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(LEAD) Park meets Korean War veterans in Colombia

All News 02:32 April 19, 2015

(ATTN: UPDATES with details, Park's interview published in Peruvian newspaper)
By Kim Kwang-tae

BOGOTA, April 18 (Yonhap) -- South Korean President Park Geun-hye met with Colombian veterans of the Korean War on Saturday as she prepares to wrap up her three-day visit to the South American country.

The meeting illustrated that Seoul appreciates the sacrifice Colombia made to help defend South Korea, then a little-known, faraway nation across the Pacific.

Colombia was the only nation from Central and South America to fight alongside South Korea against Chinese-backed North Korean forces. About 5,100 troops were dispatched halfway around the world to help fight the North's invasion, of which 213 were killed and 448 wounded.

About 1,000 veterans are believed to still be alive.

The 1950-53 Korean War ended in a truce, not a peace treaty, leaving the two Koreas technically in a state of war.

About 180 surviving veterans and family members of the war dead attended the meeting at a hotel, according to South Korean officials.

High-profile participants included Colombian Navy Commander Admiral Hernando Wills Velez whose father served in the Korean War, and Francisco M. Caicedo, an 85-year-old veteran, who met Park in 1975 when he was invited to Seoul along with other veterans.

At that time, Park served as a stand-in first lady because her mother had been killed in a failed assassination attempt on her father, then President Park Chung-hee.

Also Saturday, Park met with more than a dozen people from the Korean community in an effort to motivate them to work hard.

Later in the day, Park will fly to Lima for a four-day state visit aimed at further strengthening economic and other relations between the two countries.

Park said South Korea and Peru should expand the sphere of cooperation to a much broader range of areas, including healthcare and renewable energy, according to an interview published Friday in Peruvian newspaper Gestion.

South Korea and Peru implemented their free trade pact in 2011.

Peru is the second stop on Park's four-nation swing to South America. The trip will also take her to Chile and Brazil for separate talks with her counterparts on deepening bilateral relations.

On Friday, Park met with her Colombian counterpart, Juan Manuel Santos, and called for a quick ratification of a free trade agreement (FTA) to further boost bilateral trade.

The sides clinched an FTA in February 2013, but opposition mainly from the automobile sector in Colombia has delayed the domestic ratification process.

Colombia's Constitutional Court has yet to approve the deal, while South Korea's parliament has completed its ratification.

entropy@yna.co.kr
(END)

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