Veterans Ministry to expand state awards to independence activists

The Ministry of Patriots and Veterans Affairs said on Wednesday that it will seek to identify more independence activists who have yet to be recognized for their role in achieving Korea’s independence from Japan’s 1910-45 colonial rule and award them state honors.

In a policy briefing to President Lee Jae Myung, the ministry said that it plans to award more than 600 independence activists not recognized by the state, up from 502 in 2025.

The government is also pushing to reassess the contributions of independence activists by reviewing newly discovered achievements and granting additional state honors based on the findings.

“Given that times have changed, I suggested that it may be necessary to revisit the criteria,” Veterans Minister Kwon Oh-eul said during a press briefing on Monday.

The ministry is considering focusing the reassessment on independence activists who were awarded the order of the president or the order of independence before the 1970s, when historical records and relevant research were insufficient.

There are currently about 18,000 people who have been awarded state honors as independence activists, most of whom were awarded in the 1960s, according to Kwon.

A total of 22 people have so far requested a review of their contributions for a possible upgrade in the level of their state honors, the ministry said.

The Veterans Ministry also said that it will propose a special bill this year to oversee the country’s hosting of the Invictus Games in 2029 in the central city of Daejeon and launch the organizing committee by 2027.

The Invictus Games Foundation in Britain chose Daejeon, located about 140 kilometers (87 miles) south of Seoul, over Aalborg in Denmark and San Diego to host the 2029 competition. It marks the first time that an Asian country has been selected to host the games.

On Wednesday, the ministry also unveiled plans to conduct an on-site survey of all 1,032 overseas historical sites related to Korea’s independence movement by 2028.

Under the plan, the ministry will inspect 258 sites in China and Japan this year, followed by 413 sites in 2027 and the remaining 361 sites in 2028.

Yonhap