Former defense attache receives Legion of Merit

Maj. Gen. Lee Seo-young, left, former defense attache of the Republic of Korea Embassy in the United States, poses with Sung Kim, U.S. ambassador to Korea, after receiving a Legion of Merit at the U.S. Embassy in Seoul, Wednesday. / Yonhap

Maj. Gen. Lee Seo-young, former defense attache at the Korea Embassy in Washington, was conferred with the Legion of Merit by the U.S. government, the Ministry of Defense said Wednesday.

U.S. Ambassador to Korea Sung Kim presented Lee with the medal.

The Legion of Merit is a military award of the U.S. Armed Forces that is given to military and political figures of foreign governments in recognition of meritorious conduct in the performance of their services.

Lee was recognized for having strengthened Korea-U.S. ties and security cooperation while he was defense attache.

“Lee has solidified the U.S.-Korean alliance by contributing to resolving security issues,” Ambassador Kim said.

Lee was dispatched to Baghdad while he was a colonel and was chief of the coordination team while serving in the multi-national forces-Iraq (MNF-I). For this, he was conferred the Hwarang order of military merit by the Korean government and a distinguished service order by the U.S. government.