Norway's Contribution
NORMASH






Sweden's Contribution during the Korean War : the Field Hospital at Pusan



When North Korean troops crossed the 38th parallel in what was a massive invasion of South Korea, an undeclared war, the United Nations Security Council called on the UN member states to provide attacked South Korea with assistance.
Sweden responded by dispatching a field hospital, organized and staffed by the Swedish Red Cross. On August 10th 1950, King Gustav V., in one of his last actions, informed the Swedish Red Cross that the Swedish state would cover the expenses resulting from the establishment of a field hospital in South Korea. The hospital was organized and staffed by Sweden's Red Cross. It was opened in Pusan and operated until 1956. Then, it was transformed into the Scandinavian training hospital.

Sweden, which had avoided to actively take sides on the South Korean side during the war, in 1953 was asked to participate in neutral organizations supervising the armistice and the repatriation of P.O.W.s. When the Neutral Nations Supervisory Commission was founded in 1953, Sweden was among the nations to staff it. The commission served their purpose quietly for 4 decades, it's members having access to both countries, theoretically unrestricted. With the collapse of the Soviet block and the disintegration of Czechoslovakia - one of the NNSC member states - the NNSC found continuing their work more and more difficult.






EXTERNAL
FILES
DOCUMENTS
REFERENCES Harry Salomon, Svensk Militär FN-post i Korea (Swedish Military UN-mail in Korea), in : Svensk Filatelisk Tidskrift 1989 pp. 768-769



This page is part of World History at KMLA
First posted in 2000, last revised on November 8th 2004

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