President Moon Jae-in paid a visit to the gravesites of Korean independence fighters in the rain Tuesday marking the 72nd anniversary of Korean liberation from Japanese colonial rule.
Moon arrived in the morning at Hyochang Park, central Seoul, where the graves of Kim Goo and three other key members of the Provisional Government of the Republic of Korea are located. As it rained throughout the capital area, he walked toward the tombs followed closely by a protocol officer with an umbrella. The president, however, laid down flowers and paid his respects at the tombs in the heavy rain.
Kim Goo, also known by his pen name Baekbeom, was a prominent Korean nationalist politician and independence fighter who headed the provisional government of Korea from 1940 until the country's liberation at the end of World War II. Korea was a colony of Japan from 1910-1945. The three other independence fighters are Lee Bong-chang, Yun Bong-gil and Baek Jeong-gi.
Moon became the second South Korean president to ever pay a visit to the gravesites of Kim Goo and the three other prominent independence fighters after late President Kim Dae-jung visited there in June 1998.
He was accompanied by the minister of Patriots and Veterans Affairs, the minister of Interior and Safety, and several senior presidential aides. (Yonhap)