On the 81st National Liberation Day of Korea, 7,622 medals for independence activists remain undelivered to descendants

Although the country marked the 81st National Liberation Day of Korea, more than 7,600 cases have been identified in which medals could not be delivered because descendants of those who contributed to the independence movement could not be found.
According to the Ministry of Patriots and Veterans Affairs (MPVA) on the 15th, a total of 7,622 independence activists who were recognized for their contributions to the independence movement were awarded honors such as the Order of Merit for National Foundation, the National Foundation Merit Medal, and the Presidential Citation, but their medals have not been physically delivered because their descendants could not be located.
By region, Gyeonggi Province had the largest number of undelivered recipients at 547. It was followed by South Chungcheong Province with 456, Jeonbuk with 412, North Gyeongsang Province with 371, Gangwon Province with 347, Jeollanam-do with 278, South Gyeongsang Province with 246, Seoul with 214, North Chungcheong Province with 183, and Jeju Province with 27.
Even after excluding 3,026 people, or 39.7%, whose registered family origin was in the North, and 1,479 people whose family origin could not be confirmed at all, about 40% of all undelivered medal recipients still have family origins in the South but remain difficult to trace through their descendants.
The difficulty in tracing descendants is attributed to the fact that many of these figures carried out independence activities under harsh Japanese colonial rule while hiding their identities, or died young before leaving children behind. In many cases, they never told their families about their independence activities, leaving records broken and incomplete.
More than 80 years after liberation, the problem of undelivered medals has continued. In the case of patriot Kim Su-min, who led an armed resistance in Jangdan County, Gyeonggi Province, now part of Paju and Yeoncheon County, and died in the struggle against Japanese rule, the Independence Medal was posthumously awarded in 1962. However, the medal has remained undelivered for 64 years because no descendants have been found. Another patriot, Ahn Gyeong-suk, who died while raising funds for an anti-Japanese militia in the Yangju and Pocheon area, was only recognized this year for independence-related merit, more than 118 years later, and was posthumously awarded the Patriotic Medal. Yet neither descendants nor even the location of the grave has been confirmed.
To deliver undelivered medals to the descendants of patriots, the MPVA launched a descendant-tracing project for overseas independence activists in 2007. Since 2018, it has also been operating the Independence Hero Descendants Verification Committee, made up of experts in history, genealogy, and family law, under a ministerial directive on the establishment and operation of the committee.
The ministry is also working with local governments nationwide to display lists of undelivered medals and collect tips. Through these efforts, it delivered a total of 770 medals to descendants from 2022 through July this year, over the past four years and seven months. 

[email protected] Kim Dong-gyu Reporter