By Honorary Reporter Lewis Hooper from U.K.

Photos = 2021 UN Peacekeeping Ministerial Preparatory Secretariat

Honorary Reporters and peacekeepers at the exhibition for the International Peace Supporting Standby Force. 

The International Peace Supporting Standby Force based in Incheon deals with the dispatch of troops for participation in international peacekeeping operations that befits Korea's international status.

I was recently invited to visit the force, which is part of United Nations Peace Keeping Operations (PKO), to take a look behind the scenes on how the unit runs.

Relations between Korea and the U.N. Security Council date back to the foundation of the country in 1948. The council and the U.S. jointly agreed on Korea's first presidential election to be fair and for the outcome to be upheld. The U.N. supervised the 1953 armistice agreement between the two Koreas, and PKO are an integral part of maintaining international peace and security worldwide. The Korean government is aware of the importance of PKO, continuously striving to strengthen its contributions to peacekeeping activities.

During my visit to the unit, I received firsthand insight on how much planning and hard work go into securing standby forces and sub units, which are trained and dispatched for an average six-month tour. First, a presentation featured operations like humanitarian support, promoting human rights, protecting civilians, preventing conflict and offering field support. The U.N. has 12 main PKO in the Middle East, India and Pakistan, South Sudan, Kosovo, Abyei, Lebanon, Cyprus, Golan, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Mali, Central African Republic and Western Sahara.

The PKO museum houses materials from all such operations since their inception, and we received in-depth information on what was involved with each one. Afterwards, we signed the official guestbook, which was an honor since we were the first non-military or non-government officials to gain entry to the military base. 

Afterwards, we were driven to an onsite training ground where every solider spends part of training before being deployed. Though I could not include the photos, the center was a real-life scale village of homes and communities as they appear in countries of assignment to allow soldiers in training to get a feel for the environment before being sent overseas. 

Overall, the immersive experience at the base showed how much hard work goes into PKO and how missions are decided on. 

Guestbook at International Peace Supporting Standby Force in Seoul

The 2021 U.N. Peacekeeping Ministerial will be held from Dec. 7-9 in Seoul.

enny0611@korea.kr

*This article is written by a Korea.net Honorary Reporter. Our group of Honorary Reporters are from all around the world, and they share with Korea.net their love and passion for all things Korean.