Thursday is the 70th anniversary of the truce that halted the Korean War. Ceremonies to mark it include events in South Korea and Washington to honor veterans of the U.S.-led U.N. Command, which was created to fight the war.
Georgia’s U.S. Sen. Jon Ossoff is among the scheduled speakers during the Washington event at the Korean War Veterans Memorial.
The Korean Armistice Agreement, signed July 27, 1953, marked the end of fighting, but the U.N. Command has remained in place to help enforce a Demilitarized Zone, or DMZ, between North and South Korea along the 38th parallel. No peace treaty was ever signed. More than 33,000 U.S. troops were killed and 103,000 wounded in the conflict that began in 1950, according to the U.S. Department of Defense.
“Despite innumerable provocations, challenges, misunderstandings and even deaths that resulted since the signing of the armistice agreement, it has in general withstood the test of 70 years,” Andrew Harrison, a British lieutenant general who is the deputy commander at the U.N. Command, said during a news conference Monday. His comments were reported by The Associated Press.
In South Korea, President Yoon Suk Yeol has invited dozens of veterans to events, including a ceremony in Busan, a port city that is home to a cemetery for U.S. and U.N. soldiers killed during the war.
In an April 2023 visit to Washington, Yoon and President Joe Biden met with relatives of Medal of Honor recipient Luther Story, who was killed in Korea in 1950 but was unaccounted for until his remains were identified by the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency. In Washington, South Korean government officials presented relatives with a box of soil from where Story’s remains were initially buried in their homeland, according to previous AJC reporting by Tia Mitchell and Jeremy Redmon.
Story was buried on Memorial Day this year with military honors at the Andersonville National Cemetery in Georgia.
In Washington on Thursday, the Korean War Veterans Memorial Foundation will mark the armistice anniversary in a 5 p.m. ceremony with 110 Korean War veterans and the families of fallen solders among the invited participants. Scheduled speakers include Ossoff, who chairs the new Senate Korea Caucus; retired U.S. Army Gen. Tilelli, who chairs the foundation; Cho Hyundong, South Korea’s U.S. ambassador; Eom Dong-hwan, Minister of the South Korean Defense Acquisition Program Administration; and Jeffrey Reinbold, superintendent of the National Mall and Memorial Parks.
Ossoff organized the Senate Korea Caucus in June with a focus on strengthening the U.S. alliance with Korea. Other members include Sens. Dan Sullivan (R-AK), Brian Schatz (D-HI), and Todd Young (R-IN), according to a Senate news release.
The Washington event will be available by livestream. The Korean War Veterans Memorial is just southeast of the Lincoln Memorial, according to the National Park Service.
The Georgia Veterans Day Association, which presents the annual Veteran Day Parade and Observance Ceremony in Atlanta on Nov. 11, is giving special honors this year to those who served in the Korean War
Credit: arvin.temkar@ajc.com
Credit: arvin.temkar@ajc.com
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