Seoul is launching a task force to search for the remains of independence fighter Ahn Jung-geun, who was executed by the Japanese in Manchuria nearly a century ago, and seek cooperation from Beijing and Tokyo.
A government official on Wednesday said, "We've asked China and Japan for cooperation to excavate Ahn's remains, but to no avail. On the centennial of his death this year, we've decided to make the matter a diplomatic priority."
Ahn was executed after assassinating the first Japanese resident-general of Korea Hirobumi Ito.
The government will step up working-level diplomatic talks with Beijing and Tokyo, so that the matter can be discussed at a trilateral summit and foreign ministers meeting slated for May. "We need cooperation from the Japanese government, which is presumed to have kept the related data," another official said. "There will have to be a change in the Japanese government's attitude if the upcoming trilateral foreign ministers meeting is to handle the matter."
The government is launching a task force of about 10 experts and officials from government agencies such as the ministries of foreign affairs and of patriots & veterans affairs.
The task force will dig up data kept by China, Japan, and Russia, as well as resuming an on-site search in an area around the Lushun Prison site in China.
