National Korean War Veterans Armistice Day 2027 is on Tuesday

About National Korean War Veterans Armistice Day

The Korean War began on June 25, 1950, when North Korea invaded South Korea, and United States forces fought there under the United Nations Command for three years. On July 27, 1953, at Panmunjom, US Army Lt. Gen. William K. Harrison Jr. and North Korean Gen. Nam Il signed the Korean Armistice Agreement. As the National Archives notes, it was a military agreement rather than a treaty between nations: it stopped open combat, set up a demilitarized zone between the two sides and arranged the exchange of prisoners, but no peace treaty has ever followed.

Presidential proclamations put the American death toll at about 36,000. The 2024 proclamation also honored more than 7,000 Korean soldiers who served in US Army units under the Korean Augmentation to the United States Army program and died in the war, and it noted that thousands of Americans are still missing from the conflict. The war is often called the Forgotten War, a phrase the 2024 proclamation itself used while promising that those who served will not be forgotten.

Congress first designated July 27 as National Korean War Veterans Armistice Day in Public Law 104-19, approved on July 27, 1995, and the designation sits at 36 U.S.C. 127. That law asks the president to proclaim the day and to call for flags at half-staff in honor of those who died as a result of their service in Korea. Its wording covered the years through 2003, but presidents have continued to proclaim the day in most years since, and in 2009 the Korean War Veterans Recognition Act added July 27 to the federal Flag Code's list of days on which the US flag should be displayed.

The day is a commemoration, not a federal holiday. Veterans' organizations hold ceremonies at the Korean War Veterans Memorial in Washington, D.C., at state and local memorials and at veterans' halls, often with the reading of names or a wreath-laying.

Sources: 36 U.S. Code § 127 - National Korean War Veterans Armistice Day (Cornell Legal Information Institute), Federal Register: Proclamation 10788, National Korean War Veterans Armistice Day, 2024, 4 U.S. Code § 6 - Time and occasions for display of the flag (Cornell Legal Information Institute), National Archives DocsTeach: Korean Armistice Agreement. How we check dates.

How to mark National Korean War Veterans Armistice Day

• Fly the US flag on July 27, and at half-staff if that year's proclamation calls for it.
• Attend a ceremony at a Korean War memorial in your state, or visit the Korean War Veterans Memorial on the National Mall.
• Thank a Korean War veteran you know, or ask a local veterans' post whether any members would like visitors or help recording their stories.
• Read first-person accounts in the Library of Congress Veterans History Project, which holds interviews with Korean War veterans.
• Look at a facsimile of the Korean Armistice Agreement through the National Archives and talk about why the war never formally ended.

National Korean War Veterans Armistice Day dates