The Korean War was relatively short however it was on of the bloodiest wars in our history. The Korean is different from other wars due to the amount of civilian casualties which was very high. At the end of the war, a combined 5 million soldiers and civilians had lost their lives. The UN and North Korea could were willing to accept a ceasefire that maintained the 38th parallel boundary but they could not agree on whether prisoners of war should be forcibly repatriated. The war ended when the countries signed an armistice on July 27 1953in which the agreement allowed POWs to stay where they liked. This deal also created a new boundary line near the 38th parallel that gave South Korea an extra 1,500 square miles of territory. Along with this new territory it created a 2-mile-wide “demilitarized zone” that still exists today.