S. Korea to hold memorial event in Busan for UN war veterans

South Korea plans to host an annual ceremony this week to commemorate the sacrifices of fallen troops who fought under the UN flag during the 1950-53 Korean War, the veterans affairs ministry said Wednesday.

The Turn Toward Busan ceremony will take place at the UN Memorial Cemetery in the southeastern port city of Busan on Friday, with the attendance of 114 bereaved families and war veterans from 15 countries invited by the ministry.

Prime Minister Han Duck-soo, Veterans Affairs Minister Park Min-shik, United Nations Command Deputy Commander Lt. Gen. Andrew Harrison and diplomatic delegates also plan to attend the memorial event first held in 2007.

The event is scheduled to start at 11 a.m. on the day with a minute of silence in remembrance and a 21-gun salute. It will also include an air show by the Black Eagles, the South Korean Air Force's acrobatic flight team.

A Mugunghwa Medal, the highest Order of Civil Merit in South Korea, will be presented to the family of the late Richard Whitcomb, a former US Army general who served in Busan during the war. The government posthumously awarded the state medal to Whitcomb in recognition of his philanthropic efforts in supporting war victims.

The remains of two late veterans from the Netherlands, Mathias Hubertus Hoogenboom and Eduard Julius Engberink, and one late British veteran, James Grundy, will be laid to rest at the cemetery.

The Busan ceremony was born out of a suggestion from Vincent Courtenay, a Canadian veteran of the Korean War. Some 1.95 million UN troops from 22 countries took part in the war, which ended in a truce, not a peace treaty. (Yonhap)

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