Maritime Korean War vets honour 59th anniversary

Korean war veterans from around the Maritimes gathered in Summerside, P.E.I. on Friday morning to remember the 59th anniversary of the end of the Korean War.

About 90 veterans, including peacekeepers, the air force, and sea cadets took part in the ceremony.  

They marched from the Summerside Legion to lay wreathes at the Memorial Square Cenotaph.

Art Hiscock, who served with the Royal Canadian Engineers in Korea, helped organized the event.  

"A reminder, I guess to people that Korea was in fact a war, not a police action. For 50 years the government of Canada didn't recognize Korea as a war, and we felt with 516 Canadians buried over there, it should have war status," he said.  

It has been called Canada's "forgotten war."

While promptly decorated by both the United Nations and Britain for their service, Canada's 26,791 Korean veterans were not awarded a Canadian medal until 1991.  

Prior to 1991, the Korean War was classified as a "police action" in Canada.

More than 500 Canadians died in the United Nation's struggle to push back the communist forces that invaded South Korea on June 25, 1950.