Martin Uden

Official changes

This week is pretty busy with G20 business.  Last week the Korean government announced a new set-up for its handling of the Chairmanship of the G20 process, and its hosting of the G20 Summit next November.  Coincidentally, this week sees a couple of important multilateral meetings in Seoul at official level to review where things now stand in the international efforts to achieve balanced economic growth and develop new international mechanisms to deal with financial issues.  There's a good team out from the Treasury in London, and I'm using that opportunity to meet the Korean officials involved in the new Korean set-up.

One other change in Korean officialdom is the announcement last week of the move of Ambassador Chun, the Korean Ambassador in London, back to Seoul to become Vice-Minister in the Korean Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade.  It must be quite an upheaval for him to leave London after less than 18 months, but it's an important promotion and I'm delighted that I'll be able to work with him back here in Seoul.

Posted at 14:04 17 November 2009 by Martin Uden  |  Comments[0]

Korean War Lives On…

25 June is more than a date in South Korea - it's part of the language.  To refer to the Korean War, you simply say 6.25, the day that North Korea invaded the South.  This year is the 59th anniversary of that day, and by happy close coincidence, the British government has decided to hold the first UK Armed Forces Day on 27 June.

This meant that we decided to hold our local celebration of Armed Forces Day on 24 June.  There is real poignancy here in remembrance of fallen service personnel since over 1,100 British servicemen lost their lives in the Korean War.  And the Republic of Korea itself is enormously generous in supporting the veterans (of all the states that sent forces to the UN Command) during re-visits.  They really set a fine example in honouring the contribution of the sending states, but even more importantly of the individual servicemen, who all made enormous sacrifices and many of whom paid the ultimate sacrifice.  I should recommend just such a story in one of the Korean English-language dailies (Joongang Daily) about one of the British servicemen who died and how the Korean government helped his family to visit his grave in the UN cemetery in Busan.

I'll be interested to see how the first ever Armed Forces Day is received in the UK itself. It certainly made enormous sense here.  

Posted at 16:14 26 June 2009 by Martin Uden  |  Comments[2]

British Heroes Return

This time of year is always particularly busy for the Embassy, and especially so for the Defence Section, since we combine with the Korean Veterans’ Association to organize the Annual Revisit of British Korean War Veterans and some of their families.  This year over 70 of them made the long journey, ranging from old soldiers now in their 80s right down to a grandson (Joe, aged 12) who came along with his Grandad to see a place that meant so much to his family. 

As we do every year, we held the main British commemoration at the Imjin river British memorial where, in April 1951, heavily outnumbered British forces fought three divisions of the 63rd Chinese Communist Army.  The veterans gave out 60 scholarships to schoolchildren from the local school in Solma-ri, funded by donations from the British community in Korea and intended to provide a ‘living memorial’ to British involvement in the Korean War.  This year, the Commonwealth service held at Kapyong also had a particular meaning as I was privileged to unveil a memorial to the men of the Middlesex Regiment, the Duke of Cornwall’s Own, who fell during the Korean War, many of whom died in two battles at Kapyong. 

Sadly, the Korean War has earned the soubriquet, “the forgotten war,” but the sacrifice that foreign troops made in defence of their country is far from forgotten here.  It is one of the most gratifying experiences for the returning troops that they find that they are hailed as heroes wherever they go.  So often they have enormously mixed feelings about their return – and this year, as always, a large number are coming back for the first time since the 1950s – but without exception (so far as I know) they deeply value the experience and many make it an almost annual pilgrimage.  And honouring their sacrifice and the sacrifice of the 1,109 British servicemen who lost their lives here is one of the most important things this Embassy can do.

Posted at 18:15 20 April 2009 by Martin Uden  |  Comments[1]

A Korean Wedding

In spite of the years I’ve been in Korea, this was the first traditional Korean wedding I have attended.  One of the Embassy staff got married this weekend and was kind enough to invite all of the Embassy to witness this lovely occasion.  Han Jiyeon, who works in the UK Trade & Investment Section of the Embassy, and Simon Ferry were the happy couple. 

This particular wedding took place in Seoul in a spot that aims to keep Korean traditions alive.  So there was some entertainment before the ceremony – a farmers’ dance and a fan dance (see video below).  At the beginning of the ceremony, Jiyeon and Simon exchanged a pair of wooden mandarin ducks, which symbolise fidelity according to traditional Korean custom. The ceremony itself consists of many bows between the couple and the sampling of various food and drink.  They say not a word, and get no closer than 6 yards to each other.  But at the end, no matter what the form of the ceremony, some things stay the same – the bride’s smile shone through her tears of happiness and Simon looked to be the happiest man on earth.

Posted at 12:02 26 February 2009 by Martin Uden  |  Comments[0]