"광주학생독립운동 유공자 290명"
The Ministry of
Patriots' and Veterans' Affairs revealed yesterday that 290 people have been
recognized for their contributions to the Gwangju Students Independence
Movement. The number has increased from 215 because of revised criteria of
examination. The criteria of examination were revised last June to include
people who were expelled from school because of their participation in the
independence movement back in the Japanese colonial era.
As this year is
the 90th anniversary of the movement, citizens of Gwangju are calling for
additional recognition of participants. They said that the number of men of
national merit is too little considering that there were more than 54,000
students from 320 schools participating in the movement from November of 1929
to March of 1930. But the Ministry of Patriots' and Veterans' Affairs released
a statement, saying that they held off recognizing some people because of their
later socialist activity. The recognition on the list of men of national merit
of those who joined the North Korean government when Korea was divided into two
would have violated the current Korean constitution.
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Busan E-FM