At a ceremony hosted by the Ministry of Patriots and Veterans Affairs, South Korea welcomed a total of 107 war veterans and their family members from 16 countries, including the United States and Australia.

"South Korea's dream to settle peace on the Korean Peninsula is also a dream of the UN that saved South Korea from the Korean War," Prime Minister Lee Nak-yon said at the ceremony. "South Korea is trying to achieve that dream by developing inter-Korean dialogue and talks with the U.S. that started from last year."

At the ceremony, the Seoul government awarded the Order of Military Merit to the late Charles Hercules Green, a senior officer in the Australian Army, and honored others who fought for the allies in the Korean War.

South Korea marks the participation of the UN forces in the war on July 27, the day in 1953 an Armistice Agreement was signed to halt the three-year conflict.

During the Korean War, nearly 2 million UN soldiers and more than 3,000 medics were sent to the Korean Peninsula to fight invading North Korean and Chinese soldiers, according to South Korean government data. Of them, 40,670 service people were killed, 104,280 others wounded and over 9,000 are still missing. (Yonhap)