South Korea’s Veterans Affairs Minister Park Min-shik (L) and the bereaved family of late Cpl. Luther H. Story, killed during the Korean War, pose for a photo at the Wall of Remembrance at the Korean War Veterans Memorial in Washington on April 26, 2023, in this photo released by Park’s office. Park delivered soil from the site where the late soldier’s remains were discovered in 2018.
SEOUL, April 27 (Korea Bizwire) — South Korea’s Veterans Minister Park Min-shik has delivered to the family of a decorated U.S. solider, killed in the 1950-53 Korean War, soil from the site where his remains were excavated, the minister’s office said Thursday.
The event honoring late Cpl. Luther H. Story took place at the Wall of Remembrance at the Korean War Veterans Memorial in Washington on Wednesday (local time), after President Yoon Suk Yeol and his U.S. counterpart, Joe Biden, adopted a joint statement on the identification of the late soldier.
Story’s remains were discovered at a site in Changnyeong, 264 kilometers southeast of Seoul, in 2018.
But they were recently identified as his by the Pentagon’s Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency. POW and MIA stand for prisoner of war and missing in action, respectively.
The soil, along with a framed photo of him, was handed over to his niece, Judy Wade, and her husband who represented the bereaved family.
Story, a recipient of the Medal of Honor, the United States’ highest award, for his heroic actions, died during fierce fighting against North Korean invaders in the southern region in September 1950.
In the joint statement, Yoon and Biden said that the “supreme sacrifice and heroism of Corporal Luther Story is illustrative of the freedom, security and prosperity the South Korean people have today.”
“Both countries will continue making every effort to identify service members missing in action like Army Corporal Story,” it reads.
Story’s remains are to be laid to rest at the Anderson Cemetery in Georgia on May 29, according to the veterans ministry.
(Yonhap)
