Tag: Busan

U.N. Cemetery in Busan Buries First Unidentified Remains from the Korean War

This is interesting, I did not realize that the U.N. Cemetery in Busan has never buried remains of an unknown remains from the Korean War:

Military veterans and troops from more than 20 countries gathered here Monday to pay their respects as an unknown Korean War service member was laid to rest at the U.N. Cemetery in Korea. Roughly 1,000 people attended the service on International Memorial Day for U.N. Korea War Veterans, observed each year on Nov. 11. It was hosted by the U.N. Command and South Korea’s Ministry of Patriots and Veterans Affairs, or MPVA, at the only cemetery overseen by the command.

The burial ground, roughly 200 miles southeast of Seoul, holds the remains of 2,329 veterans from 14 member states who participated in the 1950-53 Korean War. They include 40 service members from the United States; 892 from the United Kingdom; 38 from South Korea; 462 from Turkey; and 281 from Australia. Monday’s service honoring war veterans included the cemetery’s first interment of an unidentified U.N. Command service member. The remains were initially recovered from Yeoncheon county in 2010 by South Korea’s Ministry of National Defense Agency for Killed in Action Recovery Identification. (…….)

DNA testing and dental records determined the 17- to-25-year-old service member was of Caucasian descent and likely to have been from Britain, according to the MPVA. Unable to confirm the identity or nationality with certainty, the South Korean government allowed the service member to be buried in a new plot dedicated to unidentified remains.

Stars & Stripes

You can read more at the link.

Picture of the Day: First Thai Korean War Veteran Laid to Rest at U. N. Cemetery in Busan

Thai Korean War vet laid to rest in S. Korea
Thai Korean War vet laid to rest in S. Korea
A burial ceremony for Thai Korean War veteran Rod Asapanan, according to his will, takes place at the U.N. Memorial Cemetery in the southeastern city of Busan on Nov. 11, 2024, making him the first Thai Korean War veteran to be buried there. Thailand and 15 other nations fought for South Korea under the U.N. flag against invading North Korea during the 1950-53 conflict. (Yonhap)

USFK Warehouse Catches Fire In Busan

Hopefully no one was injured in this fire:

A fire broke out at a US Forces Korea (USFK) storage facility in the southeastern port city of Busan on Thursday, officials said, with no casualties reported so far.

The blaze occurred at 6:31 p.m. at the USFK’s Busan Storage Center in Busan, 320 kilometers southeast of Seoul, according to officials.

More than 160 personnel and 51 pieces of fire equipment have been mobilized to extinguish the fire, which is believed to have started during plumbing work.

Korea Herald

You can read more at the link.

Report Says Busan Is Becoming an “Extinct” City

Considering how densely populated Busan is, is depopulation really a bad thing?:

Busan, South Korea’s second-largest city, appears to have entered a phase of extinction due to low birthrates and superaging population, becoming the nation’s first metropolitan city to do so, said a research paper published on Friday.

The paper from the Korea Employment Information Service estimated Busan’s ratio of the population aged 65 or older at 23 percent as of March this year, making it the only metropolitan city to become a superaging society.

The southeastern port city’s extinction risk index calculated by dividing the number of female population aged 20 to 39 by the number of population aged 65 or older was 0.490, it noted. An extinction risk index of over 1.5 is classified as a low extinction risk and an index of 1.0 to 1.5 is considered normal. But regions registering an index of 0.2 to 0.5 are considered to be in danger of extinction, while a figure of less than 0.2 is classified as high extinction risk.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.

Picture of the Day: Diplomatic Ship in Busan

Joseon Dynasty diplomatic ship
Joseon Dynasty diplomatic ship
A replica ship of Joseon Tongsinsa, a diplomatic delegation sent by the Joseon Dynasty (1392-1910) of Korea to Japan, reenacts sailing in waters off the southeastern port city of Busan on May 3, 2024. The ship was modeled on one used by Joseon Tongsinsa, whose dispatch began in 1607 to promote peace after a seven-year Japanese invasion. A total of 12 such teams of envoys were sent to Japan until 1811, focusing on conveying advanced culture. (Yonhap)