The Korean War Veterans Memorial, a striking monument on the National Mall that includes seven-foot-tall statues of soldiers in combat gear, is falling prey to a different kind of ambush: a budget shortfall for a $5 million fundraising target. UPI/Pete Marovich |
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WASHINGTON, Nov. 10 (UPI) -- A public memorial dedicated to American veterans receives more funding from South Korean companies than it does from U.S. corporations, but is still not meeting its fundraising objectives.
The Korean War Veterans Memorial, a striking monument on the National Mall that includes seven-foot-tall statues of soldiers in combat gear, is falling prey to a different kind of ambush: a budget shortfall for a $5 million fundraising target, The New York Times reported on Tuesday.
"Our greatest support comes from corporate Korea," said William E. Weber, a Korean War veteran and chairman of the Korean War Veterans Memorial Foundation. "American corporations -- forget it."
Weber told the Times U.S. companies have provided nothing in financial support, while South Korean tech giant Samsung donated $1 million in mid-October. Other corporations, like car manufacturer Hyundai, paid more than $20,000 in July for a ceremony to celebrate the Memorial's 20th anniversary.
More than 36,000 Americans died during the 1950-53 war that resulted in the ongoing division of North and South, but the conflict, often dubbed as the "forgotten war," remains remote to non-veterans and generations of younger Americans.
The National Park Service also is coping with an $11.5 billion backlog on all maintenance projects combined, and more than $852 million of that amount is needed in other areas of the National Mall. And with conflicts ongoing in other parts of the world, military families needing funds are a priority over the fundraising goals of memorials dedicated to the past.
Weber said his foundation's request to add a new Wall of Remembrance has been introduced in the House of Representatives, and new action is anticipated.
The Korean War was limited to the Korean peninsula, but the memories of the conflict and its aftermath are international in scale.
South Korean news agency Yonhap reported on Monday the Korean-language edition of a book of photographs from Hungarian Korean studies scholar, Soveny Aladar, was recently published in Seoul. Aladar, who died in 1980, taught North Korean orphans at a special school in Budapest from 1951-56.
As a socialist ally, Hungary received about 200 North Korean orphans to provide them with childcare and schooling, but repatriated them to North Korea when they reached the age for university admissions.
