President Lee Jae-myung, on a state visit to Mongolia, toured the Lee Tae-jun Memorial Hall on the 10th. Former President Lee Myung-bak also visited the memorial hall during his trip to Mongolia in August 2011. With a Korean head of state once again visiting the memorial hall on the first state visit to Mongolia in 15 years, attention is turning to the background behind it.
As his first item on the agenda that day, President Lee laid a wreath and paid his respects at the symbolic grave of Lee Tae-jun in Ulaanbaatar. The wreath bore a ribbon reading, "105th Anniversary of the Martyrdom of Lee Tae-jun, President of the Republic of Korea Lee Jae-myung." He then examined the footsteps of Lee Tae-jun, who contributed to the homeland's independence movement and the development of modern Mongolian medicine, at the exhibition space inside the memorial hall.
Lee Tae-jun is known as an independence fighter who practiced medicine in Mongolia and provided large sums of financial support to independence movement organizations. In his twenties, while attending Severance Medical School, he joined the secret youth organization Cheongnyeon Hakuhoe at the recommendation of Dosan Ahn Chang-ho. After the nation lost its sovereignty to Japan, he passed through China in 1912 and headed to Mongolia in 1914. He earned the respect of Mongolians in the course of treating venereal disease, with which the majority of Mongolians were then infected. He also served as the personal physician to the commander of the Chinese army stationed in Mongolia at the time. In 1919, he received a national medal from the Bogd Khan, the king of Mongolia.
Building on the deep trust he accumulated within Mongolian society, he continued his secret anti-Japanese activities as well. While effectively operating a secret liaison base for independence fighters, he was killed by Russian White Army forces in 1921. The memorial hall President Lee visited is a space created to widely publicize Lee Tae-jun's achievements in contributing to the homeland's independence movement and the development of modern Mongolian medicine.
Looking at the bust of Lee Tae-jun, President Lee showed interest in the guide's explanation that Lee Tae-jun ordinarily held Dosan Ahn Chang-ho in high esteem and was a cousin-in-law of Kim Kyu-sik. After examining for some time a copy of the Dongnip Sinmun (Independence Newspaper) that reported the fact that Lee Tae-jun had provided 10 silver won to the provisional government as independence movement funds, he remarked, "Was it all right to publicly disclose in a newspaper the fact that someone had contributed independence funds?"
To the follow-up explanation that Lee Tae-jun's contribution record had appeared in the Dongnip Sinmun as "Dae-am, 10 silver won," he also commented, "If you write down the (name of the) person who gave money, information would leak and become a problem, so perhaps that's why the name was written as a pseudonym (Dae-am)."
After looking at an AI-restored image of Lee Tae-jun, he said, "It resembles him." At the exhibition on the project to honor Lee Tae-jun, regarding an explanation that he had been the royal physician to the king of Mongolia, he asked, "Is there a record that he was the royal physician to the king of Mongolia?" The guide replied, "He is known to have been the royal physician, but more research into the records is needed." After finishing the tour, President Lee wrote in the guestbook, "I will carry the noble will of martyr Lee Tae-jun forward into a Korea-Mongolia golden age."
After hearing an explanation that a symbolic grave had been created because Lee Tae-jun's remains have not yet been found, and that according to Lyuh Woon-hyung's "Travelogue of the Mongolian Desert" the area near the Zaisan Observatory is presumed to be where his body was recovered and buried shortly after his death, President Lee proposed on the spot to move to the Zaisan Observatory. The foot of Zaisan Hill, where the Zaisan Observatory and the Victory Monument are located, is the presumed burial site of Lee Tae-jun, who died in 1921, and is a representative attraction of Ulaanbaatar frequented by Mongolian citizens and foreign tourists alike.
A memorandum of understanding (MOU) on mutual cooperation to promote the preservation and management of the Lee Tae-jun Memorial Park and to revitalize visits was also signed with the Mongolian government. National Security Adviser Wi Sung-lac said in a briefing the previous day, "We expect that it will strengthen a shared historical awareness going forward and contribute to enhancing friendly sentiment between the peoples of the two countries."
