| Bukgwan Victory Monument |
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Information AboutBukgwan Victory Monument |
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| military history of korea | |
| japanese-korean relations | |
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CREATION The Seven-Year War resulted from two Japanese invasions, in 1592 and 1597 . The Koreans and their Chinese allies drove back the invasion but the bitter war was a disaster for the country. During the initial invasion, Korean general Jeong Mun-bu formed a volunteer army that won eight victories between 1592 and 1594 against an army of 20,000 Japanese led by General Kato Kiyomasa in the Hamgwallyeong Pass area of Hamgyeong Province. In News, 27 February 2006 , King Sukjong ordered the creation of a monument commemorating the victories. The 187 cm tall and 66 cm wide stela has 1500 Hangul letters detailing the actions of the volunteer army. It was erected in Kilju County , North Hamgyong Province, where it stood for the next two hundred years. REMOVAL TO JAPAN During the Russo-Japanese War of 1905 , much of the Korean Peninsula was under the occupation of the Imperial Japanese Army . The monument, located at Immyeong Station , came to the attention of Major General Ikeda who was stationed in the area. Apparently displeased by it, he allowed Lieutenant General Miyoshi to take the monument home to Japan. It was placed in a Japanese imperial museum before being moved into the woods in the grounds of Yasukuni Shrine , a Shinto shrine honoring Japan's war dead. There it stood in obscurity for three-quarters of a century, forgotten by both the Japanese and Koreans. In 1969 , Choe Myo-myeon, the director of the International Institute Of Korean Studies in Tokyo came across the monument. In the meantime, Yasukuni Shrine had become a focus of controversy after several Class A War Criminal s of the Second World War had been honored there. Many Koreans were outraged to learn that a Korean victory monument over a Japanese invasion now stood on the grounds of a Japanese shrine seen as commemorating the militarism that had caused immense suffering in Korea. NEGOTIATIONS Despite requests by the South Korea n government and civic groups that the monument be returned, Japan refused, stating that doing so violated their principle of " Separation Of Religion And Politics " and that as the monument originally stood in what was now North Korea , South Korea was not in a position to negotiate its return. The deadlock was finally broken in December 2004 , when Buddhist monks from North and South Korea agreed to work together to retrieve the monument. South Korean Prime Minister Lee Hae Chan and North Korean president of the Supreme People's Assembly Presidium Kim Yong Nam discussed the issue at a meeting in Jakarta , Indonesia in April 2005 . This led to further talks at the 15th inter-Korean Cabinet-level meeting in Seoul . These talks marked the monument as a major issue of inter-Korean cooperation, removed the Japanese objection about the confusion caused by a divided Korea, and led to their agreement to return the monument. On 2006 NOTES EXTERNAL LINKS
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