South Korea: Lee says paying full respects to those killed in service an important ‘social duty’

Seoul, June 6 (IANS) South Korean President Lee Jae Myung said Saturday honoring and paying due respects to those killed while serving the country is a social duty the nation should uphold.

Lee made the remarks in a speech at a Memorial Day ceremony, a national holiday commemorating those who sacrificed themselves while serving the country, including those who fought for independence from Japan’s 1910-45 colonial rule of Korea.

Saturday’s ceremony at Seoul National Cemetery was attended by 3,000 uniformed service members, government officials, national merit recipients and their families.

Among the attendees were the family members of a 34-year-old Coast Guard officer who was killed last year while trying to rescue a person from a tidal flat, as well as the families of two service members killed in an Army helicopter crash in February.

“Commemorating the spirit of the patriots and paying them full respect is a social duty that we should faithfully uphold,” the president said.

The president highlighted the enactment next year of a law expanding benefits for the families of independence fighters, saying the government is also faithfully fulfilling its promise to provide financial support to the spouses of war veterans.

The president also reaffirmed his commitment to expanding the network of veterans hospitals into remote areas, including Gangwon Province and Jeju Island.

“Respect for devotion is the driving force that sustains and advances the national community,” Lee said, adding the government “will not fail to reward such noble devotion.”

The president emphasised that punishing those who betrayed the community is also an important duty, saying that honoring devotion and punishing betrayal are essential for a nation to advance sustainably and achieve genuine unity, Yonhap news agency reported.

Through a newly promulgated law, the government will investigate and forfeit illegally accumulated assets of pro-Japan collaborators from the colonial era in order to set a precedent and prevent a recurrence, the president noted.

Lee also pledged sufficient government support for uniformed service members, including soldiers, firefighters, police officers and Coast Guard personnel, while promising to improve the assistance system for those wounded during military service.

“Today, we are once again facing a wave of crises,” the president said, citing the economic repercussions of the conflict in the Middle East.

“But I am confident that we will be able to sufficiently overcome any crisis, as we have always had the potential to unite as one whenever we have faced a national crisis.”

–IANS

jk/