North Korea is a problem and we're going to continue to do it so we can control

them. We're going to make sure we can control them and make sure they cannot hurt

us. We're not going to legitimize you. We're going to continue to put stronger and

stronger sanctions on you.

He will get destroyer thingy. Controls are thingy.

Welcome to Blowback. I'm Brendan James and I'm Noah Colwyn and this is episode 10, The

Host. Last episode we witnessed in July of 1953, the signing of the armistice in Korea.

This was a military agreement expected to be temporary, expected to lead to a real

and lasting peace treaty. That treaty never came.

In this episode, we'll embark on a speed run of the year since the war of 1950 to 1953.

We'll see the demise of figures like Sigmund Rhee and Joe McCarthy, the rise of military

Hunta's and the extension of the Kim line. We'll see the North rebuild and develop a modern

economy and society. We'll see the South struggle and then come back strong. In fact, becoming

a capitalist powerhouse while remaining a military dictatorship for many decades.

We'll see spy missions, assassination plots, mutinies and the near breakout of another

wide scale war. We'll see the introduction of nuclear weapons to the Korean peninsula

and they may not come from who you would expect. We'll see a succession of US and Korean

leaders attempt to alternatively build and destroy chances for lasting peace.

And finally, in this last episode of the season, we'll catch up to the more recent years,

the attempts at and sabotage of reconciliation and the broader legacy of the Korean War.

The armistice agreement in Korea was finally reached on July 27, 1953. As the US National

Archives own website reads, quote,

...