Controversial description of late Korean War hero deleted

Social Affairs

Published: 25 Jul. 2023, 17:20 Updated: 25 Jul. 2023, 18:53

Controversial description of late Korean War hero deleted

Late Gen. Paik Sun-yup [JOONGANG PHOTO]

The Ministry of Patriots and Veterans Affairs decided to delete a state burial record describing late Korean hero Gen. Paik Sun-yup as a pro-Japanese traitor.

The ministry said a phrase describing Paik as a person who committed "pro-Japanese and anti-national acts" has been removed from his online burial record on Daejeon National Cemetery’s website Monday.

The phrase had been on the website since his burial at the cemetery in July 2020 after a presidential committee in 2009 listed Paik as a pro-Japanese figure.

He was named to the list due to his service in an independent unit of the Manchukuo Imperial Army, the Gando Special Force, which reportedly suppressed Korean guerillas fighting for independence, from 1941 to 1945. Manchukuo was a puppet state established by Japan in Manchuria.

He was also described on the website as a recipient of a Taegeug medal, the first class of the country’s four-degree Order of Military Merit.

Paik, who served as the commander of the Korean Army’s 1st Division, is best remembered for his valor in defeating the North in the critical Battle of Tabu-dong in 1950, a turning point in the Korean War (1950-53).

In 1953, he became Korea's first-ever four-star general at the age of 33.

“It is true that Gen. Paik Suk-yup served in the pro-Japan Gando Special Force but there is no objective material showing that he suppressed Korea’s independence army,” Veterans Minister Park Min-shik said Monday.

He added that the late general was a war hero who received the highest medal of the country’s Order of Military Merit.

A visitor touches the tombstone of late Gen. Paik Sun-yup at Daejeon National Cemetery on July 7. [JOONGANG PHOTO]

In February, Paik’s family submitted a petition to the ministry to remove the description, complaining that it defamed the deceased and violated the Act on the Establishment and Management of National Cemeteries.

The ministry explained that the phrase, irrelevant to his merits, does not align with the purpose and decision to bury him at the national cemetery.

The ministry also agreed that the description could defame the deceased, stressing that the decision was made with neither consultation with his family members nor thorough legal reviews.

Following the decision, the Heritage of Korean Independence, an association of independence fighters and their descendants, asked to put the phrase back, calling the ministry’s decision a “hasty decision that could cause divisions among the public.”

“The Veterans Ministry unilaterally removed the record that described late Gen. Paik’s pro-Japanese actions from the Daejeon National Cemetery’s website with neither proper legal consultation nor public consensus,” the Heritage of Korean Independence said in its statement on Monday.

“It is also unfair that the ministry is particularly focusing on Paik, ditching all other priorities without mentioning other veterans involved in similar controversies.”

BY CHO JUNG-WOO [cho.jungwoo1@joongang.co.kr]