For the veterans, who... or for the veterans who...

1) The two Koreas still remain divided, but for the veterans, who have lived through the war and experienced the sense of unity that only sports can bring, seeing North Korea joining the PyeongChang Winter Olympics is only the beginning to a peaceful reunification.

2) The two Koreas still remain divided, but for the veterans who have lived through the war and experienced the sense of unity that only sports can bring, seeing North Korea joining the PyeongChang Winter Olympics is only the beginning to a peaceful reunification.

I am still confused with usage of commas and I hope this question about this issue will be the last one, so my question is why is there a comma between 'the veterans' and 'who'. I think that the #2 passage is also possible and there is no meaning difference between the one without a comma in the #2 and the one with the comma in the #1.

Although I have learned that there should be a meaning difference between defining relative clauses and non-defining relative clauses, sometimes I feel like there is no meaning difference.

Or is there a meaning difference between them but are they not much different in meaning?

What do you native English speakers think?

Thank yo so much as usual in advance!

- Original Article -

Skating on ice, passing a hockey puck, and showing off team work.
This is the scene of Canadian soldiers playing ice hockey on the frozen Imjin-gang River located north of Seoul in January of 1952, in the middle of the Korean War.

"All possible was done to care for the welfare of the men in estranged land which afforded none of the amenities to which they were accustomed at home. An outstanding success was the hockey rink, which with the advent of the winter was built on the frozen Imjin River."

Fast forward to 2018, 3 of the soldiers who were immortalized on that footage returned to South Korea to watch that same scene, at the same place, but with different players this time around.
When they were dispatched to fight along UN forces in the Korean War, none of them thought they would be able to play their national sport on the Korean peninsula.

But they did. And by struggling to put the puck into the opponent's net, they felt connected to their home.
Now, ice hockey brings them closer to South Korea.

"The game of hockey, at that time, while we were in Korea, so far away from home, got us closer to home. But today, this great game is bringing us closer to Korea.

The war veterans say they lost over 500 fellow soldiers during the war, with many more sustaining injuries. But when they look at what the country they fought for 6 decades ago turned into, they say the sacrifices were all "worthwhile."

"Korea will become one country. Never mind anyone else, who's going to make that happen is Korean people from both sides of the line. And I really believe that's not a wish, this is going to happen."

The two Koreas still remain divided, but for the veterans, who have lived through the war and experienced the sense of unity that only sports can bring, seeing North Korea joining the PyeongChang Winter Olympics is only the beginning to a peaceful reunification.