This image, provided by the veterans ministry on Nov. 8, 2024, shows the details of an annual event commemorating soldiers who fought under the United Nations flag during the 1950-53 Korean War. (Image courtesy of Yonhap)
SEOUL, Nov. 8 (Korea Bizwire) — South Korea will hold a commemorative event next week honoring fallen soldiers who fought under the United Nations flag during the 1950-53 Korean War, the veterans ministry said Friday.
The annual “Turn Toward Busan” event will take place at the U.N. Memorial Cemetery in Busan, 320 kilometers southeast of Seoul, on Monday, with about 800 people, including war veterans and their families from 20 nations, in attendance, according to the ministry.
The memorial park is the only U.N. cemetery in the world, home to 2,320 fallen veterans of the Korean War from 11 countries. Some 1.98 million personnel from 22 countries were dispatched to help South Korea under a U.N. mandate during the war, which ended in a cease-fire, not a peace treaty.
During the ceremony, a burial service for an unidentified U.N. soldier, believed to be a European male aged between 17 and 25, will take place in the first post-armistice burial of an unidentified U.N. soldier at the U.N. Memorial Cemetery.
Mary McIntosh, daughter of the late U.S. Marine veteran Melvin Menard who took part in the Incheon Landing Operation and was awarded the Purple Heart twice, will read a letter of gratitude for her father, to be followed by a singing performance by her family, the ministry said.
“Our government and citizens will never forget that the seeds of freedom planted by U.N. veterans over 70 years ago have blossomed into today’s peace and prosperity,” Veterans Minister Kang Jung-ai said.
(Yonhap)
