By Jung Sung-ki
Staff Reporter
The Ministry of Patriots and Veterans Affairs has launched a scholarship program for children of Korean War veterans from underdeveloped countries.
The program is aimed at repaying the sacrifices foreign veterans made during the 1950-53 Korean War, the ministry said in a news release. Some 150,000 U.N. forces lost their lives during the war.
Twenty-one nations dispatched their troops to the Korean Peninsula during the war to help fight alongside South Koreans against the communist North. The conflict ended in a truce, not a peace treaty, technically leaving the two Koreas still at war.
The ministry said that it will sign an accord with the non-governmental organization World Together today and start offering scholarships from March.
The scholarships, the first of which will go to children of Ethiopian veterans, will be raised with a collection of "pin money" voluntarily offered by government officials, ministry representatives said.
Some 1.2 million won ($1,050) was collected last month with officials at the veterans and defense ministries, and the Korea Meteorological Administration paying 1,000 won or less each out of their monthly salaries.
More ministries are expected to join the movement so that the country can expand the scholarship program to other underdeveloped countries, the officials said.
"This program is very meaningful in the sense we are able to financially repay the nations that fought for us during the war six decades ago and thereby strengthen ties with our previous and future allies," an official said.
There is no official account of how many lives were lost during the war, but historians suggest about 970,000 South Koreans; 1.7 million North Koreans; 150,000 U.N. forces, mostly Americans; and 900,000 Chinese died. China backed North Korea during the war.
Ethiopia, one of the most impoverished nations in the world, sent 3,518 troops to the Korean War. Of them, 121 were reported to have been killed in action.