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President Moon Jae-in and his wife Kim Jung-sook are joined by citizens shouting, “Manse!” in front of Independence Gate after they marched from Seodaemun Prison following Independence Movement Day celebrations on Mar. 1. (Blue House Photo Pool)
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The remarks stand in contrast to conservative views which put the Republic’s foundation at 1948
President Moon Jae-in drove home the message that the “roots” of the Republic of Korea lie in the provisional government formed in 1919 through the March 1 Movement. The March 1 Movement was one of the earliest public displays of Korean resistance during the rule of Korea by Japan from the annexation of 1910 until the liberation in 1945. The name refers to an event that occurred on March 1, 1919, when the Korean people staged a series of demonstrations against the Japanese colonial authorities. The Provisional Government was subsequently formed as a Korean government-in-exile on April 13 of that year in Shanghai. It later moved to Chongqing after Shanghai was occupied by the Japanese military. “The March 1 Movement is what created the Republic of Korea as a democratic republic where the people are sovereigns,” Moon declared in a celebratory address for the movement’s 99th anniversary on Mar. 1. “The greatest achievement of the March 1 Movement was the formation of a provisional government for the Republic of Korea with its declaration of independence,” he added. Pledging to “establish the March 1 Movement spirit and the lives of independence activists as the mainstream of the Republic of Korea’s history,” Moon declared that citizens desiring autonomy and peace represented the sovereigns of the democratic republic. Moon’s address came during a commemorative ceremony for the March 1 Movement at Seoul’s Seodaemun Prison History Hall. This was the first time that the Mar. 1 commemorative ceremony was held at this site. More than 100,000 independence activists were held in this prison as a result of their activities, with many suffering torture, abuse, and even death. “The Constitution of the Republic of Korea’s provisional government formed through the March 1 movement clearly inscribed that the Republic of Korea is a democratic republic, and that the country’s sovereignty lay with its people,” he said. “This would eventually become what is now Article 1 of the Republic of Korea’s Constitution,” he added. “In addition to Article 1 of the Constitution, the Republic of Korea provisional government also bequeathed us with the name ‘Republic of Korea’ and the national symbols of the Taegeukgi [South Korean flag] and national anthem,” Moon said. “It is for this reason that our Constitution describes the Republic of Korea as having inherited the traditions of the provisional government.” With his remarks, Moon dismissed claims by some conservatives that the Republic of Korea’s foundation came in 1948. During the past administrations of Lee Myung-bak (2008–13) and Park Geun-hye (2013–16), many vociferously argued that the Republic of Korea’s foundation date should viewed as Aug. 15, 1948, when an independent South Korean government founded, rather than the date the provisional government was established. Critics contended that establishment forces were attempting to diminish collaborationist activities with Japan before the 1948 establishment of the ROK government. In response, Moon stressed that the Republic of Korea’s roots lay in the traditions of the provisional government formed in Shanghai in 1919. In his address, Moon used the term “hundred years” no fewer than five times, pledging to “make the hundred years since the March 1 Movement and foundation of the Republic of Korea into a new starting line for prosperity based in peace and the creation of a permanent peace regime.” Moon also argued that the history of the South Korean armed forces began with the Independency Army, noting that the “Republic of Korea provisional government established the Independence Army as its first regular army in 1940.” March 1 address represents a continuation of past themes Moon has stressed the provisional government’s role as the roots for the Republic of Korea’s foundation several times in the past. While paying respects at Seoul National Cemetery in January, he wrote a message in the visitors’ log pledging to “prepare for the 100th anniversary of the foundation of a country where the people are sovereigns.” During a Dec. 2017 visit to a provisional government complex in the Chinese city of Chongqing, he said, “We view the provisional government’s establishment as the foundation of the Republic of Korea,” adding that 2019 would be “the hundredth anniversary of the March 1 movement and hundredth anniversary of the provisional government’s foundation, which makes it the hundredth anniversary of the Republic of Korea’s foundation.” “The provisional government constitutes the roots and traditions of the Republic of Korea,” he said at the time. Along similar lines, Moon recently established a presidential committee to organize efforts commemorating the March 1 Movement and the centennial of the provisional government’s foundation, tapping former deputy prime minister for unification Han Wan-sang to serve as civilian committee head. In his address, Moon also announced plans to build a memorial hall for the Republic of Korea government by 2020 and said the Independence Army general command in Chongqing would be restored by next year for provisional government’s hundredth anniversary. Moon further declared that he would help established the “righteous citizens” behind the candlelight revolution as South Korea’s mainstream rather than collaborators with Japan, chaebol, and vested interests implicated in deep-rooted social ills. “The March 1 Movement is what created the Republic of Korea as a democratic republic where the people are sovereigns,” he said. Moon casts candlelight demonstrations as a continuation of the March 1 Movement “Last winter, we went back 100 years in time and resurrected the history of citizen sovereignty that began with the March 1 Movement,” he added, referring to the candlelight movement that led to the impeachment of then-President Park Geun-hye. Moon went on to say that a “new history of citizen sovereignty is being written toward the hundredth anniversary of the Republic of Korea’s foundation.” “This administration and I shall firmly protect the country of citizen sovereignty that those candles lighted anew,” he said. The “replacement of the Republic of Korea’s mainstream” has been a recurring political theme for Moon. During a Himalayan trek in June 2016 after temporarily leaving government service, he responded to questions about why he chose politics by saying he “wanted to change the mainstream.” In his speech accepting the presidential nomination on Apr. 3 of last year, he declared, “This needs to be a country where these kinds of citizens – people who share each other’s suffering and reach out in the presence of common sense and justice – represent the mainstream.” A senior Blue House source said that it is, “President Moon’s firm conviction that forces of the independence movement and righteous citizens, rather than collaborationists, should be the true sovereigns of the democratic republic.” Moon concluded his address by encouraging South Koreans to be proud. “We have our great forebears who campaigned for independence and established a democratic republic, we have the second and third generations who escaped dire poverty and achieved economic development and democracy, and we have the countless candles that lit the way for us ahead,” he said. “We have no need to diminish ourselves any longer,” he stressed. “We have these great roots for the people in the March 1 Movement that brought liberation and popular sovereignty,” Moon continued. “These great roots will grow a solid tree of peace and prosperity on the Korean Peninsula, allowing the Republic of Korea to become the greatest and most beautiful country in the world.” By Seong Yeon-cheol, staff reporter Please direct questions or comments to [english@hani.co.kr]
