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Canadian and South Korean officials are preparing to rekindle 60-year-old memories of morale-boosting hockey games played by Canadian troops on a frozen river amid the battlefields of the Korean War.

It would have been a startling sight for enemy soldiers from the hills above the Imjin River in the winters of 1952 and 1953 — Canadians fighting for the puck on shimmering ice between deadly battles for precious terrain on the Korean Peninsula at the height of the Cold War conflict.

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The matches took place “in the sound of the heavy guns of nearby U.S. Army artillery,” just a short distance from the front lines of the struggle against Communist forces, said Korean War veteran Vince Courtenay.

And next month, in both Ottawa and Seoul, that wartime outbreak of hockey that briefly reminded Canadian soldiers what they were missing back home will be commemorated in outdoor events inspired by the Imjin River games.