Korean American entrepreneur seeks memorial site for UN troops killed in Korean War

For Sunny K. Park, memories of the 1950-53 Korean War remain vivid more than seven decades later.

Park, an 84-year-old Korean American entrepreneur who serves as president of the American Korean Friendship Society and the Korean War United Nations Veterans Memorial Foundation, was 8 when the war broke out in 1950.

While fleeing from Seoul to Busan during the war, he witnessed scenes that would stay with him for the rest of his life — including the bodies of young foreign soldiers who had come to fight in Korea.

“The bombs shattered all these people. Body parts were all over … I saw dead bodies at the rice paddy. They were about 17-18 years old,” Park said during an interview with The Korea Times, Monday. “(At the time) I didn’t quite understand why they were doing it.”

The war devastated the peninsula, killing millions of Koreans. Tens of thousands of international troops serving under the United Nations Command also lost their lives.

Park moved to the United States in 1974 and went on to build a successful business career. As he grew older, he said he came to better understand what those foreign soldiers had sacrificed and how their service helped shape the South Korea he knows today.

“Later on, (I realized) they were the ones who saved my life and my freedom,” he said, pointing to South Korea’s subsequent economic development and democratization.

“We won’t be here (without them) … We might (have ended up) much like North Korea and we have to bow to the Kim Jong-un every day.”

That realization eventually led Park to pursue a project he describes as a way for Koreans to repay that sacrifice — a memorial in Seoul dedicated to the U.N. troops who fought and died in the Korean War.

“Korean people never forget … We receive a favor, we want to pay back,” he said.

Park said he was struck by what he described as the limited recognition given to fallen U.N. troops at the War Memorial of Korea in Seoul, contrasting it with the prominence of the Korean War Veterans Memorial in Washington, D.C., which he believes reflects a much higher level of national tribute.

Park hopes to complete the Korean War United Nations Veterans Memorial by July 27, 2029, the anniversary of the armistice that ended active hostilities in the war.

The foundation envisions a $48 million (64 billion won) memorial park covering about 13,000 square meters, ideally within Yongsan Park in central Seoul, which once housed the U.N. Command and U.S. Forces Korea.

Park said the memorial would honor some 47,000 U.N. service members who died during the war and draw inspiration from the Korean War Veterans Memorial in Washington, D.C.

He also hopes to raise funds from 1 million Koreans, saying broad public participation would give the project greater meaning for a country whose people continue to enjoy the freedom secured through the sacrifices of those troops.

Securing the land remains the biggest hurdle. Park said he has approached successive administrations but has yet to receive the government backing needed to obtain land for the project.

“We don’t want to put this somewhere in a mountainous, isolated area. The Korean War Veterans Memorial in Washington, D.C. is in the best spot, right in front of the Lincoln Memorial … because that’s how American people honor them,” he said.

“We asked (previous governments), but no president has actually pushed this forward … We are asking President Lee Jae Myung to give us the site.”

Under Park’s vision, the foundation would build the memorial on government-provided land and then donate it to the state, ensuring that it becomes a national memorial rather than a privately owned facility.

“We’re going to dedicate it (to the country),” he said. “Then those souls will finally be able to rest.”