Congressmen seek support for $8-million Korean War icon

By Lee Chi-dong
WASHINGTON, July 25 (Yonhap) -- The envisioned glass wall in central Washington, designed to commemorate the Korean War, will be completely funded by private contributions and no taxpayers' money will be used, congressional officials said Monday.
Rep. Ralph Hall (R-TX), along with four other congressmen, has proposed a bill to establish a 2.4-meter-high and 91-meter-wide wall along the Korean War Veterans Memorial on the National Mall in Washington.
The move comes ahead of the July 27 Korean War Armistice Day.
"We submitted a hearing request to the Natural Resources Committee and our hope is to work with (House) Speaker John Boehner and also with the Senate to advance this," Kristi Bogle, Rep. Hall's legal assistant, told Yonhap News Agency.
The four co-sponsors of the bill are Sam Johnson (R-TX), Howard Coble (R-NC), John Conyers (D-MI) and John Dingell (D-MI).
The Wall of Remembrance will list all the names of some 33,000 American soldiers killed in the 1950-53 Korean War, as well as the numbers of the wounded, missing in action and prisoners of war, she said.
It will also honor more than 8,000 Koreans killed while fighting together with the Americans as KATUSA, or Korean Augmentation to the U.S. Army, she said.
"But due to the loss of many historical records, it will not list them by name," she said. "We are now working to discern what the best and most expedient plan of action is and that also has the most chance of success."
She stressed the need for support from the private sector as it is a civilian project estimated to cost US$8 million and expected to take two years.