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Independence fighter's bust to remain at military academy after relocation row

Published: 26 May. 2025, 21:02

Cadets and attendees pose for a photo during the unveiling ceremony of busts honoring five independence fighters, including Gen. Hong Beom-do, at the Korea Military Academy in Seoul inMarch 1, 2018. [YONHAP]

The Korea Military Academy has decided to retain the bust of a revered Korean independence fighter on its campus, a lawmaker said Monday, reversing an earlier relocation plan that had sparked a heated public debate.

The bust of Gen. Hong Beom-do, a leader of Korean independence forces from the time of Japan's 1910-45 colonial rule of Korea, will stay at the Chungmu education facility inside the institution, the academy said in response to a query by Rep. Jung Sung-ho of the Democratic Party.

In 2023, the defense ministry announced plans to relocate Hong's bust to the Independence Hall of Korea in the country's central region and the busts of four other independence fighters erected at the academy to a third location. The ministry had cited Hong's controversial ties to Soviet communist forces.

The move sparked fierce debate over its legitimacy and drew strong protests from liberal political groups and advocates for independence fighters.

The busts of the five independence fighters were originally installed in 2018 at the academy under the previous liberal Moon Jae-in government. The relocation plan was therefore widely seen as an attempt by the conservative government of then-President Yoon Suk Yeol to reverse Moon's initiative.

According to Jung, the academy also plans to keep the busts of the four other independence fighters.

Hong is known for leading Korean independence forces and spearheading major victories against Japanese troops in 1920. He moved to Russia the following year to seek refuge from Japanese forces.

He was forced to relocate to current-day Kazakhstan in 1937 under then Soviet leader Joseph Stalin's policy, along with many other ethnic Koreans, before his death in 1943.

YONHAP