The cemetery is home to about 2,300 U.N. troops from 11 nations who were killed in the war. These countries fought on the side of the South under the U.N. banner to repel invading North Korean forces.
"It is the first time in 44 years for a South Korean president to visit there to pay homage to those fallen soldiers after former President Park Chung-hee did so in 1966," Lee's office, Cheong Wa Dae, said in a press release.
Lee was accompanied by ambassadors and military attaches from the 11 countries, it said.
"International cooperation is imperative as tensions have been escalating since North Korea's provocation," Cheong Wa Dae spokesman Park Sun-kyoo said. "Against the backdrop, President Lee's visit to the cemetery is to commemorate the troop dispatch of foreign nations and send a message of peace."
He was referring to the March 26 sinking of a 1,200-ton warship, the Cheonan. A multinational probe team said a North Korean torpedo attack caused the ship to sink, leaving 46 sailors dead.
A total of 16 countries dispatched combat troops to help the South fight against the North, while five others sent medical aid units. The U.N. troops suffered 40,896 casualties, according to official data.
The two Koreas are technically still at war as their three-year conflict ended in a ceasefire, not a peace treaty.//Yonhap
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