United Nations Service Medal Korea

The United Nations Service Medal Korea is an international military decoration established by the United Nations on December 12, 1950 as the United Nations Service Medal. The decoration was the first international award ever created by the United Nations and recognized the multi-national defense forces which participated in the Korean War.

Criteria

The United Nations Service Medal is awarded to any military service member, of an Armed Force allied with South Korea, who participated in the defense of South Korea from North Korea between June 27th 1950 and July 27th 1954 for a minimum of 30 days. The military forces of the Netherlands are awarded the medal for service to January 1, 1955, while the armed forces of Thailand and Sweden grant the award to July 27, 1955.
International Red Cross personnel engaged for service during the war with any United Nations relief team in Korea were not eligible for the medal.
The ultimate award authority of the United Nations Service Medal is United Nations Commander-in-Chief of military forces in Korea. Most countries consider the United Nations Service Medal an automatic decoration, if some other Korean service award was bestowed, and generally award the medal without requesting permission through United Nations channels. For instance, in the United States Armed Forces, any service member awarded the Korean Service Medal is automatically granted the United Nations Service Medal.

Medal name

On November 22, 1961, the United Nations officially changed the name of the United Nations Service Medal to the United Nations Service Medal Korea. This was as a prelude to the creation of many subsequent United Nations medals which are awarded for various operations around the world.
The United States and some other countries continue to refer to the medal as the United Nations Service Medal in an effort to maintain consistency with past military files referring to the medal by its original name.

Description

The UN Korea Medal is a 36mm wide circular medal of bronze alloy. The obverse depicts the 'World-in-a Wreath' emblem of the United Nations. The reverse has the inscription: FOR SERVICE IN DEFENCE OF THE PRINCIPLES OF THE CHARTER OF THE UNITED NATIONS. Each participating country has the text in the most appropriate language, and the inscription may be in any one of the following languages:

Amharic, awarded to personnel from the Ethiopian Empire, 5.650 medals issued
Dutch, 5.800 medals issued
English, awarded to personnel from Australia, Canada, Denmark, New Zealand, Norway, Philippines, Sweden, United Kingdom, Union of South Africa and United States of America, 2.760.000 medals issued
French, awarded to personnel from Belgium, Canada, France and Luxembourg, 16.900 medals awarded
Greek, 9.000 medals issued
Italian, 135 medals issued
Korean, 1.225.000 medals issued
Spanish, awarded to personnel from Colombia, 1.300 medals issued
Thai, 10.650 medals issued
Turkish, 33.700 medals issued
An unknown number of an unofficial copy with inscriptions in Tagalog were produced in the Philippines for local veterans.

The medal hangs from a claw attachment on a straight bar suspension. Each medal is worn with a medal bar bearing the inscription KOREA in the same language as the reverse inscription. The medal's ribbon made up of 17 equal stripes of United Nations blue and white, 9 blue and 8 white, each wide, with the exception of the Turkish medals that were usually worn with a dark red, single colour ribbon, as the standard pale blue and white were too similar to the Flag of Greece, considered as a rival country.