Booyoung Chairman Lee Joongkeun Attends UN Veterans Memorial Ceremony as Public Representative

"UN Day Should Be Designated a National Holiday to Honor Countries That Fought in the War"

Booyoung Group said on the 12th that its Chairman Lee Joong-keun attended the ceremony marking the 20th International Memorial Day for UN Veterans, recently held at the UN Memorial Cemetery in Busan, as a representative of the people and laid a wreath.

Lee Joong-keun, chairman of Booyoung Group and president of the United Nations Association of the Republic of Korea (fourth from right), attended as a representative of the public and laid flowers at a ceremony marking the 20th UN International Memorial Day for Fallen Veterans at the United Nations Memorial Cemetery in Korea in Busan on the 11th. Booyoung Group

Lee, who also serves as president of the United Nations Association of Korea, attended as a representative of the people for the second consecutive year, following last year, and honored the dedication and sacrifice of those who died serving under the United Nations. Lee said, "As one of the last generations to remember the horrors of the Korean War and the sacrifices of UN forces, I will work to ensure that United Nations Day is designated as a national holiday and accorded due recognition, so their dedication and contributions are not forgotten." United Nations Day was a legal holiday until 1975, when it was abolished in protest against North Korea's joining UN-affiliated organizations.

Lee has taken the lead in honoring and paying tribute to UN veterans. In 2015, he provided the full cost of installing national symbolic monuments and memorials to the 23 countries that participated in the war at Peace Plaza in the War Memorial of Korea in Yongsan. He has also proposed designating United Nations Day as a national holiday. Last year, he delivered to the National Assembly a petition calling for United Nations Day to be designated a national holiday, which had been signed by 420,000 people. At the United Nations Day commemoration ceremony held last month, he said, "If United Nations Day is designated, I will build and donate a building in Seoul on the scale of the UN Headquarters in New York and bring UN agencies to the city."

International Memorial Day for UN Veterans is an international memorial ceremony that began in 2007 at the suggestion of Vincent Courtenay, a Canadian war veteran. In March 2020, under the Act on Honoring UN Veterans and Other Matters, November 11 was designated as the statutory observance of International Memorial Day for UN Veterans.

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