Two Korean vets awarded France's Legion of Honor

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Two Korean vets awarded France's Legion of Honor

Park Dong-ha, third from left, and Park Mun-joon, fourth from left, are presented with the Legion of Honor, the highest French order of merit. They pose with Philippe Lefort, ambassador of France, far left, Park Min-shik, minister of patriots and veterans affairs of Korea, second from left, and Patrick Beaudouin, president of the National Association of Veterans and Friends of the French Forces of the United Nations, second from right, at the French diplomatic residence in central Seoul on Monday. [PARK SANG-MOON]

Park Dong-ha, third from left, and Park Mun-joon, fourth from left, are presented with the Legion of Honor, the highest French order of merit. They pose with Philippe Lefort, ambassador of France, far left, Park Min-shik, minister of patriots and veterans affairs of Korea, second from left, and Patrick Beaudouin, president of the National Association of Veterans and Friends of the French Forces of the United Nations, second from right, at the French diplomatic residence in central Seoul on Monday. [PARK SANG-MOON]

Park Dong-ha and Park Mun-joon, Korean War veterans who fought alongside French comrades-in-arms over 70 years ago were awarded the highest French order of merit, the Legion of Honor, in Seoul on Monday.
 
“That the two veterans should receive the Légion d'Honneur in the name of the president of the French Republic is only apt given their sacrifice and achievements on the frontlines of the battles, in which they saved brothers-in-arms and made advances even in the midst of the most difficult circumstances,” said Philippe Lefort, ambassador of France to Korea, speaking at his diplomatic residence in Seoul on Monday.  
 
“Both veterans, reaching nearly 100 years in age, are a living history and testament to a shared history between France and Korea,” said Lefort.
 
Sergeant Park Dong-ha, 94, and Corporal Park Mun-joon, 91, served in the 1950-53 Korean War.
 
What set them apart in the war that broke out on June 25, 1950, was that they were dispatched to a French Battalion.  
 
“The Korean soldiers assisted with planning and executing battle plans, because they had more native knowledge of the land and areas where the battles were raging,” said Park Mun-joon, speaking with the Korea JoongAng Daily after the award ceremony.  
 
The Parks were two out of some 150 Koreans assigned to the French Battalion in the war. By the time the Korean War broke out, it had been at least a century-old practice amongst the French to incorporate foreign soldiers.
 
Park Dong-ha, who said he regularly keeps in touch with the French soldiers with whom he shared several near-death moments during the war, said he was not expecting the highest order of merit from the French government.
 
“I couldn’t have dreamt it,” he said. “I am grateful to France.”
 
Park Dong-ha and Park Mun-joon also received the La Médaille Militaire, a military decoration from France for acts of bravery in battle, in March 2021.  
 
Just a month after the outbreak of the war, France, a permanent member of the United Nations Security Council, sent a warship, the Aviso “La Grandière,” which took part in the Incheon landing in September 1950. They were followed by the arrival of the French battalion in Busan in November. The battalion consisted of 3,421 soldiers, according to the French Embassy in Seoul.  
 
The French Battalion was heavily engaged in battles including at Hill 1037, located close to Seoul in March 1951, and at Mount Udu in Gangwon in April of that year. They were sent to the Putchaetul battle in Hongcheon County, Gangwon, in May, before fighting their most pitched battles yet, including the Battle of Heartbreak Ridge in September, in which some 1,900 UN soldiers died, according to the military records of France.  
 
“The French veterans of the Korean War remember well the valor and sacrifice of Park Dong-ha and Park Mun-joon,” said Patrick Beaudouin, president of the National Association of Veterans and Friends of the French Forces of the United Nations, who presented the order of merit to the Korean veterans on behalf of President Emmanuel Macron on Monday. 
 
“By staking your lives to protect the freedom of Republic of Korea, you and your Korean and French comrades-in-arms were able to spell victory together."
 
By the time the armistice was signed at the inter-Korean border in July 1953, France suffered 269 deaths and 1,008 soldiers were wounded, according to the French Embassy.
 
Forty-six French soldiers have been interred at the United Nations Memorial Cemetery in Korea in Busan. Seven soldiers’ remains were never recovered.

BY ESTHER CHUNG [chung.juhee@joongang.co.kr]
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