Daewoo International Corp., a South Korean trading firm, said Sunday it has given $50,000 in scholarships to a Colombian association of Korean War veterans’ family members.
A ceremony was held in the South Korean embassy in Bogota on Wednesday and attended by about 30 people, including the top South Korean envoy to Colombia, according to the company.
A committee, made up of members of the South Korean embassy and Daewoo International Corp., plans to award scholarships to 50 recipients over the next two years, the company said.
Meanwhile, about 33 surviving veterans and their family members from Colombia and Turkey plan to visit a U.N. cemetery in the South Korean port city of Busan Tuesday to pay tribute to their soldiers who fell during the 1950-53 Korean War, according to the South Korean government.
The Korean War started on June 25, 1950, when tank-led North Korean troops invaded South Korea.
Turkey and Colombia sent about 15,000 and 5,300 troops to South Korea, respectively, to help repel the Chinese-backed North Korean forces during the war, which ended in a cease-fire, not a peace treaty.
Colombia repatriated the remains of all its 213 soldiers killed during the war while the remains of 462 Turkish soldiers were buried in the U.N. Memorial Cemetery in Busan. (Yonhap News)
