A draft of Korea's first declaration of independence was made public for the first time. The hand-written document served as the basis for the country’s later declarations of self-determination in 1919. Our Kim Da-mi has more. A ceremony marking the centennial of the declaration of Korean independence was held at Seoul City Hall on Friday.
Hosted by Cho So-ang Memorial Association and Samgyun Association,... the event honored 39 independence activists as well as the February 1st Declaration,... the first document of its kind asserting the nation's right to self-determination.
Read out by Cho In-rae,... a descendant of Cho So-ang, an independence activist who wrote the draft,... the statement rejected Japan's colonial rule of Korea and urged independence activists to fight against the Japanese Empire.
Shown to the public for the first time on Friday, the declaration was completed in China on February 1st of 1919,... exactly one hundred years ago.
It was then signed by Korean independence activists dispersed throughout the world... including those in Russia and Manchuria.
The hand-written declaration originally consisted of five pages, but two of them are currently unaccounted for.
The two missing pages reportedly included... a declaration of Japan as the enemy and the assertion of Korea's independence from Japanese rule.
Though the draft is not as well known as the February 8th and the March 1st declarations, the February 1st Declaration laid an important foundation for the two documents that later followed,... pioneering Korea's independence movement. KIM Da-mi, Arirang News.
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