This article is by Michael Lee and read by an artificial voice.

As sunlight streamed through the stained-glass windows of the Seoul Anglican Cathedral, diplomats, military personnel and congregants from some 20 nations filled the pews, red paper poppies pinned to their lapels.
The hush of Remembrance Day - a moment of silence stretching back more than a century - settled over the historic church in Jeong-dong, central Seoul, which each year hosts a service of commemoration for the war dead that is organized by the British Embassy next door.
The annual service has become a focal point for the community of nations that contributed troops and medical support to South Korea, honoring both victims and heroes of war.
For Cmdr. Charles Wylie, a British Korean War veteran seated among the congregation, the service was a personal ritual. The 91-year-old former naval officer had come to South Korea at the invitation of Seoul's Ministry of Patriots and Veterans Affairs, marking his first visit to the country whose coastlines he once patrolled as a teenage sailor.
"I never set foot in Korea during the war," Wylie said softly. "To stand here now, in peace - it's extraordinary."
A ritual that crosses oceans
Remembrance Day, as it is officially known in Britain and many Commonwealth nations, has its roots in the armistice that ended World War I. The first official observance took place on Nov. 11, 1919, when King George V called for a two-minute silence at Buckingham Palace to honor Britain's fallen troops.
While ceremonies originally took place on the anniversary of the armistice, which took effect at 11 a.m. on Nov. 11, 1918, church commemorations were moved in 1945 to the second Sunday of the month to honor fallen troops and veterans of both world wars.

Central to the tradition is the red poppy - the small paper flower pinned to lapels across Britain and Commonwealth countries in the days leading up to Remembrance Day.
Inspired by the poppies that grew over the battlefields of Flanders in Belgium, the emblem was adopted by the Royal British Legion in 1921 to raise funds for veterans. Today, poppies remain a symbol of remembrance, renewal and the enduring cost of war.
Though the ritual of Remembrance Day began in Britain, it has long since spread to other nations whose soldiers served alongside British troops during World War I. Similar services now take place from Auckland to Nairobi, from Cape Town to Ottawa - and, every year, in Seoul.
Resonance in Korea
In South Korea, the service carries a unique local resonance. The peninsula still bears the imprint of the 1950-53 Korean War, which remains technically unresolved. Britain, then newly emerged from World War II, sent more than 80,000 troops under the United Nations flag - the second-largest contingent after the United States. More than 11,000 were killed or wounded.
The Seoul Anglican Cathedral, built in 1926, bears the scars of that war. Several members of its clergy were martyred during the conflict. Their memory - alongside those of the soldiers who fought under the UN banner - is commemorated each year at the service, as well as by a plaque unveiled by King Charles III during his visit to Korea as Prince of Wales in 1992.

"This is not just a British occasion," said British Ambassador to Korea Colin Crooks, who delivered the first reading from the Book of Micah during the service. "We invite members of all the nations that shared in the sacrifice of the Korean War as well as the world wars. That's why you see countries represented here that aren't part of the Commonwealth."
The multinational nature of Sunday's service was highlighted by the presence of ambassadors, defense attaches and representatives from Australia, Belgium, Canada, Germany, Ghana, Ireland, Kenya, Luxembourg, Malaysia, New Zealand, Nigeria, Papua New Guinea, Poland, South Africa, Tanzania and Zambia, as well as veterans, military families and students from Dulwich College Seoul.
While the Act of Remembrance an...

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