The Korean Military Cemetery is located in a park in Seoul where Korean soldiers who died in the Vietnam War are buried. In the Korean War Cemetery in the memorial park, a mother wept over the grave where she buried the remains of her son who was killed in the Vietnam War in 1965, while her relatives supported her as she wept over her son's grave while burying flowers on New Year's Day, January 1, 1966. The Vietnam War Memorial Park was lined with the graves of countless Koreans who had died in the war, and a vast cemetery had been established for future Korean war dead. In the past, many Korean families had their last meeting with their children at the Vietnam War Deployment Convocation Ceremony. After being reviewed by Korean military officials, they saw their children off from Busan Port to be deployed to South Vietnam.
The South Korean military entered the Vietnam War in earnest in 1965 and withdrew in 1973. A total of more than 400,000 South Korean soldiers were sent to South Vietnam to fight in the war between the South Vietnamese government forces and the U.S. forces. About 40,000 South Vietnamese soldiers were stationed in South Vietnam at any one time, including the elite forces of the Menh Ho, White Horse and Blue Dragon. Korean soldiers fighting in the Vietnam War were sent one after another from bases all over Korea to the port of Pusan, and then set sail for South Vietnam. During the Vietnam War, approximately 5,300 Korean soldiers were killed. This was the first time since prehistoric times that Korean soldiers had gone overseas to fight. Korea, a people in white, broke with its history of not persecuting other nations even when persecuted.
It was a request from the United States to enter the Vietnam War. President Park Chung-hee of the South Korean military junta seized state power in a military coup on May 16, 1961, and became president in 1963. Seeking explosive economic growth that would become the Han River Miracle, an alliance with the United States, and a stronger Korean military, he entered the Vietnam War. He suppressed his political opponents and the pro-democracy movement, cozying up to conglomerates and becoming corrupt. he was shot dead at a banquet on October 26, 1979 by his close aide Kim Jae-gyeong of the Central Intelligence Agency (KCIA).
