Minister Erik Solheim at the UN Memorial Cemetery in Busan, Korea. 
Photo: Svein Bæra, Ministry of Foreign Affairs.Minister Erik Solheim at the UN Memorial Cemetery in Busan, Korea. Photo: Svein Bæra, Ministry of Foreign Affairs

Minister Erik Solheim at the UN Memorial Cemetery

Last updated: 06/12/2011 // After his participation at the High Level Forum on Aid Effectiveness, Minister of the Environment and International Development, Erik Solheim, paid a visit to the UN Memorial Cemetery in Korea.

Minister Erik Solheim started his visit to the cemetery by paying a courtesy visit to the custodian of the cemetery, Park Byung-yun, during which the minister and the custodian discussed Norway–Korea relations. The minister was then given a guided tour of the cemetery, and paid his respect to the Norwegian victims of the war in front of the Norwegian memorial, unveiled by TRH the Crown Prince and Crown Princess of Norway in 2007.

The cemetery, which is located in Busan, was formally established as a UN cemetery in 1955 after UN forces had used the area to bury fallen soldiers from April 1951. It remains the only cemetery in the world under the name of the United Nations. At the request of the survivors, the majority of the bodies eventually were repatriated for burial in their home countries, however, still over 2,300 people are buried in the cemetery, amongst them one Norwegian, engineer Reidar George Tveit.


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