News-Info-Alerts

Re: No Longer Forgotten

From: POW-MIA InterNetwork

Date: June 20, 2003

"Remembering A Forgotten War: Korean-Americans Honor Vets

by Keach Hagey, Chronicle Reporter June 19, 2003


The Korean War Veterans Association of Greater New York honored hundreds of veterans at a grand luncheon at Seoul Plaza in Flushing on Tuesday. (photo by Keach Hagey)   Over 300 people gathered in the glittering Crystal Ballroom at Seoul Plaza in Flushing on Tuesday to celebrate a double milestone for the Korean-American community: a century of life in America and a half-century of armistice with North Korea.

   Korean War veterans from as far away as Long Island and New Jersey came with their families to be honored by the Korean War Veterans Association of Greater New York.

   “The Korean War is not the forgotten war, it is the triumphant war,” said Jong Gag Park, president of the veterans organization. He invited the veterans to visit the country they fought for to witness the great progress South Korea has made since the war ended.

   Over 30,000 American soldiers died in the Korean War between June of 1950 and July of 1953. Since the war ended, the United States has been South Korea’s strongest ally and largest trading partner.

   “We cherish this friendship dearly, and are committed to a peaceful resolution of the current crisis with North Korea,” said Korean Consulate General Hyum-myun Kim, one of the many dignitaries honoring the veterans at the luncheon.

   Although most Korean-Americans are grateful for the role the United States played in the war, most Americans know very little about the Korean War.

   “The Korean War was not televised,” said Dr. Richard Onorevole, commander of the Korean War Veterans Association. “From the very beginning, very little was know back home about the war.”

   Korean-Americans and veterans groups are working to change this. Andrew Musumeci, president of the Korean War Veterans Memorial Association, said his organization was working on a permanent memorial to those lost in the “bloodiest war of the 20th century” in Kissena Park.

   They picked the Queens location because Flushing, home to 100,000 Korean-Americans, has the largest population of people of Korean decent outside Korea.

   He had hoped to see the memorial built this year, but 9-11 and recent tough economic times have pushed the finished date into the middle of next year.

   Still, he said, when it is finished it will be a reminder of the 8,000 soldiers missing in action in Korea, “those brave men we will never see again.”

   At the end of the ceremony, event chairman Sok Kang read a resolution thanking the United Nations for its role in the Korean War. The United States was the major player in a 16-country coalition, sending 1.7 million soldiers, 181,000 of which were from New York, “so that South Korean people and a younger generation can live in prosperity and peace.”

   But recent threats from the North Korean regime have tinged this year’s celebration of peace with words of warning.

   “We must condemn Kim Jung Il for possessing a nuclear arsenal and demand that this nuclear program be dismantled and abandoned,” Kang said, receiving thunderous applause from the room.

   Many of the Korean-Americans at the luncheon were particularly concerned about the recent demonstrations of anti-American sentiment on the streets of South Korea, in response to the accidental killing of two schoolgirls by American troops last winter.

   For the Korean-Americans who remember the war, such protest is ungrateful and unacceptable. Kang said, “Without the United States there would be no world peace.”

   Before and after the luncheon, the guests could view an exhibition of 500 historic photographs of the war in the hallway of Seoul Plaza, under the title “Freedom is Not Free.”

©Queens Chronicle - Northern/NorthEastern Edition 2003
© 1995 - 2003 PowerOne Media, Inc."