SAN ANTONIO – Nearly seven decades after 40,000 Americans were killed and 100,000 were wounded in the Korean War, a long overdue summit between the U.S. and North Korea is becoming a reality.
A San Antonio Army veteran who was in the Korean War and lost friends in combat said the summit will do little to heal old wounds, much less ease the tensions between the U.S. and North Korea.
Fast Facts about the Korean War from History.com:
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On June 25, 1950, the Korean War began when some 75,000 soldiers from the North Korean People’s Army poured across the 38th parallel, the boundary between the Soviet-backed Democratic People’s Republic of Korea to the north and the pro-Western Republic of Korea to the south.
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In July 1953, the Korean War came to an end.
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In all, some 5 million soldiers and civilians lost their lives during the war. The Korean peninsula is still divided today.
For more on History.com's facts on the Korean War, click here.
What Army veteran Joe Almaraz, 88, is saying:
“You cannot have peace with those people (North Koreans). They’re savages. They’re savages.”
“The people are starving over there in North Korea, but the guys are spending a lot of money on nuclear weapons.”
“Anybody that was in Korea when I was there, they will tell you the same thing I’m saying.”
Fast Facts about the summit from CNN:
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As the summit nears, President Donald Trump’s advisers on North Korea have given him briefings on the country’s nuclear program.
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The president’s approach to the talks has worried administration officials and U.S. allies, who have urged Trump to stick to a conventional approach to negotiations.
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Trump said the success of the summit will come down to a "question of whether or not people want this to happen."
WEB EXTRA: What Almaraz had to say about the treatment of prisoners of the Korean War