The forgotten conflict (잊혀진 전쟁)
Threats ... Kim Jong Il
THE Korean War ended 50 years ago this month.
This bloody, three-year battle cost the lives of three million men ? 1,135 of whom were British servicemen.
The Queen will attend a Service of Thanksgiving in Westminster Abbey tomorrow, along with veterans and relatives of those who served and died there.
But despite the huge sacrifice, a peace agreement has NEVER been signed to end a conflict which has become known as the Forgotten War.
Now a new threat looms after North Korean despot Kim Jong Il threatened to retaliate if the US stops him building nuclear power plants.
On the right TREVOR KAVANAGH asks whether the sacrifice of half a century ago was worthwhile.
And below, MARK BOWNESS speaks to three Korean veterans who recall their memories from a war which changed their lives forever.
I saw men go crazy from mental torture in camp
Retired ... Ted now and right, playing football as part of the PoWs' own olympics
TED ROSE had just six months National Service left when he was called up to go to Korea.
For the carefree 19-year-old it was an exciting challenge ? but within a month of arriving his world changed for ever.
On April 22, 1951, Ted and 400 others from the 1st Battalion of the Gloucestershire Regiment (29th Brigade) were captured by the Chinese after four days of fighting.
And for the next two years and four months he was a PoW in Pyuktong camp, North Korea.
Retired plumber Ted, now 71 and living in Wokingham, Berks, with wife Jacqueline ? is still haunted by the ordeal.
He says: "There was a hillside right opposite known as Boot Hill where they took the dead.
"Seeing the bodies taken up there has always had a deep impact on me. I saw men carried away and never return, others placed in a small wooden box for seven days as punishment for answering back, and others go crazy with the mental torture inflicted.
"As a young lad it was very frightening and there were times when I thought I would never see my family again."
Ted, now a father of six, and the other PoWs were banned from contacting anyone for a year.
But the men were allowed to play football, above, as part of their own Olympics. Ted adds: "It took our minds off the hell."
Heartbreaking to see so many young men die 
Gill ... now aged 71 and right, while in Korea
FORMER nurse Gill McNair still sheds tears at the memory of Our Boys wounded on the battlefields of Korea.
Gill was 24 and serving in the Queen Alexandra's Royal Army Nursing Corps when she was sent to the 1,000-bed British Commonwealth Hospital in Kure, Japan.
She says: "The soldiers were so young, yet so very brave. Boys were coming in with horrific burns, missing limbs and terrible gunshot wounds but their spirit was incredible.
"It was a very humbling experience. I remember one soldier who had lost a leg but he still managed to smile through it - and it was that sort of bravery that helped to keep us all going."
Gill, 75, was based at the hospital for 20 months with just five days' leave every six months.
She had the job of caring for the first 30 prisoners of war to be released.
She recalls: "I was asked to go on a special medical train to an airfield where 30 PoWs were to be dropped off.
"When they saw me, the tears flowed as they knew they were safe. Bringing brave soldiers like that home was a real honour. Sadly not all made it and it was heartbreaking to see so many young men die."
After the war, Gill returned to the Army hospital in Aldershot, Hants.
She now lives in Helston, Cornwall, with husband Clive - and her memories of the Korean War. We were ambushed, then a grenade fell at my feet 
Joe ... with medals and right, in camp
JOE SMITH was just 19 when a grenade exploded at his feet and smashed his left arm.
Then a fusilier with the London Regiment he was one of 11 men on a mission in North Korea on November 10, 1952. Within hours they were caught in an ambush and left for dead.
Now aged 70 and retired in Southwater, West Sussex, Joe, right, recalls: "I had been in Korea just three months when we were sent out on a night mission to capture a prisoner behind enemy lines.
"After three hours walking we were suddenly ambushed by four Chinese soldiers.
"A further 40 were lying in wait and within seconds the night was alight with gunfire and exploding grenades. I felt a blow to the side of my face and then a grenade dropped between my legs. I instinctively put up my arms ? an action that saved my life but shattered my arm.
"Once we regrouped we discovered Corporal Williams, a close friend, was missing. Some of us wanted to go back but our officer refused. It is something I'll always regret."
Joe came home after his injury, married Maureen in 1956 and moved to Rhodesia, where he served with the air force before returning to England in 1969.
Kim leading his nation to disaster
Poor ... North Korean peasants
By MARK BOWNESS
Kim Jong Il has been called the world's vilest dictator, whose hideous war crimes and communist rantings have brought his country to its knees.
At just 5ft in his built-up shoes, the 60-year-old inherited power from his father Kim Il Sung in 1994.
He has developed a chilling nuclear arsenal and is seen by some as the biggest threat to world peace.
President Bush listed North Korea alongside Iraq and Iran in his "Axis Of Evil".
Last year Kim, who likes to be known as The Supreme Brain or Dear Leader, confessed to a secret nuke project, adding: "We've got more powerful weapons too."
Nobody doubts he was referring to chemical and biological weapons.
Kim is so obsessed with weapons of mass destruction that all around him his nation is in freefall.
Decades of mismanagement have seen the economy collapse with debts of more than ￡12billion.
There have been ten years of food shortages and since 1995 only the intervention of huge international food aid missions has helped North Korea avoid mass starvation.
Most of the 23million population remain vulnerable to disease and suffer appalling living conditions.
One in three lives in poverty and two thirds of the population are chronically malnourished.
from The Sun Online
