Korean War or Korean Conflict

Does anyone have any insight into why people call the Korean War the "Korean Conflict." I first ran into this about 6 years when I had a job at the local newspaper typing up obituaries. When I first saw the term "Korean Conflict" in one of these I asked my co-worker what the hell this meant. She was very adamant that it was a conflict and not a war. I dropped it there since she was getting riled up. Since then, I've seen that phrase dozens of times, including in a history book I am currently reading. It never ceases to irritate me because it was a damn war. Call Grenada a conflict (or an unjustified invasion if you will). Call Panama a conflict. Hell, even call the first Gulf War a conflict if you want. But not a brutal 3 year war where tens of thousands of Americans died.

Is there a psychological need among the generation who fought in Korea to call it a conflict? Is it because they didn't win? Does it relate to the failure of US troops relative to World War II? Is it because Korean War veterans never got the respect that WWII veterans did or that the Korean War never had the cultural cache that WWII did (how many Korean War movies have you seen?)?