What US Korean War veterans think of the Trump-Kim summit

Tim Whitmore

Tim Whitmore, who served as a U.S. Air Force medic in Korea in 1954, alongside South Korean Major General Kyoung Soo Shin in May 2016 at the Virginia War Memorial in Richmond, VA. Of General Shin, Whitmore said, “He is a great friend of the KWVA and a staunch patriot. I am honored to be his friend.”

Whatever the potential outcome, President Donald Trump’s summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un in Singapore last week was historic, marking the first-ever meeting between a sitting U.S. president and a head of state of the rogue Asian nation.

And while the perspectives of South Koreans, the Chinese, the Japanese and even the Russians have been analyzed, little attention has been paid to the community whose intervention enabled South Korea to become a democratic and open country: American veterans of the Korean War.

“It’s time for a real peace treaty after 66 years in a state of war in which nobody wins and everyone loses,” said former U.S. Navy petty officer Jack Keep, who served aboard a ship patrolling the North Korean coast in 1953.

Speaking to CNBC via email, the 83-year-old veteran was hopeful. “The people of North and South Korea, as well as we veterans, would welcome a peaceful outcome to these talks. The North Korean people have been suffering desperate poverty all these years.”

Still, Keep was cautious, noting the need for further discussions. “We who served during the Korean War remember that it took two years of talking to arrive at an armistice in the ’50s, and again with Vietnam,” he said. “We are well aware that caution is needed in dealing with the communists.”