A group of U.S. and French veterans of the Korean War will visit South Korea this week on a trip hosted by Seoul to thank them for fighting against North Korea's invasion more than six decades ago, officials said Monday.
A total of 105 veterans from the U.S. and France will arrive Tuesday for a six-day trip that includes tours to war memorials, a national cemetery and a folk village, the Ministry of Patriots and Veterans Affairs said in a statement.
Patrick Beaudouin, chairman of the Korea-France Friendship Committee of the French Parliament, will lead the group of French visitors. They will attend the anniversary of one of the key battles of the 1950-53 war, according to the statement.
Since 1975, South Korea has been inviting Korean War veterans, with a total of 28,500 former soldiers and their families visiting the country.
On June 25, 1950, tank-led troops from North Korea made a pre-dawn invasion, starting the three-year war. Sixteen countries dispatched troops, and five others sent medical units under the U.N. flag to help South Korea repel the communist North backed by Chinese troops.
The war ended in a truce, not a peace treaty, leaving the peninsula still technically at war.