[Hyun Chul Kang, Korean Deputy Consul General in San Francisco, is giving a commemorative speech. Photo Credit: Yujun Lee]

On June 24th, 2023, the 70th-anniversary celebration of the US-ROK alliance and Korean War veteran commemoration was held in the California Korean War Memorial in San Joaquin Valley National Cemetery.

San Joaquin Valley National Cemetery, established in 1990, is a cemetery where about 30,000 US war veterans, including 2,500 US Korean War veterans from California who died during the war, are engraved in.

Korean War commemorations in Northern California occur annually in this cemetery on the third Saturday of June. 

This year’s event commemorated the 73rd year since the War began on June 25th, 1950.

The event was hosted by the Peaceful Unification Advisory Council San Francisco Chapter (PUACSF) and was sponsored by the Consulate General of the Republic of Korea in San Francisco.

Hyun Chul Kang, the Deputy Consul General at the Consulate General of the Republic of Korea in San Francisco, the PUACSF committee members, Korean War veterans, and members of different Korean American associations across the Bay Area and Northern California participated in the event.

Junior National Unification Advisory Council (Jr. PUACSF), a student organization under PUACSF, also participated in the event for the first time this year.

The event began with the wreath-laying ceremony of the representatives of participating organizations, followed by the opening ceremony led by Eun-Hee Koo, the central committee member of PUACSF.

Then, the participants followed the national rites, which consisted of saluting the flags, singing the national anthems of both Korea and the US, the moment of silence for fallen heroes, and finally, the flag folding ceremony.

After the opening of the event, Sang On Kim, the president of PUACSF, gave a greeting message.

Kim said 2023 is a special and memorable year, marking the 70th anniversary of the alliance between South Korea and the US.

The US-ROK alliance started with the Mutual Defense Treaty signed on October 1st, 1953, directly after the Korean Armistice Agreement of July 27th, 1953, that stopped the violence between the two forces.

He said it is one of the most successful alliances of all time, and he is pleased to see people of different generations participating and commemorating the war veterans.

The commemorative remarks of Deputy Consul General Hyun Chul Kang followed the greeting message.

Consul General Sang Soo Yoon could not attend this event due to an unexpected flight cancellation on his way back to San Francisco.

Kang said people must not forget the fact that the Korean War was a violation caused by the communist force of North Korea.

Everyone who sacrificed their lives to protect the freedom, democracy, and human rights of Korea and the Korean people will never be forgotten, he continued.

He emphasized that without the dedication and hard work of the war veterans, Korea wouldn't have succeeded and developed into an influential nation.

After that, Jaejung Yoo, the president of the Korean War Veteran Association of North California, gave a memorial address. 

Through attending this event every year, he feels unfortunate to see the number of veterans participating in the event decreasing.

According to the document by the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs in 2020, only 1.4 million out of 6.8 million total American Korean War Veterans are alive, with a median age of 88. 

The number is projected to decrease to 200 thousand by 2030. 

Dong Ok Woo, president of the Silicon Valley Korean American Federation, and Jin Hee Lee, president of the Oakland & East Bay Korean American Association, also gave a message commemorating the Korean War veterans.

As the speeches of representatives ended, the performers from Jr. PUACSF presented commemorative music, playing “Our Beloved Geumgang Mountain” and “Arirang.” 

Following the closing ceremony and group photo, the participants visited veterans’ graves and inserted Korean and American flags.