On June 11th, the remains of a Canadian veteran of the 1950-53 Korean War arrived at Incheon
International Airport, west of Seoul, with his beloved wife and grandson. The remains
of the late Albert Hugh McBride, who died in 2017, spent one night here at the Seoul
National Cemetery and were buried at the UN Memorial Cemetery in the southern port city
of Busan the next day. This week Korea Now looks into the story of McBride and Busan’s
UN cemetery which is the only UN cemetery in the world.
McBride fought in the Korean War from November 1951 until January 1953 as a gunner and tank
driver of Lord Strathcona’s Horse, a regular armored regiment of the Royal Canadian army.
The Second Battle of the Hook in 1952 was one of the fiercest battles he joined. United
Nations Command (UN) forces consisting of British, Canadian and South Korean troops
fought against Chinese forces. They fought on a vital sector known as the “Hook”
position near Panmunjom today which was the scene of much bitter fighting before and in
the ensuing months. Chinese forces attempted to take the strategic position but were repelled
by a combination of heavy firepower and effective counterattacks by the UN forces. We had the
chance to meet with the family members of McBride and to hear what McBride said about
the battlefield during his lifetime.
After leaving the army in 1953, McBride then joined the Canadian air force and served for
22 years. He passed away on March 8th in 2017 at age 85. His burial on South Korean soil
comes in accordance with his wishes. According to Mrs. McBride, he used to say that he wanted
to be buried alongside comrades-in-arms at the UN Memorial Cemetery in Busan.
He became the ninth Korean War veteran from overseas who has returned here posthumously
for burial. About 11,000 fallen UN command troops were initially buried at the cemetery
between 1951 and 1954, but many of their remains were later repatriated to their home countries.
However, the opposite cases have taken place after the veterans affairs ministry started
to run a program to invite foreign Korean War veterans to visit the nation again as
a token of the country's gratitude for their sacrifices. There have already been eight
foreign veterans buried at the UN Memorial Cemetery after dying in their home countries
starting with the French veteran Raymond Bernard in May 2015.
Now about 2,300 war veterans from 11 countries are buried at the Busan UN Memorial Cemetery,
including those from France, Britain, Netherlands, the U.S. and Canada. During the three-year
war, 21 countries sent around 1.96 million soldiers and medics here to help South Korea
under the name of the UN forces. Of them, more than 40,000 were killed in action and
nearly 10,000 are still missing. The veterans affairs ministry explains that those veterans
who have returned here in ashes after dying could serve as a kind of buffer with their
comrades at the cemetery against another war on the Korean Peninsula. What are your thoughts
on this? Please let me know with your comments below and thank you for watching Korea Now.