<P> In 1997, the Geoje POW Camp in South Korea was turned into a memorial . </P> <P> In December 1950, National Defense Corps was founded; the soldiers were 406,000 drafted citizens . In the winter of 1951, 50,000 to 90,000 South Korean National Defense Corps soldiers starved to death while marching southward under the Chinese offensive when their commanding officers embezzled funds earmarked for their food . This event is called the National Defense Corps Incident . There is no evidence that Syngman Rhee was personally involved in or benefited from the corruption . </P> <P> In 1950, Secretary of Defense George C. Marshall and Secretary of the Navy Francis P. Matthews called on the USO which was disbanded by 1947 to provide support for U.S. servicemen . By the end of the war, more than 113,000 USO volunteers from the U.S. were working at home front and abroad . Many stars came to Korea to give their performances . Throughout the Korean War, UN Comfort Stations were operated by South Korean officials for UN soldiers . </P> <P> Postwar recovery was different in the two Koreas . South Korea stagnated in the first postwar decade . In 1953, South Korea and the United States signed a Mutual Defense Treaty . In 1960, the April Revolution occurred and students joined an anti-Syngman Rhee demonstration; 142 were killed by police; in consequence Syngman Rhee resigned and left for exile in the United States . Park Chung - hee's May 16 coup enabled social stability . In the 1960s, prostitution and related services represented 25 percent of South Korean GNP . From 1965 to 1973, South Korea dispatched troops to Vietnam and received $235,560,000 in allowance and military procurement from the United States . GNP increased fivefold during the Vietnam War . South Korea industrialized and modernized . Contemporary North Korea remains underdeveloped . South Korea had one of the world's fastest - growing economies from the early 1960s to the late 1990s . In 1957 South Korea had a lower per capita GDP than Ghana, and by 2010 it was ranked thirteenth in the world (Ghana was 86th). </P>

When did the korean war start and end