Pavel Tsoi (left), holding his nephew Danila Tsoi, poses for photos at a naturalization ceremony at the National Memorial of the Korean Provisional Government in Seodaemun-gu, Seoul, Monday. Including Tsoi and his five relatives from Russia, 27 descendants of 14 independence activists obtained Korean nationality. (Park Ga-young/The Korea Herald)
On Monday, ahead of the 79th anniversary of National Liberation Day celebrated on Aug. 15, a special ceremony took place at the National Memorial of the Korean Provisional Government, which opened in 2022 to commemorate the China-based Korean government in exile during Japanese colonization from 1910-45.
A total of 27 descendants of 14 independence activists -- 14 from Russia, 11 from China, one from Kazakhstan and one from Cuba -- became Korean nationals upon receiving citizenship certificates issued by the minister of justice.
Among them were six descendants of Tsoi Chan-sik, who received a National Medal, one of South Korea's orders of merit, in 2006. Tsoi passed away in 1926 in Grodekovo, a Russian area that borders China.
Almost a century later, Tsoi’s great-grandson Pavel Tsoi, his sister and her son along with three other relatives have become citizens of the country that their great-grandfather would have claimed as his own, had he lived to see it. Tsoi, 43, said he grew up listening to the story of his great-grandfather, who fought for Korea's independence in the 1920s in Primorsky Krai in the Russian Far East and later taught at a school in the Grodekovo area.
While the legacy of Pavel’s great-grandfather is rooted in fighting for Korea's independence, Pavel’s decision to become Korean aligns with a more contemporary view of patriotism: addressing the issue of the country's low birth rate.
“South Korea is suffering from a low birth rate. I have three kids, and my sister has two,” Tsoi, 43, told The Korea Herald on Monday, just minutes after becoming a Korean citizen.
Tsoi, speaking in English, said he and his family moved to South Korea in February and he has been learning Korean at a university language school.
"I think all the descendants living abroad should think about Korean citizenship," he said.
Penjan Antonio Eng Lim from Cuba is the first in his family to obtain Korean nationality.
“My great-grandfather was never able to come back, and I think he would have wanted me to become a Korean if he were alive,” he told The Korea Herald.
In the late 1920s, at the request of Kim Ku, the head of the KPG, Lim's great-grandfather encouraged the Korean diaspora in Cuba to raise funds for the government in exile.
Lim, who first came to South Korea on a Korean government scholarship, is pursuing a master’s degree in artificial intelligence at Chungnam National University in Daejeon.
“To pay back my great-grandfather’s sacrifice and the South Korean government’s support, I’ll do my best to contribute to the country in the field of artificial intelligence,” Lim said.
A photo labeled “Anti-Japan Righteous Armies” taken in 1907 by Frederick A. Mackenzie, a Canadian-born war correspondent of the London-based newspaper the Daily Mail. (Independence Hall of Korea)
With the addition of the Tsoi family and Lim, the total number of descendants of independence activists granted citizenship by South Korea since 2004 has reached 1,392. The year 2006 marked a significant milestone, with citizenship granted to 163 descendants of independence activists, compared to just seven in 2004 and 2005 combined.
Although the legal foundation for granting South Korean citizenship was established in 1998 through a revision of the Nationality Law enforcement ordinance for descendants of independence activists who had been officially recognized and honored for their contributions to the country's independence movement, it was not until 2006 that the country began to implement these measures in earnest.
It was around this time that South Korea belatedly began to attempt to address unresolved historical issues with the enactment of the Framework Act on Clearing up Past Incidents for Truth and Reconciliation.
These efforts are evident in the number of national medal awardees for their contributions to independence activities.
As of March this year, 18,018 independence activists have been officially recognized. The recognition of these national heroes gained significant momentum only after the turn of the century. Of the more than 18,000 recognized activists, 8,658 were honored between 1949 and 1999. Remarkably, in the subsequent 25 years, the recognition of independence activists surpassed this number, with 9,360 honored in this more recent period.
The Ministry of Patriots and Veterans Affairs explained that changes in the number of recognized independence activists are attributable to the relaxation of the criteria for awarding independence medals.
The relaxation of criteria in 2018, including the abolition of the minimum imprisonment period requirement and more proactive reviews for female independence activists, led to a temporary increase in the number of awards from 2018 to 2022, according to the Ministry of Patriots and Veterans Affairs.
Efforts to locate the relatives of national heroes continue, but the ministry, which was upgraded to full-fledged ministry status in June 2023, struggles to locate descendants. As of Tuesday, the ministry was still looking for descendants of more than 7,200 awardees of national medals, but achieving 100 percent success appears to be impossible.
Currently, 90 percent of merit award recipients are determined by investigations conducted by the Ministry of Patriots and Veterans Affairs rather than by applications from family members.
There are many reasons behind the imbalance.
Most independence activists participated in the movement when they were young, so many do not have any descendants. Many records of activists who secretly participated in independence movements in regions like Manchuria have been lost, making it very difficult to locate their descendants. Additionally, using pseudonyms was common to protect the identities and the safety of the activists' families. Even if the descendants of the independence activists are alive, they are often unaware of their ancestors' merits.
“Many descendants of independence activists, especially those who were active in foreign countries, are unaware of their ancestors' awards,” a ministry official told The Korea Herald. "We hope to find the descendants of Persons of Distinguished Service to Independence to deliver the medal and to honor their service and contribution to the country."
Those who are immediate descendants of persons of distinguished service to independence should contact the ministry for more information.
Capture of Seodaemun Prison History Hall's video introduction of the 2020 exhibition "Looking for descendants of forgotten heroes." (Seodaemun Prison History Hall)
MOST POPULAR