President Lee Jae-myung ordered a review to cancel the designation of the late Col. Park Jin-gyeong as a person of national merit amid controversy over his responsibility in the Jeju April 3 crackdown.
According to the presidential office on the 15th, Lee on the previous day instructed the Ministry of Patriots and Veterans Affairs (MPVA) to review canceling the registration of Park's bereaved family as persons of national merit. In Oct., the ministry approved the family's application for registration as persons of national merit based on Park's Eulji Military Merit Medal.
Park took office on May 6, 1948, and a little over a month later, at dawn on June 18, was killed by a noncommissioned officer's gun under orders from the South Korean Workers' Party. Recognized as a war dead service member, he was posthumously awarded the Eulji Military Merit Medal in Dec. 1950.
Once this became known, there was strong backlash from Jeju civil society and the ruling bloc, led by the Jeju April 3 Bereaved Families Association. Groups related to April 3 have argued that Park was responsible for the massacre of civilians.
As the controversy grew, Minister Kwon O-eul of the Ministry of Patriots and Veterans Affairs (MPVA) met with the April 3 bereaved families association and conveyed an apology.