S3: Given the protracted conclusion of the war, who would you consider its winners in 1953? How about 2017?

While there was no peace officially declared, the armistice has served as a de facto state of peace for the past 50 years. The status quo is established and has been maintained by two diametrically opposed forces that have more to gain from staying separate than they could from suffering through the pains of reunification. The longer the two stay separate the more they grow apart. One could argue that the elites in north Korea won, because this is the only scenario in which they maintain any kind of power, and the US has won by maintaining a significant foothold in the pacific.