Justice Minister Han Dong-hoon (4th from L, 2nd row) and other participants pose for a photo at the National Memorial of the Korean Provisional Government in Seoul on Aug. 11, 2022, during a ceremony to grant Korean citizenship to 20 descendants of independence fighters against Japan’s colonial rule of the Korean Peninsula. (Yonhap)
SEOUL, Aug. 12 (Korea Bizwire) — The Ministry of Justice has granted Korean citizenship to some descendants of independence fighters against Japan’s colonial rule of the Korean Peninsula.
The ministry held a ceremony on Thursday, four days ahead of the 77th anniversary of Korea’s liberation from the 1910-45 colonial rule, and issued citizenship certificates to 20 descendants of independence patriots.
Among the descendants of independence patriots who acquired Korean citizenship, nine were from Kazakhstan, nine from China, one from Uzbekistan and one from Russia.
“I’d like to sincerely congratulate the descendants of independence patriots to have the legitimate qualification to live here as members of Korean society under the constitution and law,” Justice Minister Han Dong-hoon said during the citizenship ceremony.
“I look forward to you settling down here for generations and living as proud Koreans.”
“I’d like to thank you for remembering what my grandfather did for the independence of this country. I’ll become a proud Korean as one of the descendants of independence patriots,” said a descendant of independence fighters.
The conferment ceremony was attended by Chang Ho-kwon, chief of the Heritage of Korean Independence, and In Yo-han, a professor at Yonsei University and the first special naturalized South Korean citizen, who gave words of encouragement to the descendants.
M. H. Lee (mhlee@koreabizwire.com)
