Soldiers carry the ashes of French Korean War veterans, André Datcharry and Jacques Grisolet, upon their arrival at Seoul International Airport, May 26, 2026 in South Korea (AFP / Roland DE COURSON)
The bodies of two French veterans of the Korean War (1950-1953) arrived Tuesday in South Korea, where they wanted to be buried more than 70 years after the end of the conflict.
The ashes of Chief Warrant Officer Jacques Grisolet and Corporal André Datcharry, who died last year in France, were welcomed at Seoul-Incheon airport with a guard of honor, according to an AFP journalist on site.
They will be buried on Wednesday in the French square of the United Nations Memorial Cemetery in Korea in Busan (south), where more than 2,300 fighters from 22 foreign countries who participated in the war alongside South Korea rest.
These two soldiers were members of the French UN Battalion, formed in 1950 as part of the United Nations intervention against the North’s invasion of South Korea.
This force of 3,421 volunteers, commanded by General Ralph Monclar, hero of Free France, participated in several of the most violent battles of the conflict.
André Datcharry served in Korea from March 1953 to August 1954 and was wounded twice.
Jacques Grisolet, for his part, was deployed twice, from April 1951 to July 1952 then from March to October 1953, taking part in several major combats, including the murderous battle of Crèvecoeur (Heartbreak Ridge) in the fall of 1951 in the mountains of central peninsula.
A total of 269 French people were killed during the Korean War, which left an estimated 2.5 to 3 million civilian and military deaths.
Soldiers carry the ashes of French Korean War veterans, André Datcharry and Jacques Grisolet, upon their arrival at Seoul International Airport, May 26, 2026 in South Korea (AFP / Roland DE COURSON)
Despite the relative modesty of its contingent, participation in this Cold War conflict allowed France to reaffirm its international role at the end of the Second World War, and to strengthen its ties with the United States.
Any foreign veteran of the Korean War who died after the conflict has the right, if he wishes, to be buried alongside his former comrades in Busan, in the only United Nations cemetery in the world.
Before the two French soldiers who will be buried on Wednesday, 35 veterans of several nationalities have made this choice.
/2026/06/10/6a290ee12f132830223138.png "War in the Middle East: what we know about new Iranian strikes against American bases")
