By Kim Ji-soo
President Lee Friday urged North Korea to to join the world “through reform and openness and to come forward onto the path of prosperity.
Speaking on the eve of the 61st anniversary of the outbreak of the Korean War (1950-1953), the President also thanked those who gave their lives for the country more than six decades ago.
“I bow to pay my deepest respect to those who have given their lives and minds for the country,” Lee said during a reception the government hosted at the War Memorial of Korea.
The President also thanked foreign veterans. “ I express my deepest respect for the invaluable sacrifice of having given your youth for an unfamiliar country,” he said.
Lee also said that the country will not forget the prisoners of war who have yet to return to the South after being captured.
South Korea estimates that about 500 South Korean prisoners of war are still alive in the North while the Stalinist state claims that there are no POWs and that all former South Korean soldiers voluntarily defected.
Yoo Yeong-bok, a former prisoner of war who fled North Korea in July 2000 at the age of 70, said that “Returned soldiers like me know how priceless freedom is as we have endured decades of harassment and contempt in such places as North Korean mines.”
About 900 war veterans from allied nations including the United States and Turkey, the diplomats of countries who fought in the Korean War and former prisoners of war attended the event.
