ROK president to visit historic Shanghai site

Visitors wait to enter the former site of the ROK Provisional Government in 2011 prior to the site's renovation. Zhang Zhiping / for China Daily

Following a renovation project, a historical site in Shanghai that hosted the Provisional Government of the Republic of Korea during the Japanese colonial era will be reopened in time to welcome ROK President Park Geun-hye as a special visitor.

Shanghai hosted a large number of people from the Korean Peninsula after Japan started its colonial rule, and the Chinese city was also once home to Korean independence fighters.

As part of her China trip next month, Park will attend the reopening ceremony on Sept 4 of the office established in Shanghai.

Kim Jin-gon, consul for cultural affairs at the ROK consulate-general in Shanghai and director of Korean Cultural Center Shanghai, said:" The Japanese invasion brought great pain and misery to the Korean people, and the provisional government gave them hope. That's why the site is a must-see for visitors from the ROK."

At the time, the Chinese government and people offered great help and support to the Korean independence fighters, he said. Kim said Park's visit to the site serves as a call on the peoples of both countries to never forget history as "it is of great significance to both nations".

After China and the ROK established diplomatic relations in 1992, all five ROK presidents since then visited the site, with Park being the sixth to go there.

The provisional government is seen as "the spiritual basis" for the founding of the ROK, and in recent decades, visiting the site seems to have become a routine for every ROK president after taking office, Kim noted.

zhangyunbi@chinadaily.com.cn