Commemoration events were held in Sydney and Melbourne on Friday to honour the sacrifices of the Australian soldiers who fought during the Korean War.
National President of the Korea Veterans Association of Australia Tom Parkinson told SBS Korean that many of the soldiers who fought during the conflict "still suffer from the trauma" they endured.
“I know two veterans who suffered for a number of years. They committed suicide. One was quite a good friend and the other was a person who I just know," he said.
"There was probably more but who knows how many.”
Mr Parkinson, who was shipped to the conflict at the age of 19, remembers how impoverished the country was and how the Korean people suffered.
“We don’t need any more wars. Here people who suffered greatly on both sides of the parallel,” the machine gunner with the First Battalion said.
“I saw little children there at times they had nothing to eat.”
Mr Parkinson said he remembers how the country's capital Seoul was devastated.
A supplied image obtained on Thursday, July 26, 2018 shows a group portrait of the D Company, First Battalion, Royal Australian Regiment (1AR) in Korea. Source: AAP
But, South Korea managed to pull itself out of poverty in the decades following the war and is considered a global leader in the industrial and technological sectors.
The South Korean economy is the fourth largest in Asia and the 11th largest in the world.
Mr Parkinson said it was "amazing what Korean people have done with the country” since the war.
“When you say to any Korean how well they have done and that they've become a world power, the stuck answer at all times is that without assistance, 'we could not have done this'," he said.
"They are very humble in what they do.”
Mr Parkinson stressed that his memories remain in the back of his mind and he often thinks about what happened in Korea.
Korean war veterans(left to right) Tom Parkinson, Mick Griffin and Colin Berryman following the commemorative service for the 65th anniversary of the Korean War Source: AAP
Australian forces were one of the first to offer military assistance to the US and South Korea after the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea began its invasion into the south on July 25, 1950.
Over the following three years of fighting, more than four million people were killed, mostly Korean civilians.
The forces from the north were on the verge of taking all of the south when United Nations forces intervened.
All three branches of Australia’s armed services took part in the war. More than 17,000 Australian personnel served in Korea, including Army and RAAF nurses. Some 340 lost their lives, more than 1200 were wounded and 30 were taken prisoner.
When Mr Parkinson went to Canberra for the 65th anniversary of the Korean War armistice on 27 July, he was notified that there were only 1400 Australians left from those who served.
Decades after the Korean War ended in a truce, families are finally being reunited. Source: Hulton Archive
Sunghyo Kim, Consul-General of the Republic of Korea in Melbourne said: “As the year goes by, many people feel they are getting older and we have worked hard to prepare this reception like serving our parents."
Mr Kim said that it was very important that a Korean War memorial at Quarry Park in Melbourne was being set up.
The memorial, which is slated for completion next year, will be Australia's fourth, with ones established in Canberra in 2000, Sydney in 2009 and the Gold Coast in 2011.
More than $600,000 was raised for the project, including $300,000 from the South Korea government, $100,000 from the Victorian government and $200,000 from the Korean community, veterans and overseas Korean in Australia.
Donors hope the memorial will serve as a bridge linking the generations, connecting the people of both countries, as well as a way to call for peace on the Korean Peninsula amid negotiations.
Mr Parkinson delivered his hope that North and South Korea become one in years to come.
“Many people in South Korea and North Korea have been separated over the years from their families and let’s hope that they can get together.”
Father-son reunited after 65 years 91-year-old Lee Gi-soon (R) looks at his son Lee Gang-seon at a banquet at Kumgang Mountain Hotel in North Korea Source: AAP
