Park's speech reignites controversy over South Korea's founding

By Lee Kyung-min

President Park Geun-hye’s Liberation Day speech has reignited controversy as she apparently sought to recognize 1948 as the year of the nation’s founding.

Such recognition is seen as a move to make little of the provisional government established by Korean independence fighters in Shanghai in 1919.

Liberal historians point out that Park’s remarks may be seen to legitimize collaborators from the Japanese occupation era (1910-45) by framing them as the founding members of the government, a stance long asserted by the New Right, a group of right-wing conservative historians.

In Monday’s speech televised nationwide on the occasion of the 71th Liberation Day, Park said, “Today marks the 71st Liberation Day and the 68th anniversary of the nation’s founding.”

Her remarks came only three days after former independence activist Kim Young-kwan, 92, demanded during a luncheon at Cheong Wa Dae that the right-wing move be put to an end as it would only distort history, further dividing the country.

“The Constitution states that the people are to uphold and honor the provisional government set up in the spirit of the March 1, 1919, Independence Movement. The current administration should not downplay the historical significance of the provisional government and its struggles for independence which paved the way for Korea’s founding,” he said.

The controversy over the country’s founding year was first triggered in 2006 by Seoul National University economics professor Rhee Young-hoon who wrote a column in the local daily DongA Ilbo saying that the nation needs to designate a “Foundation Day,” to celebrate what he called the “true light” that came to the Korean people following the end of Japanese occupation.

In 2007, Rep. Jung Kab-yoon of the Grand National Party, the predecessor of the conservative Saenuri Party, proposed a bill seeking to change the holiday name from Liberation Day to Foundation Day, only to withdraw in September 2008 following strong public uproar.

In 2008, former President Lee Myung-bak held a special event to commemorate the founding of the Korean government using the name “Foundation Day,” but most liberal politicians refused to attend.