Home > News > Seoul to Donate Korean Flag to Independence Memorial Hall in the Netherlands

Seoul city will donate one of the 3,600 national flags, or Taegukki, that covered the city hall during the Aug. 15 Liberation Day celebrations to a Korean independence memorial located in The Hague, the Netherlands.

Each of the flags are tagged with a serial number and flag No.1 will be sent to the three-story memorial hall dedicated to Yi Jun (1858-1907), a Korean independence activist, located in The Hague, according to the city officials.

The Yi Jun memorial is currently the only monument in Europe commemorating Korea's independence from Japanese colonial rule.

The Seoul city government yesterday announced the recipients of the Liberation Day flags after it received applications from Aug. 24 to Sept. 2. More than 42,000 people applied for the flags, according to Seoul city officials. Winners of the draw will be able to purchase the flags at 1,000 won each.

Overseas Korean groups, such as the operators of The Hague memorial, and people over 90 years old were excluded from the draw and were distributed the flags selectively.

The Yi Jun memorial opened in 1995 by Korean Lee Ki-hang and his wife Song Chang-ju, after the couple bought De Yong hotel in the downtown area of The Hague for $200,000 and redecorated it.

De Yong was where Yi Jun stayed when he attended The Hague Peace Convention in 1907 as a diplomat promoting Korean independence.

"It's the memorial's 10th anniversary and 2007 will be the 100th anniversary of Yi Jun's death. It would import great significance to the memorial if it were decorated with one of the flags that covered city hall on Liberation Day," said Song in a released statement. Song and Lee were unreachable for comment.

Seoul had originally planned to distribute the 3,600 flags that covered city hall to citizens for free.

However, the National Election Commission objected to the plans, saying that it would violate local election laws if Seoul City government handed out the flags for free. City officials were forced to put a 1,000 won price tag on the flags.

Along with Yi Sang-sol and Yi Wi-jong, Yi Jun was among the three representatives dispatched to The Hague by Kojong, the 26th king of the Chosun Dynasty and the first emperor of the Taehan Empire, to attend the Second World Peace Conference in June, 1907.

Although attempting to denounce Japanese aggression and stress Korea's sovereignty internationally, the envoys failed to produce meaningful results.

Yi Jun died in The Hague in the following month, aggrieved with disappointment following the failed mission.

2005-09-08

© The Korea Times