Can someone read my description and tell me if this is the correct movie

Hi, I am looking for a movie that my mother and I used to watch together. We watched it in the early 1980's I'm not sure if it was old or new. But we watched it quite a bit on cable so it must have been fairly popular.

I don't want to call it a war movie exactly but it took place outside of the USA possibly Korea (maybe Japan, China, etc), during a war. The parts of the movie that I remember didn't focus on the war. But there was definitly a war going on.

The story was about a boy around 10-14 years old. He was Korean? There also was a man who was American. The man befriended the boy and they became very close.

I think there was a communication barrier or maybe he was trying to teach the boy to talk. One scene that stands out was a scene where the man was teaching the boy to say the P sound. He taught him by holding a Kleenex up to his mouth and when the Kleenex would move the boy had said "puh" correctly.

The only other scene I remember is a little foggy. The boy and the man rode in a jeep and went to a building. Maybe a bank or office of some sort. The man had the boy stay in the jeep. Here is where it gets foggy.... The boy leaves the jeep and the man in unhappy with this..... then the boy goes back to the jeep but something is wrong..... The man sees it coming but it's too late....The jeep explodes killing the boy.
I kind of have the feeling that the man was going to adopt the boy.

If anyone has any information on this movie I would be most grateful. Thanks in advance.
April