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Vice veteran minister to attend independence fighter's memorial ceremony in China

Published: 25 Mar. 2025, 10:24

A statue of Ahn Jung-geun is unveiled at the Ahn Jung-geun Memorial Hall in central Seoul on March 2. [YONHAP]

Korea will send a vice minister-led government delegation to China this week to attend a memorial ceremony honoring independence activist Ahn Jung-geun (1879-1910), the Ministry of Patriots and Veterans Affairs said Tuesday.

The delegation, led by Vice Veterans Minister Lee Hee-wan, will attend the ceremony marking the 115th death anniversary of the renowned independence fighter at a prison-turned-museum in the northeastern Chinese city of Dalian on Wednesday, the ministry said.

It marks the first time the ministry would send a vice minister-led delegation to the annual event. The ministry said the decision came as this year marks Ahn's 115th death anniversary, as well as Korea's 80th anniversary of liberation from Japan's 1910-45 colonial rule.

Ahn shot and killed Hirobumi Ito, Japan's first prime minister and resident-general of Korea, on Oct. 26, 1909, at Harbin Station in northern China. Five months after the assassination, he was executed at the age of 31.

The ministry vowed continued efforts to honor independence fighters like Ahn and said it plans to launch a civilian-government consultative body to discuss excavating his remains.