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Descendents of Korea’s iconic composer Hong Nan-pa (1891-1941) have decided to withdraw a lawsuit they filed against the government to have him excluded permanently from a state-sponsored list of pro-Japanese collaborators during Japan’s colonial rule of Korea (1910-1945).
The Seoul Administrative Court said Tuesday that Hong’s descendents dropped the suit filed against the Minister of Public Administration and Security on Nov. 4, a day before the court delivered a verdict. With the defendants agreeing to the withdrawal, the trial came to an end.
Accordingly, the composer, who has been exempt from the list under a temporary court order issued last November, will likely be put back on the “disgraced” register.
A list of 704 names who were collaborators during the final stages of Japanese colonial rule from 1937 through 1945 was announced in November last year by the Presidential Committee for the Inspection of Collaborations for Japanese Imperialism (PCIC). At the time, the committee sought to include Hong on the list but could not do so as the court ruled against it by accepting complaints filed by his descendents.
The court said more extensive inquiries should be carried out to confirm whether the composer actively cooperated with Japanese authorities during the colonial rule.
Born in Namyang, Gyeonggi Province, Hong is regarded as Korea’s first Western composer and creator of some of the most beloved lyrical songs, among them “Bongseonhwa,” “Yetdongsan” and “Seongbulsa.” But he was reportedly involved in pro-Japanese activities later in his life.
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