South Korea and the U.S. honored the sacrifices of those who fought in the Korean War during ceremonies to mark the 60th anniversary of the armistice Saturday, underscoring the idea that “freedom is not free.”

North Korea held a separate ceremony to celebrate what it calls a victory day ― an event analysts say was designed to demonstrate its leader Kim Jong-un’s stable grip on power and its military might, and strengthen internal unity.

During the ceremony at the War Memorial of Korea in Seoul, President Park Geun-hye renewed her calls for Pyongyang to renounce its nuclear program and take a “path toward genuine change and peace.” She also stressed the door for dialogue remained open.

“For the last 60 years, an unstable state of peace has been maintained on the peninsula as we never knew when it would be broken. The armistice that temporarily halted the war has continued for the longest time in the world,” she said.

Speaking to a gathering of some 4,000 people including delegations from 27 countries, she added, “Confrontation and antagonism should stop, and the Korean Peninsula should usher in an era of new peace and hope.”

The three-year Korean War broke out on June 25, 1950 when the North invaded the South with the backing of China and the then Soviet Union. The war, the first major Cold War-era conflict, ended in a truce rather than a peace treaty ― the reason why the two Koreas still remain technically at war.

Park reiterated Seoul would never tolerate any provocations by the North based on a strong deterrence, and that her government would do its utmost to encourage Pyongyang to become a responsible member of the international community.

Touching on the Demilitarized Zone, Park called for domestic and international support for her wish to turn it into a peace park. Established under the armistice accord, the DMZ is the 4-kilometer-wide buffer zone with the Military Demarcation Line at its center.

“I want to make the currently heavily-armed DMZ a zone where peace and trust grow without any weapons,” she said.

“If the parties, which once pointed guns at one another but signed the armistice, should build a peace park according to international norms, procedures and mutual agreement, this would be the very starting point for peninsular peace and reunification.”

During a separate ceremony at the Korean War Veterans Memorial on the National Mall in Washington D.C., President Barack Obama said the war ended not in a tie, but in a victory for the U.S.

“Here, today, we can say with confidence that war was no tie. Korea was a victory,” Obama told a gathering of some 5,000 people.

“When 50 million South Koreans live in freedom ― a vibrant democracy, one of the world’s most dynamic economies, in stark contrast to the repression and poverty of the North ― that’s a victory; that’s your legacy.”

Obama also stressed that the U.S. would remain a strong military power to ensure peace in the Asia-Pacific despite financial woes his government has been grappling with.

“Today, as we end a decade of war and reorient our forces for the future, as we make hard choices at home, our allies and adversaries must know the U.S. will maintain the strongest military the world has ever known, bar none, always,” he said.

Obama became the first U.S. president to join an official Armistice Day ceremony. Among the participants were Secretary Defense Chuck Hagel, Secretary of Veterans Affairs Eric Shinseki, and South Korean delegates including Joint Chiefs of Staff chairman Jung Seung-jo and Rep. Kim Jung-hoon of the ruling Saenuri Party.

To mark what it claims to be a victory day, the North held a massive military parade at the Kim Il-sung Square in Pyongyang. Some 13,000 troops and around 300 types of military equipment including KN-08 ballistic missiles were mobilized during the event.

By Song Sang-ho (sshluck@heraldcorp.com)