The Parliament of South Korea, in order to honour the services and sacrifices made by the UN forces during the Korean War, provided some land for permanent use by the UN as a cemetery in August 1955. The General Assembly accepted the proposal and UN Resolution #977(X) to establish a United Nations Memorial Cemetery in Korea (UNMCK) became effective in December 1955.
The UNMCK had been managed by the UN Commission for the Unification and Rehabilitation of Korea (UNCURK) until UNCURK was dissolved in 1974. Since then The Commission for the United Nations Memorial Cemetery in Korea (CUNMCK), which consists of 11 UN-member nations (Australia, Canada, France, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, South Africa, Turkey, UK, USA and South Korea) whose fallen during the Korean War are buried in the cemetery.
The CUNMCK Chair rotates annually, in the alphabetical order of the member nations’ names, starting on November 1 of each year and ending on October 31 the following year.
UN MILITARY CEMETERY KOREA (UNMCK)
The cemetery is located in Busan, which is South Korea’s 2nd-largest city located on the south coast of South Korea.
The UNMCK web site, www.unmck.or.kr, contains information about how to reach the cemetery, as well as its open hours.
There are the remains of 2,300 servicemen in the cemetery: 36 Koreans, 11 non-combatants, 4 unknowns plus the country totals shown below.
| COUNTRY | UN FORCE | FALLEN | BURIED IN UNMCK |
| USA | 1,600,000 | 36,492 | 36 |
| UK | 56,000 | 1,177 | 885 |
| Turkey | 14,936 | 1,005 | 462 |
| Canada | 27,000 | 516 | 378 |
| Australia | 8,407 | 346 | 281 |
| France | 3,760 | 270 | 44 |
| Colombia | 5,100 | 213 | – |
| Greece | 4,440 | 186 | – |
| Thailand | 6,326 | 136 | – |
| Netherlands | 5,320 | 124 | 117 |
| Ethiopia | 3,518 | 122 | – |
| Philippines | 7,500 | 120 | – |
| Belgium | 3,590 | 106 | – |
| New Zealand | 5,350 | 41 | 34 |
| South Africa | 900 | 37 | 11 |
| Norway | 623 | 3 | 1 |
| Luxembourg | 89 | 2 | – |
| Denmark | 630 | 0 | – |
| India | 346 | 0 | – |
| Italy | 185 | 0 | – |
| Sweden | 380 | 0 | – |
| TOTALS | 1,754,400 | 40,896 | 2,249 |
Belgium, Colombia, Ethiopia, Greece, Luxemburg, Philippines and Thailand have taken back all of their fallen. The USA, who had the highest number of casualties in the war, took all of their fallen home soon afterwards.
However, 36 members of the UNC dispatched from the USA and stationed in Korea after the war, who died and wished to be interred at the UNMCK, also reside at the UNMCK.
WALL OF REMEMBRANCE
Those service personnel with no known grave are commemorated on the Wall of Remembrance, which is located in the cemetery.