Veterans ministry to invite foreign Korean War veterans, families on UN memorial day
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Foreign Korean War veterans attend an event to commemorate their service at the U.N. Memorial Cemetery in Busan, some 330 kilometers southeast of Seoul, on Nov. 11, 2025. Yonhap
The veterans ministry said Friday it will invite foreign veterans who fought in the 1950-53 Korean War to the country, along with their family members, to commemorate their service on an annual memorial day.
A total of 36 people from six countries and their family members will arrive Sunday for a six-day visit, according to the ministry.
The International U.N. Veterans Memorial Day is held annually Nov. 11.
The visit is part of the Turn Toward Busan program, which aims to commemorate the service of foreign Korean War veterans.
Among the invited veterans is William Walsh, 97, who served as a British Army soldier and trained foreign troops to be deployed to the war at a military battle school, from 1953 to 1955.
This year, Canadian veteran Vincent Courtenay, who first proposed the visit program in 2007, along with Kelly McKeague, director of the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency, will also travel to South Korea next week to pay their respects to the U.N. forces, according to the veterans ministry.
The program includes a visit to the U.N. Memorial Cemetery in Busan, some 330 kilometers southeast of Seoul, and the War Memorial of Korea in Seoul’s Yongsan Ward.
The cemetery is the resting place of 2,254 service members from 14 countries who fought alongside South Korean troops under the U.N. flag.
Some 1.98 million personnel from 22 countries were dispatched to help South Korea under a U.N. mandate during the war. Of them, 40,803 were killed, 103,460 were wounded, 3,950 went missing, and 5,819 became prisoners of war.
