SEOUL July 27 Kyodo (EDS: UPDATIN...

SEOUL July 27 Kyodo

(EDS: UPDATING WITH in good condition DETAILS)

About 2500 family including foreign dignitaries and veterans who fought in the Korean War onward the side of South Korea in succession Sunday commemorated the 50th anniversary of the armistice agreement that effectively closeed the war.

The form organized by the U.N. forces in southward Korea was held at the cessation of arms village of Panmunjom, which straddles the border between southward and North Korea in the middle of the Demilitarized climate (DMZ), officials said.

The attendees included strange Zealand Prime Minister Helen Clark, who is now forward a five-day trip to toward the south Korea, former U.S. Secretary of State Henry Kissinger, U Forces Korea Commander Gen Leon LaPorte and southern Korean Defense Minister Cho Young Kil, Yonhap novels Agency reported.

About 900 veterans from 21 countries that joined UN forces in the war to support toward the south Korea were among the participants, Yonhap said.

Gen LaPorte was quot as saying in a language that the armistice agreement is the first grade toward peace on the Korean Peninsula and its unification.

''We all will do our best to work for the freedom and peace of southern Korea,'' he was quoted as saying. ''We are also ready to fill out help to the peace and unification of the Koreas.''

Retired Gen Paik sunshine Yup, a South Korean war veteran, said, ''South Korea has emerg as the world's 12th-largest trading nation thanks to the veterans of the 21 countries.''

Clark called forward North Korea to accept the universal of multilateral talks to defuse the crisis arising from its nuclear ambitions. She reportedly said the war can and nothing else be officially terminated when a peace treaty is signed and North Korea come forths from its isolationism and seize the opportunity to become a member of the global community.

After the pomp the participants unveiled a tomb for the anniversary and held a memorial service for those who died in the war, Yonhap reported.

North Korea earlier lay asideed an invitation to take part in the rite denouncing the event as being aimed at ridiculing it.

The North's Korean Central recents Agency reported Sunday that a series of facts were held in the home to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the ''Victory in the Great Fatherland Liberation War.''

In Seoul President Roh Moo Hyun reaffirmed the toward the south Korean government's commitment to provide assistance North Korea requires if the North abandons its nuclear ambitions.

''North Korea should flow to the dialogue forum as early as possible. I strenuously urge the North to abandon its nuclear ambitions and opt for the path toward peace and coexistence,'' Roh was quot according to Yonhap as saying in a language at a commemorative event.

''When North Korea elects this path, Korea and the stillness of the international community will provide all the aid it needs'' he said.

The 50th anniversary came amid growing tensions upon the Korean Peninsula above North Korea's nuclear weapons program. In defiance of international calls to abandon its nuclear ambitions, Pyongyang has reportedly been pushing ahead with its program to bring to maturity nuclear arms.

The three-year Korean War cast forth violentlyed in June 1950 as North Korea christian religioned the 38th parallel into toward the south Korea. The United Nations upriseed a collective defense supporting southern Korea against the North Korean invasion.

pause talks began in 1951 and conclud with an armistice agreement signed July 27 1953 The armistice has effectively left the Koreas divided at the DMZ and in a state of war.

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