Thai Soldiers Held a Korean Hill Until the Armistice. Chinese troops kept attacking. The Thai battalion held its position. It was July 1953. The Korean War was nearing its armistice, but at Hill 351 near Kimhwa, Thai soldiers still had a position to defend. On 13 July, the battalion, attached to the U.S. 2nd Infantry Division, moved onto the hill. From 14 to 27 July, it repelled repeated Chinese attacks with the division’s supporting fire and close-range combat. An approaching agreement did not make the battlefield safe. Until the fighting stopped, the men holding that hill still faced the possibility of never going home. They held on until the armistice was signed on 27 July. South Korea’s Ministry of Patriots and Veterans Affairs credits their defense with keeping Hill 351 on the southern side after the armistice. For these Thai soldiers, the final days of the war meant defending ground far from their own country. For Korea, their service became part of the history of the land they helped protect. As a Korean, I offer my deep gratitude to Thailand’s veterans and to the Thai people. When the guns finally fell silent, what was the first thing those soldiers thought of?

A Thai Soldier Blew Up an Ammunition Depot in North Korea’s Capital. “I was the one who ignited the explosion.” Banjop Tonuan was 25 when he left Thailand for the Korean War. His journey took him all the way to Pyongyang. In November 1950, he and his unit spent ten days on a train from Daegu to the North Korean capital, according to his later account. UN forces had taken the city. Then Chinese forces entered the war, and the advance turned into a retreat. As Chinese troops approached Pyongyang, Tonuan was one of ten soldiers assigned to destroy ammunition and supplies at a depot. He lit the explosives. The blast was enormous. Afterward, he and the others headed south. He had traveled thousands of kilometers from Thailand to fight in Korea. Now he was leaving a North Korean city behind as the UN forces withdrew. Tonuan survived the war and later became an officer. Decades later, he still remembered the destruction he had witnessed and the patience of the Korean people. From South Korea, I offer my deepest gratitude to Thailand’s Korean War veterans and to the Thai people. What horrors of war did he witness?