President Lee Myung-bak awarded South Korea's highest order of national security merit to the outgoing chief of U.S. forces in Korea and the chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff at a ceremony Wednesday, participants said.
Gen. Walter Sharp and Adm. Michael Mullen were given the Tong-Il Medal of the Order of National Security Merit for their contributions to the defense of South Korea, participants said.
Lee also hosted a dinner at the presidential office Cheong Wa Dae for the two and other participants in the ceremony, including Sharp's successor Gen. James Thurman, U.S. Ambassador Kathleen Stephens, South Korean Defense Minister Kim Kwan-jin and Gen. Han Min-koo, the chairman of South Korea's Joint Chiefs of Staff.
Thurman is scheduled to take office after an inauguration ceremony Thursday.
About 28,500 American troops are stationed in South Korea to deter threats from North Korea, a legacy of the 1950-53 Korean War that ended in a truce, not a peace treaty, leaving the two sides still technically at war. (Yonhap News)
