, came to the aid of South Korea, with China and the Soviet Union providing assistance to the North.
The fighting ended on 27 July, 1953, when an armistice was signed. The agreement created the Korean Demilitarized Zone to separate North and South Korea, and allowed the return of prisoners.
However, no peace treaty has been signed, and the two Koreas are technically still at war.
Fighting with the 2nd Infantry Division, Sergeant First Class Major Cleveland (left), weapons squad leader, points out Communist-led North Korean position to his machine gun crew north of the Chongchon River on November 20, 1950
Men and equipment of the 73rd Heavy Tank Battalion await orders to board the LST's at the Pusan Docks. The Korean War was sparked by communist North Korea invading South Korea following a series of clashes by the border
A British tank gets stuck rolling vertically down a steep hill during the war in the 1950s. The fighting ended on 27 July, 1953, when an armistice was signed. The agreement created the Korean Demilitarized Zone to separate North and South Korea, and allowed the return of prisoners
A BRIEF HISTORY OF THE CONFLICT BETWEEN NORTH KOREA AND SOUTH KOREA
In June 1950 fighting broke out between the communist North and capitalist South, sparking a brutal war that killed between two and four million people.
Beijing backed Pyongyang in the three-year conflict, while Washington threw its support behind the South -- alliances that have largely endured.
The Koreas have been locked in a dangerous dance ever since that conflict ended in 1953 with an armistice rather than a formal peace treaty, leaving them technically at war.
Pyongyang has tested the fragile ceasefire with numerous attacks.
The secretive nation sent a team of 31 commandos to Seoul in a botched attempt to assassinate then-President Park Chung-Hee in 1968. All but two were killed.
In the 'axe murder incident' of 1976, North Korean soldiers attacked a work party trying to chop down a tree inside the Demilitarized Zone, leaving two US army officers dead.
Pyongyang launched perhaps its most audacious assassination attempt in Myanmar in 1983, when a bomb exploded in a Yangon mausoleum during a visit by South Korean President Chun Doo-hwan. He survived but 21 people, including some government ministers, were killed.
U.S. Marines covering the road leading to the front lines in South Korea in 1950
In 1987 a bomb on a Korean Air flight exploded over the Andaman Sea, killing all 115 people on board. Seoul accused Pyongyang, which denied involvement.
The North's founding leader Kim Il-Sung died in 1994, but under his son Kim Jong-Il it continued to prod its southern neighbor.
In 1996 a North Korean submarine on a spying mission ran aground off the eastern South Korean port of Gangneung, sparking 45-day manhunt that ended with 24 crew members and infiltrators killed.
A clash between South Korean and North Korean naval ships in 1999 left some 50 of the North's soldiers dead.
In March 2010 Seoul accused Pyongyang of torpedoing one of its corvette warships, killing 46 sailors. Pyongyang denied the charge.
November that year saw North Korea launch its first attack on a civilian-populated area since the war, firing 170 artillery shells at Yeonpyeong. Four people were killed, including two civilians.
North Korea has steadfastly pursued its banned nuclear and ballistic missile programs since its first successful test of an atomic bomb in 2006, as it looks to build a rocket capable of delivering a warhead to the US mainland.
Its progress has accelerated under leader Kim Jong-Un, culminating in its sixth and biggest nuclear test in September 2017.
Kim has since declared the country a nuclear power.
Despite the caustic effect of clashes and the battery of conventional weapons that the North has amassed at the border to threaten Seoul, the two nations have held talks in the past.
Then North Korean leader Kim Jong-Il held two historic summits with counterparts from the South in 2000 and 2007, which eased tensions between the neighbors.
Lower-level talks since then have been much hyped but failed to produce significant results.
Source: AFP
North Korea won that one
by Ste Smith