This undated photo provided by the Korean Embassy in Germany on April 13, 2016, shows a German Red Cross hospital in South Korea’s southern port city of Busan. According to Seoul government data, German medical workers treated around 300,000 patients in South Korea between April 1954 and March 1959.
SEOUL, April 15 (Korea Bizwire) — The government has updated a book on foreign medical help received during the 1950-53 Korean War to add Germany to the list of helping countries and a copy will be delivered to Germany’s ambassador on Thursday, an official said.
U.N. “Sending States” had long been defined as 21 countries — 16 nations that provided combat troops and five nations that sent medical teams. In June 2018, however, South Korea officially added Germany to the list for its medical aid in the post-war era.
Between April 1954 and March 1959, German medical workers treated around 300,000 patients in South Korea. But their contribution had not been recognized as they came here after the armistice agreement was signed in July 1953.
The ministry launched a project last year to update its 2014 edition on the nations that extended medical assistance to include Germany’s role, along with India, Norway, Denmark, Sweden and Italy.
At a ceremony to be held at the ministry’s Seoul office, Patriots and Veteran Affairs Minister Hwang Ki-chul was to hand a copy of the book to German Ambassador to South Korea Micheal Reiffenstuel, it said.
The new edition was published in three languages — Korean, English and German — and will also be available online at the ministry’s official website.
With the delivery of the latest edition, South Korea will wrap up the country’s publication project on the war-participating nations that began in 2004.
Around 1.95 million people from 22 countries took part in the war. Of them, 37,902 were killed and 103,460 wounded, according to government data.
(Yonhap)
