A Japanese colonial-era surveillance card for independence activist Moon Yong-bae. [Provided by Suwon]
A Japanese colonial-era surveillance card for independence activist Moon Yong-bae. [Provided by Suwon]

Two independence activists from Suwon, uncovered by the city government, have been added to the national list of honored independence patriots.

Suwon city announced Friday that Moon Yong-bae (1916–unknown) and Yun Gyeong-ui (1893–unknown), both from Suwon, are among the 283 independence patriots recognized by the Ministry of Patriots and Veterans to mark the 81st Liberation Day on Saturday.

The two were identified by Suwon city last year on the occasion of the 80th anniversary of liberation, and the city submitted applications on their behalf. Their contributions, which had gone unrecognized, have now received official acknowledgment from the state.

Moon was posthumously awarded the Order of Merit for National Foundation (Aejokjang). A native of Yangsan-ri, Seongho-myeon, Suwon-gun, he worked as a laborer at the Yongsan workshop before being arrested in connection with the Korean Communist Party Reconstruction Movement — known as the Gyeongseong Kom Group case — and imprisoned at Seodaemun Prison in May 1937. Convicted of violating the Peace Preservation Law, he was sentenced to one year in prison with a three-year suspended sentence and served roughly two years before his release on April 14, 1939.

Yun, who will receive a presidential commendation, was a farmer from Maehwa-ri, Seosin-myeon, Suwon-gun. In 1937, during the wartime mobilization period, he was sentenced to six months in prison on charges of spreading rumors that Japanese forces were losing.

Little is known about the two men's lives after their resistance activities, or about their descendants. Suwon city researched and submitted the honor applications on their behalf.

The city began systematically researching Suwon's independence activists in 2008, when the Suwon Museum opened, and has continued the effort since.

In 2009, Kim Hyang-hwa — a Suwon gisaeng who led independence rallies — received a presidential commendation, and in 2012, Lee Seon-gyeong, who organized a secret resistance society and died for her country at 19, was awarded the Order of Merit for National Foundation (Aegukjang).

Building on the discovery of 113 previously unrecognized activists between 2017 and 2018, the city applied for honors for 15 individuals in 2019 — the centennial year of the March 1st Movement and the founding of the Provisional Government of the Republic of Korea — and nine of them were recognized the following year.

Two more received honors in 2024, and after the city identified seven additional activists last year and submitted applications, two of them have now been recognized in this latest round.


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