Burial ceremony for the ashes of Frenchmen André Datcharry and Jacques Grisolet, veterans of the Korean War, at the United Nations Memorial Cemetery in Busan, May 27, 2026 in South Korea (AFP / Roland DE COURSON)
They wanted to rest in the land they had defended, alongside their comrades in arms: two French veterans of the Korean War were buried Wednesday in Busan, South Korea, 75 years after having fought there.
Chief Warrant Officer Jacques Grisolet and Corporal André Datcharry, who died in France recently, bring to 37 the number of veterans who, having died long after the Korean War (1950-1953), chose to be buried at United Nations Memorial Cemetery in Busan, where more than 2,300 fallen soldiers from 14 foreign countries lie.
On Wednesday, their children buried their ashes during a military ceremony in this immense hilly area, the only UN cemetery in the world, in the heart of South Korea’s second city.
“We are very happy that dad chose to have his ashes buried in this magnificent, international cemetery. It had meaning for him,” Jacques Grisolet’s daughter, Elisabeth Magrou, told AFP.
Elisabeth Magrou watches her brother Christophe Grisolet throw a shovelful of earth on the grave of their father Jacques Grisolet, French veteran of the Korean War, at the United Nations memorial cemetery in Busan, on May 27, 2026 in South Korea ( AFP / Roland DE COURSON)
“We know that he will always be surrounded there, that there will always be a ceremony, always attention. He will never be alone. He will rest in peace in this land of Korea, in this magnificent country that he loved above all else.”
The two soldiers buried Wednesday were members of the French UN Battalion, formed in 1950 as part of the United Nations intervention against North Korea’s invasion of South Korea.
André Datcharry served in Korea from March 1953 to August 1954 and was wounded there twice. Jacques Grisolet was deployed twice between 1951 and 1953, taking part in several major combats, including the terrible battle of Crèvecoeur (Heartbreak Ridge) in the fall of 1951 in the ridges of the center of the peninsula.
– Le Verdun coréen –
With 3,421 volunteers, the French battalion was commanded by General Ralph Monclar, hero of Free France, who famously declared: “those of Crèvecoeur can tell the old people of 14-18 that they experienced something worth Verdun”.
Burial ceremony for the ashes of Frenchmen André Datcharry and Jacques Grisolet, two veterans of the Korean War, at the United Nations Memorial Cemetery in Busan, May 27, 2026 in South Korea (AFP / Roland DE COURSON)
For Patrick Beaudouin, former MP and president of the National Association of Former and Friends of the French UN Forces, several factors explain the attachment of many veterans to Korea, to the point of wanting to be buried there, thousands of kilometers from their families.
“When they arrived in Korea, they were struck by the misery of the Korean people. Seeing these long lines of exodus, I think it reminded them of what they had experienced as young people when France was occupied in 1940,” he explains. at AFP.
The other factor, he continues, is the extreme violence of the conflict, which caused between 2.5 and 3 million deaths according to estimates, and which created an extremely strong bond between brothers in arms. “It’s a war with terrifying conditions, it’s minus 35, minus 40, then afterward it’s the monsoon. It’s artillery walls, it’s hand-to-hand combat.”
– Part of their soul in Korea –
“They left part of their spirit, their soul here, in Korea,” continues Mr. Beaudouin. “And that’s why they wanted to come back and rest there forever.”
Added to this is the fact that South Korea has never forgotten the foreigners who came to defend it. At the start of the Covid-19 pandemic, the South Korean government sent thousands of masks to France, which lacked them, to protect veterans.
Burial ceremony for the ashes of Frenchmen André Datcharry and Jacques Grisolet, two veterans of the Korean War, at the United Nations Memorial Cemetery in Busan, May 27, 2026 in South Korea (AFP / Roland DE COURSON)
“A magnificent gesture,” recalls Ms. Magrou, who also remembers that the very first visitor to knock on her door to offer condolences, just after the death of her father, was the South Korean military attaché in France.
Most French veterans have returned numerous times during their lives to South Korea, which has gone from an underdeveloped country to a world economic power in just a few decades.
“When they discovered Korea 76 years ago, it was a country reduced to ashes,” recalls Stephanie Hwang, spokesperson for the UN Cemetery in Busan. “When they returned decades later, they discovered a thriving democracy and economic power. Knowing that their sacrifices laid the very foundation for Korea’s development and prosperity gives them immense pride.”
A total of 269 French fell during the Korean War. According to Mr. Beaudouin, only 17 French veterans of this conflict are still alive.
