Civic group pushes to erect statue honoring late US Korean War veteran

The late US Army Major Gen. John K. Singlaub, a Korean War veteran who died on January 29 at the age of 100 in Franklin, Tennessee. (Yonhap)

A South Korean civic group is pushing to erect a statue to honor the late US Army Major Gen. John K. Singlaub to mark the 70th anniversary of the Seoul-Washington alliance next year, the group said Monday.

The Korea-US Alliance Foundation, which was established in 2017, is in talks with the deceased general’s bereaved family in the US, as well as officials from the Ministry of Patriots and Veterans Affairs in Seoul for the project, officials at the group said.

Details on the envisioned monument, including its possible location, are not yet decided, they added.

Gen. Singlaub, who passed away on Jan. 29 at the age of 100 in Franklin, Tennessee, served as a CIA deputy station chief in Seoul before the Korean War and commanded a battalion during the 1950-53 conflict.

But he is more widely remembered here for having stood up against former US President Jimmy Carter who sought to withdraw American troops from South Korea.

In 1977, while serving in Seoul as the chief of staff of the UN Command, he told the Washington Post that Carter’s plan would provoke then-North Korean leader Kim Il-sung to start a war as a previous drawdown of American forces had done in 1950. This cost Singlaub his highly-celebrated career and he retired from the US Army after 35 years of service.

By Choi Jae-hee(cjh@heraldcorp.com)