Martin Uden

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]