Korea plans to buy US ship used for Hungnam Evacuation

By Rachel Lee A U.S. cargo ship used to rescue thousands of Korean refugees during

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the 1950-53 Korean War could soon be back in Korea. A private group set up in 2013 to have the S.S. Lane Victory returned from the U.S. said Friday it has decided to create a nonprofit organization for the project. If it succeeds, the ship would be displayed at a memorial park here, the group said. Around 7,000 Koreans boarded the Lane Victory in the Hungnam Evacuation in late 1950, the largest U.S. military evacuation of civilians. Among them were President Moon Jae-in's parents. Yun Kyung-won, a retired Marine Corps general who heads the group, said the ship is anchored at a port near Los Angeles and is being used as a war museum. But it has faced difficulties since the U.S. government's support for its operation ended. The group expects about 5 billion won would be needed to take over the ship. It plans to solicit the government and the private sector to secure the money. Yun said the group is considering sending the ship to Geoje Island, where the refugees disembarked. The ship would be part of a memorial park to remind visitors of the miracle of the evacuation and the importance of peace. After talking with its U.S. counterpart, the group said a takeover of the ship is likely to proceed smoothly. Along with the Lane Victory, the Meredith Victory, known for the largest humanitarian rescue operation by a single ship, saved 14,000 people during the evacuation. But it was sold to China in 1993 and scrapped. There are concerns the Lane Victory could suffer the same fate, Yun said. During President Moon's visit to the U.S. last month, he expressed gratitude for U.S. and U.N. soldiers who made the Hungnam Evacuation possible, in which U.S. soldiers abandoned their weapons to carry more civilians. "Sixty-seven years ago, the U.S. soldiers sacrificed their lives for a country and people they never knew and never met," Moon said during a visit to a memorial commemorating the Battle of the Chosin Reservoir at the National Museum of the Marine Corps in Quantico, Virginia. "Two years later, I was born on Geoje Island, where the Victory had dropped the people off. Without the soldiers and without the evacuation, I wouldn't be here." In the December 1950 evacuation, 193 ships rescued about 91,000 civilians and 105,000 soldiers trapped in Hungnam Harbor of South Hamgyong Province in North Korea.