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| People visit the new Wall of Remembrance during a special event at the Korean War Veterans Memorial in Washington, in this July 26 file photo. Veterans of the Korean War and their families will visit South Korea this week, the Ministry of Patriots and Veterans Affairs said Sunday. Reuters-Yonhap |
By Jung Min-ho
A total of 114 veterans of the 1950-53 Korean War and their families will visit South Korea this week, the Ministry of Patriots and Veterans Affairs said Sunday.
At the invitation of the ministry, the visitors, including 27 veterans from the United States, Britain, Canada, Turkey, Australia, the Netherlands, Colombia and France, will attend events organized to recognize their sacrifices and honor the fallen heroes during the conflict for six days, starting from Monday.
Thomas Tanaka, 95, who fought in the 1942 Second Battle of the Hook as a U.S. private first class, is the oldest visiting veteran, according to the ministry. Others include Claude Petit, 87, from Canada, Ronald Monkhouse, 91, from Australia, Talip Yigit, 91, from Turkey and Theodorus Hubertus Haver from the Netherlands.
One of the visiting family members, Johanna Radstaat, 88, is a sister of late veteran Hendrik Radstaat from the Netherlands. She plans to pay a visit to the United Nations Memorial Cemetery in Busan, where her brother was buried. Speaking to the ministry, she said she has not forgotten him in uniform waving at his family as he was leaving for the war.
All the veterans were heroes who risked their own lives to protect the lives of a people and country they barely knew about and their noble sacrifices should never be forgotten, Minister Park Min-shik said in a statement.
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