Provisional gov’t memorial planned for Seoul

Korea’s veterans ministry announced a plan Tuesday to build a memorial for the nation’s “provisional government,” which was based in Chongqing, China, during Japan’s colonial rule of Korea.

The five-story, state-funded edifice will be constructed on a 5,695-square-meter (1.4-acre) site near Seodaemun Independence Park in Seoul by August 2020, according to the Ministry of Patriots and Veterans Affairs.

An official ground-breaking ceremony is slated for April 2019, it added.

The project came as President Moon Jae-in pledged the construction of such a facility in South Korea during a visit to the Museum of the Korean Provisional Government in Chongqing in December.

The Korean Provisional Government was first established in Shanghai and finally settled in Chongqing when Korea was a Japanese colony from 1910-45.

In 2019, Korea will mark the 100th anniversary of the founding of the provisional government and the March 1 popular uprising against Japan’s colonial rule.

“Just as the Korean Provisional Government was established on the basis of the unity of various forces and participating spirits of patriotic martyrs, the construction of the national memorial is expected to serve as a chance to promote national unity,” Minister Pi Woo-jin said.

Yonhap