North Korea in the Korean War parallel boundary, but they could not agree on whether prisoners of war should be forcibly "repatriated." Finally, after around more than two years of negotiations, the adversaries signed an armistice on July 27, 1953. The agreement drew a new boundary near the 38th parallel that gave South Korea an extra 1,500 square miles of territory; and created a 2-mile-wide "demilitarized zone" that still exists today in the North and South Korean borders, in the bottom and top, respectively. The Korean War was relatively short but exceptionally bloody compared to other wars. Nearly 3 million people died. More than half of
Sweden in the Korean War personnel and 2,400 Korean personnel were treated by Swedish doctors. Because of Sweden's reputation for neutrality during the major 20th century conflicts (First World, Second World and Korean Wars), Sweden was included as one of the four founding members of the Neutral Nations Supervisory Commission and several Swedish military personnel served in Korea enforcing the Panmunjom armistice. Sweden was the first Western European country to establish diplomatic relations and an embassy in North Korea. Sweden in the Korean War Sweden took part in the Korean War by providing the Swedish Red Cross Field Hospital and participating in the Neutral Nations