The Chinese city of Harbin plans to reopen the memorial hall for renowned Korean independence fighter Ahn Jung-geun at its renovated main railway station during the first half of this year, a source here said Monday.
According to the source, the Chinese authorities have recently expressed such an intention to the South Korean government, which had made several inquiries about the issue.
Ahn's memorial hall was built at Harbin Station in Harbin, Heilongjiang Province, in January 2014 to commemorate his assassination of a top Japanese colonial official there more than a century ago.
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(Yonhap) |
Ahn shot the Korean Peninsula's first Japanese governor-general, Hirobumi Ito, to death at Harbin Station on Oct. 26, 1909, before being executed by colonial Japan on March 26, 1910, at the age of 30.
The memorial hall was moved to an ethnic Korean arts center in Harbin in March 2017 due to renovation work at the railway station.
Harbin Station reopened last December but the former site of Ahn's memorial hall was vacant when Yonhap News Agency visited the station on Feb. 20.
In addition, two platform floor markings commemorating the assassination of Ito have yet to be restored, despite the completion of flooring installation work on the station's platforms.
The station previously had two small marks on the ground of Platform No. 1: a triangle marking where Ahn pulled the trigger and a square marking the position of Ito's collapse.
The two marks were removed because of the renovation work.
The source said the Chinese side is basically determined to reinstall the two markings in time for the reopening of the Ahn memorial hall but has yet to clarify the timing of this.
In this regard, Yonhap News contacted officials in charge of the matter at the Harbin municipal government but they declined an interview. (Yonhap)
