[Anchor Lead] The year 2020 marks the 70th anniversary of the outbreak of the Korean War. Ahead of that, KBS has gained exclusive coverage of some 600 photographs taken by soldiers from Colombia, the sole Latin American country to have fought in the Korean War for South Korea.
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Holding a pistol, a Colombian solider captures two Chinese forces. Soldiers fire artillery guns towards an enemy base. This photo of Korean women dressed in traditional white outfits catches one's eye. These photos were taken by a now 86-year-old Colombian officer who participated in the Korean War. The veteran took some 300 photos of battlefields and Korea's natural landscape during his one-year service in Korea. Some of the photos have been preserved in the form of slides. The photographs were made public for the first time on KBS, ahead of next year's 70th anniversary of the start of the Korean War.
[Soundbite] DIAZ(COLOMBIAN KOREAN WAR VETERAN(86 YEARS OLD)) : "I can remember the moments through these photos. I can never forget them."
300 more photos from the Korean War were also disclosed by descendants of two other Colombian veterans. The first, Fernando Landazabal Reyes who was a colonel during the war and later served as Colombia's defense minister and the second, platoon leader, Douglas Alfredo Forero.
[Soundbite] GUSTAVO(SON OF COLOMBIAN KOREAN WAR VETERAN) : "I am proud that hundreds of Colombian soldiers died while fighting in the Korean War."
Colombia dispatched roughly 5,100 forces to the Korean War and most of them fought in the Battle of Old Baldy, which took place near the current Military Demarcation Line. Overall, 213 Colombian soldiers were killed or went missing in action, and some 500 others were injured. The Colombian embassy in Seoul plans to discover more records about Korean War veterans from the country and to build a memorial exhibition hall.
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