President Lee Jae Myung speaks throughout a coverage briefing by the training ministry in Sejong, Monday. Yonhap
President Lee Jae Myung has instructed the veterans ministry to revoke the designation of a late Military colonel as an individual of nationwide advantage, officers stated Monday, following criticism over his previous function within the suppression of a civilian rebellion on Jeju Island in 1948.
Lee gave the order a day earlier because the ministry had come beneath fireplace for granting the designation to the late Col. Park Jin-kyung, who has been accused of main operations that concerned the violent crackdown in opposition to civilians in the course of the Jeju rebellion.
In October, the Ministry of Patriots and Veterans Affairs authorised a request from one among Park’s bereaved members of the family to acknowledge him as an individual of nationwide advantage, citing a navy ornament he had obtained for fight advantage. The certificates of nationwide advantage was delivered to the household final month.
After the choice grew to become public earlier this month, the ministry apologized to victims and bereaved households of the Jeju incident for failing to correctly display screen the case.
Veterans Minister Kwon Oh-eul final week visited Jeju to personally apologize, however stated the ministry at present lacks the authority to revoke the designation, noting that such motion would require amendments to the present system.
The Jeju rebellion started on April 3, 1948, and continued for seven years, involving resistance by Jeju islanders in the course of the interval of the U.S. military-led rule within the wake of Korea’s liberation from Japanese occupation.
The protests left an estimated 14,000 to 30,000 civilians, or as much as 10 % of the island’s inhabitants on the time, killed in armed crackdowns.
