Busan

Busan is South Korea’s second-largest city and its principal port — but its real distinction is in war memory, not trade. The city served as South Korea’s provisional wartime capital for 1,023 days in 1950–53, it was the landing port of the Turkish brigade whose 462 dead lie in Busan’s soil, and it hosts the only United Nations cemetery on earth: more than 2,300 Korean War service members from 14 countries rest in its Nam District. (Hürriyet Daily News; The Korea Times)

Overview

Busan (부산), officially Busan Metropolitan City, is the economic, cultural, and educational center of southeastern South Korea, on the southeastern tip of the Korean Peninsula where the Eurasian continent meets the Pacific Ocean (The Korea Times). It is the country’s second-largest city, with a population exceeding 3.4 million as of 2023, and its main base for trade: the world’s second-largest port of transshipment and seventh-largest container port (The Korea Times). Modern Busan is also a convention city, having hosted the 2005 Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit, the Korea-ASEAN summits of 2014 and 2019, the 2002 Asian Games, and the official draw for the 2002 FIFA World Cup (The Korea Times). More than 40 million domestic and international travelers visit each year, drawn by beaches and mountains, maritime food, and events including the annual Busan International Film Festival, the Busan One Asia Festival, and G-STAR, the country’s largest game expo (The Korea Times).

The wartime capital and the world’s only UN cemetery

During the 1950–53 Korean War, Busan became the beating heart of a nation under attack, serving as South Korea’s provisional capital for 1,023 days (The Korea Times). When the Nakdong River defense line was nearly the last stronghold standing, nearly a million refugees converged on the city alongside U.N. troops and international organizations — “a vibrant international hub directly linked to the wider world” (The Korea Times). The city now packages that history into a World Heritage nomination: “Busan as the Wartime Capital” links 11 sites — the UN Memorial Cemetery, the former U.S. Embassy (a 1929 Oriental Development Company building, now the Busan Modern & Contemporary History Museum Annex), Camp Hialeah, the makeshift homes of Ami-dong Tombstone Village and Uam-dong Cattle Shed Village, and Pier 1 of Busan Port, where refugees, U.N. forces, and aid arrived — targeting UNESCO status by 2030 (The Korea Times). In July 2026, Busan hosted the 48th UNESCO World Heritage Committee session, the first ever held in Korea (The Korea Times).

The port that rebuilt a nation

Busan’s harbor effectively bankrolled South Korea’s industrial rise: it handled 70 percent of the country’s exports in the 1970s and served as “the first gateway to foreign cultures” during the colonial period, with labor-intensive manufacturing that gave birth to conglomerates LG and CJ (The Korea Times). That 70 percent figure is the stat that matters — it means the port financed not just trade but an entire industrialization (The Korea Times). The North Port doubled as a wartime lifeline: the U.N. Command was based there, and medical teams and relief supplies entered through it during the three-year conflict (The Korea Times). The refugee influx left permanent cultural fingerprints: Gamcheon Culture Village, the checkerboard hillside settlement dubbed “Korea’s Santorini,” was built to resettle displaced persons and repainted in bright pastel colors under a 2009 Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism regeneration project; the secondhand bookshop district in central Jung District grew from displaced families exchanging children’s books they had carried while fleeing (The Korea Times).

The Turkish bond: from the brigade’s landing to Ayla

Busan is where the Turkish-Korean “blood siblings” story began: Turkey answered the United Nations’ call for military aid first after the United States, and its first brigade left Mersin Port under Brigadier General Tahsin Yazıcı on September 17, 1950, reaching Busan 26 days later (Hürriyet Daily News). Turkey ultimately sent four brigades totaling 21,212 soldiers — the fourth most troops and over 900 dead, missing, and wounded, the third highest of the 16 participants; 462 Turkish soldiers are buried at Busan’s U.N. Memorial Cemetery (Hürriyet Daily News). That orphan story is the plot of Ayla: The Daughter of War: soldier Süleyman Dilbirliği cared for a war orphan for 15 months before her orphanage placement, reuniting with her in 2010 after a TRT documentary made his story public (Hürriyet Daily News). Can Ülkay’s film ran its October 2017 South Korea PR campaign on “the 60th Anniversary of the Turkish soldiers’ landing in Busan,” backed by Turkish Airlines and the Turkish Culture and Tourism Ministry (Hürriyet Daily News).

Busan by the numbers

Fact	Figure	Source
City population	Over 3.4 million (2023)	The Korea Times
Port standing	2nd-largest transshipment port, 7th-largest container port in the world	The Korea Times
Export share (1970s)	70% of the country’s exports	The Korea Times
Provisional-capital days	1,023 days during the Korean War	The Korea Times
Wartime refugees	Nearly 1 million converged on the city	The Korea Times
UN Memorial Cemetery	2,300+ service members from 14 countries — the world’s only UN cemetery	The Korea Times
Wall of Remembrance names	40,897 fallen soldiers from 17 countries	The Korea Times
Turkish soldiers buried	462 at the Busan UN Memorial Cemetery	Hürriyet Daily News
Turkish troops deployed	21,212 across four brigades	Hürriyet Daily News
Annual visitors	Over 40 million domestic and international	The Korea Times

Frequently asked questions

Why is Busan called Korea’s wartime capital? Busan served as South Korea’s provisional capital for 1,023 days during the 1950–53 Korean War — the government ran the country from the city. Busan is now linking 11 wartime sites, from the UN Memorial Cemetery to Pier 1 of Busan Port, into a “Busan as the Wartime Capital” UNESCO World Heritage bid targeting 2030 (The Korea Times).

What is the UN Memorial Cemetery in Busan? It is the only United Nations memorial cemetery in the world, located in Busan’s Nam District, where more than 2,300 U.N. service members from 14 countries are buried. Its Wall of Remembrance carries 40,897 names from 17 countries, and the flags of the 22 nations that fought for South Korea fly in its Symbolic Area (The Korea Times).

What is Busan’s connection to the film Ayla: The Daughter of War? The film dramatizes Turkish soldier Süleyman Dilbirliği of the 1950 Turkish brigade, who cared for a Korean War orphan named Ayla. In October 2017 it ran its South Korean PR campaign timed — in Hürriyet Daily News’s words — to the anniversary of the Turkish soldiers’ landing in Busan, backed by Turkish Airlines and the Culture Ministry (Hürriyet Daily News).

Is Busan really one of the world’s biggest ports? Yes by several measures: The Korea Times reported in 2023 that it is the world’s second-largest port of transshipment and seventh-largest container port, and South Korea’s main base for trade. The commonly cited “fifth” or “sixth” rankings come from different ranking methods and years (The Korea Times).

What this profile does not claim

• It does not assert Busan’s early history (the 15th-century Japan trade port, the 1876 Treaty of Ganghwa opening, the Japanese colonial period) — those details were available only via lead indexes in this research pass and are held for a future update.
• It does not resolve the 1,023 vs. 1,063 provisional-capital-day discrepancy; it uses the 1,023 figure cited by the city’s UNESCO initiative and flags the 1,063 variant in openItems.
• It does not verify Hürriyet Daily News’s “60th Anniversary” framing for the October 2017 Ayla campaign as literal anniversary arithmetic; it attributes the phrasing to the newspaper.
• It does not give the girl’s Korean name from the Ayla story or details of Dilbirliği’s death; the Daily Sabah obit that carries those was not readable in full in this pass and its details are held.
• It does not claim an outcome for Busan’s World Expo 2030 bid, which the harbor piece discusses only as a proposal.