Seventy years ago, after months of bitter negotiations, the U.S., China and North Korea signed the armistice agreement that brought an end to active fighting in the Korean War, detailing the terms of ceasefire and division.

South Korea refused to sign it and would have preferred to keep on fighting. Even for the signatories, the armistice was only meant to be a stopgap, a means of putting three years of death and destruction on hold until a more permanent solution could be established.