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Former President Moon Jae-in. (Yonhap)

Former President Moon Jae-in called out the Yoon Suk-yeol administration for its push to relocate a bust of Korean independence fighter Hong Beom-do and urged the presidential office to withdraw its plan so as to “avoid bringing shame” upon Korea’s history and national martyrs.

With controversy over the issue continuing, Moon reiterated his opposition to the removal of the bust after expressing disapproval of the decision last week.

“Even if this has been discussed by the Korea Military Academy, since the controversy has grown to this extent, it would only be right for the presidential office to step in and clear up the issue,” Moon wrote on his Facebook page on Sunday.

The former president wrote that he was weighing in on the issue once again “so as to prevent shame and regret in the historical record.”

The removal of the bust “distorts history and undermines the legitimacy and identity of the armed forces and the Korea Military Academy itself,” Moon wrote.

“I am deeply concerned about the move to remove the busts of the heroes of the armed independence movement at the Korea Military Academy campus,” Moon wrote on Facebook on Aug. 27.

Writing that the battles of Fengwudong and Qingshanli in Manchuria were “the first great victories of our independence army units against the Japanese army after the provisional government of the Republic of Korea declared its war of independence against Japan,” Moon argued that “these costly victories enriched and made brilliant the history of our independence movement, establishing armed independence struggle as its central pillar.”

He went on to state that “the hardships of the independence army units, who were driven out of Manchuria and forced to fall back on Soviet soil due to Japanese repression, also serve as a manifestation of their indomitable will to continue the armed struggle for independence despite living in poverty and homelessness. To denigrate the achievements for independence soldiers because of their inevitable collaboration with the Soviet Union would only make us a backward and narrow-minded nation.”

The former president went on to explain the decision to erect busts of independence fighters including Hong, Ji Cheong-cheon, Lee Beom-seok, Kim Jwa-jin, and Lee Hoe-yeong at the academy during his term in office.

“Placing busts of these five independence heroes on the grounds of the academy was an act of attesting that our nation’s armed forces were not formed as an offshoot of the Japanese military, but are the successors of the Independence Army and Liberation Army, and that the Korea Military Academy has its very roots in the Shinheung Military Academy, thus elevating the legitimacy of Korea’s armed forces and the Korea Military Academy,” the former president wrote.

“To remove or relocate the bust of General Hong Beom-do alone would not change the consequences,” Moon wrote.

“Hong lost two sons in Korea’s war for independence, and his wife was martyred after being arrested and tortured by Imperial Japan. We can come nowhere close to that level of patriotism and devotion,” Moon concluded.

By Lee Woo-yun, staff reporter

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