South Korea: Incheon – Freedom Park

Incheon’s Freedom Park is Soith Korea’s first western-style park, commemorating the end of the conflict. It takes high ground of the Incheon island and offers panoramic views of Incheon Port and is famous for its cherry blossoms in April. The park is the site of the US landing in 1950 – by late 1950, North Korean forces had pushed South Korean and UN troops all the way to the Pusan Perimeter in the southeast. General Douglas MacArthur proposed a risky landing at Incheon, a port with extreme tidal ranges and narrow channels that many naval experts thought was impossible to navigate. The success of the landing allowed UN forces to recapture Seoul in just two weeks, cut off North Korean supply lines, and effectively reversed the course of the war. Naturally, the centerpiece of the park is the stature of General MacArthur, plus several other monuments and sculptures and gardens.