U.S. envoy visits museum honoring Korean nationalist leader amid history row

By Sam Kim
SEOUL, Jan. 3 (Yonhap) -- The top U.S. envoy to South Korea made a rare public
visit Saturday to a local museum that honors an ill-fated Korean nationalist
leader and former independence fighter whose government-in-exile was recently
disputed in an official South Korean booklet.
The visit by U.S. Ambassador Kathleen Stephens to the Kim Koo Museum & Library in
Seoul came at a sensitive time as a leading group of former independence fighters
here threatened to relinquish medals awarded by the government in protest over an
official booklet that disputes the legitimacy of their regime-in-exile formed
during the Japanese occupation.
The publication, released in October, describes the 1919-1948 provisional
government as lacking the qualities of an authentic political body but
accentuates the legitimacy of its successor elected exclusively in the South
under U.S. military occupation. The culture minister has expressed regret over
the row and pledged to make revisions, but the group remains up in arms.
Kim Koo, in whose honor the museum is dedicated, was the last president of the
government-in-exile and campaigned to bridge the chasm between Soviet-backed
Pyongyang and U.S.-sponsored Seoul after Korea was liberated from Japan in 1945.
He was assassinated by a right-wing South Korean officer just a year before the
1950-53 Korean War broke out, decisively splitting the peninsula.
Embassy officials brushed aside speculation that Stephens' visit was related to
the booklet released by the conservative Seoul government, which has been at odds
with former independence fighters since assuming office early last year.
Stephens, who speaks fluent Korean and has long taken an academic interest in
Asian history, made headlines when she took office here in October, having taught
English in South Korea as a Peace Corps volunteer more than three decades ago.
samkim@yna.co.kr
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