His Excellency Mr Park Sung-choon, Minister for Patriots and Veterans Affairs, and Mrs ParkVeterans of the Korean War, and accompanying family members - and I am particularly pleased to see here this evening some of those Korean veterans and family members who fought alongside the Australian forces
Keith Payne, VC, Lieutenant General Ken Gillespie, Chief of Army.
Ambassador and Mrs Gerovich, serving members of 3 RAR, other distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen.
This morning I had the privilege of travelling to the Kapyong battlefield with our veterans to commemorate the 60thanniversary of that decisive battle.
Sacred ground, forever honoured by courage and sacrifice.
After the emotion of today's events, we gather tonight in a spirit of comradeship here in this great city of Seoul, this dynamic, prosperous world city that stands as a lasting monument to freedom.
I'm proud to be here with some of the authors of that freedom.
And I'm prouder still to lead a nation capable of producing such individuals.
Those of us who inherit your legacy can only imagine what it means to have served in war.
To be one of those ordinary Australians called upon to do extraordinary things.
Australians like Ray Parry, who along with three mates defended an outpost against a major attack.
Ray Parry's stand is featured in the Kapyong diorama at the Australian War Memorial and the citation that accompanied his Military Medal praised his ‘brilliant leadership' and ‘determination to hold vital ground' as being directly responsible for ‘thoroughly disorganising the enemy'.
Or the nurses who put their hand up to go to war zones, like Nell Espie who was one of the first women to become a career military nurse and who not only served in Korea, but Malaya and Vietnam as well.
Or prisoner of war Private Robert Parker who, when captured, said that despite being terrified, he put up his hands and smiled at them.
He was listed as missing in action and for seven months his family didn't know where he was.
“The thing that kept me going was thinking about getting home one day,” he said.
Time and time again when we hear these stories of fortitude and courage, there is a common purpose, which our newest VC holder Ben-Roberts Smith put beautifully when he said:
"Everyone knows that the mastering of fear is the definition of bravery or courage but I feel it's also understanding there's something greater than yourself at risk which is your mates, the other people you're there for."
Mateship has been an overriding theme throughout ANZAC history and the Korean War was no exception.
Stories of men risking their lives for their mates, of great camaraderie, not just within their own ranks but with allied troops, particularly with our ANZAC brothers from New Zealand.
There is a wonderful illustration of how the larrikin spirit spans the Tasman. The story goes that a challenge was laid down between the Aussies and the Kiwis that whenever two of their vehicles passed each other, they had to embark on a water fight.
This had the locals quite puzzled.
They would watch as the allies' vehicles, driving in opposite directions, would suddenly come to a grinding halt on roads that were jammed with military traffic.
Once stopped, waves of water would be exchanged between the trucks and then they would carry on.
Now, when the water fighting escalated, the lads became quite innovative.
They would empty their vehicle's fire extinguishers and fill them up with water because they made such excellent water pistols.
And there also seems to be another theme associated with the Aussies in Korea, and that is the few comforts that would remind them of home.
Major Ben O'Dowd, commander of A Company of the 3 RAR wrote of the problem of trying to keep bottled beer from freezing in the Korean winter:
“For me it was a matter of cuddling my Fosters overnight in my sleeping bag. A warm beer went well with breakfast washing down my preferred combat ration of Ham and Lima Beans."
Believe it or not, a warm beer sounds preferable to the local moonshine called Wah Rang Brandy that Ben O'Dowd tried his hardest to steer clear of.
Friends, these are the human stories from days of courage and mateship, and of the deep friendship with the Korean people.
I think the fact that, to this day, the Republic of Korea sponsors foreign veterans to come back here to revisit their battlefields speaks volumes for the esteem in which the Australian troops are held and I pay tribute to the Korean Government and the Ministry of Patriots and Veterans' Affairs for keeping faith over these six long decades.
We are proud to be your guests because we come to honour a great legacy.
And to do what is important: remember.
We remember the 17,000 Australians who served in Korea and the 340 who did not make it home.
We remember those Allied personnel who served and died.
And, of course, we remember the horrendous price paid by the Korean people, military and civilian, in defence of their homeland.
They asked no sacrifice from the UN forces that they were not prepared to make themselves, many times over.
No-one who fought - who suffered - who died - during those 1000 bloody days will ever be forgotten.
Those who served must be remembered because they are part of us; they are the best of us.
The Australian National Korean War Memorial in Canberra is an important part of this contract of remembrance we make as a nation.
I am pleased to announce today that a new interpretative panel will be installed in the Memorial later this year.
This panel will recognise those Australians Missing in Action during the Korean War whose bodies have not been recovered.
Importantly, it will also recognise the service of those Australians who served in Korea after the armistice in 1953
At the end of the Korean War, Lieutenant General Sir Henry Wells, Commander-In-Chief of British Commonwealth Forces in Korea, issued a “Special Order of the Day”.
General Wells, a distinguished Australian soldier, issued the Order to mark the end of hostilities but also to summon the Commonwealth forces to continued vigilance during the Armistice period, when great uncertainty remained.
The panel will be added to the memorial before Remembrance Day this year.
I'm also very proud to announce today a special one-off group of ten “Kapyong Commemorative Scholarships”, under the Australia Awards program.
These will consist of five PhDs and five shorter Executive Awards to enable Korean students to study in Australia to honour this year's anniversary so that, in a small way, the significance of Kapyong will be remembered to a new generation.
They, like us, should never forget.
Friends,
The sun has gone down tonight, and tomorrow dawn will break on this beautiful land.
This land where generations of Korean children have grown up in security.
Hard-fought and hard-won.
Tomorrow we commemorate ANZAC Day and I know it will be as special for you as it will be for me.