This undated picture released by North Korea's official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) on Monday shows North Korean leader Kim Jong-un (center) visiting the Fatherland Liberation War Martyrs Cemetery in Pyongyang on the 67th anniversary of the Korean War ceasefire. Photo: AFP

Echoing North Korea's tribute to Chinese soldiers, discussion over the "Shangganling Spirit" has reemerged and gained attention over the past week on Chinese social media around the 63rd anniversary of the armistice of the Korean War (1950-53). 

Against the backdrop of recent strained China-US ties and raised concerns over possible military clashes between the two sides, some netizens said that reviewing the history shows the Chinese peoples' passion to serve their country, safeguard peace and fight for the motherland has never changed. 

Shangganling was a battlefield where many heroic Chinese soldiers fought for 43 days starting from October 14, 1952 to crush enemies from the south. Some call the place the "Verdun of Korea," and the battle was recorded in movies and history.

The military channel of China's Central Television broadcast the movie The Battle on Shangganling Mountain on July 26.

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un paid tribute to the martyrs and war veterans of the Chinese People's Volunteer Army on the occasion of the 67th anniversary of the Day of Victory in the Great Fatherland Liberation War, the official Korean Central News Agency reported. 

As a national holiday in North Korea, the Victory Day is celebrated on July 27 to mark the signing of the Korean Armistice Agreement, which brought a ceasefire to the Korean War that took place between 1950 and1953. North Korea held its 1st National Conference of War Veterans in 1993, marking the 40th anniversary of the end of the war. 

At the 6th National Conference of War Veterans held on Monday, Kim expressed his gratitude to the "reliable and effective deterrent self-defense war, there will no longer be war on this land and our national security and future will be firmly guaranteed permanently," the KCNA reported.

The martyrs and war veterans of the Chinese People's Volunteer Army were described as "helping  the Korean people's war with blood and set a real example as comrades in battle" in the KCNA report. 

In October 1950, hundreds of thousands of young Chinese men and women in uniform crossed the northeastern border to North Korea, fighting in the Korean War alongside their Korean comrades.

As the year 2020 marks the 70th anniversary of Chinese soldiers' participating in the War to Resist US Aggression and Aid Korea, more TV series and movies on the war are expected to be released, guancha.cn reported.