1. With the year 2019 marking the 100^th anniversary of the March First Independence Movement and the establishment of the Provisional Government of the Republic of Korea, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, together with some 7.4 million overseas Koreans across the world, will hold a variety of events, including centennial celebrations and receptions to be hosted by overseas diplomatic missions; a Republic of Korea- People's Republic of China friendship caravan event; and the establishment of a peace memorial museum in Utoro, Japan.

° The Foreign Ministry, together with all the Koreans at home and abroad, will celebrate the centennial in the form of “a festival”; shed renewed light on the spirit of the March First Independence Movement and the traces of the Provisional Government; and seek to win broader support from the international community for peace in Northeast Asia and beyond.

2. For starters, the Foreign Ministry will hold “overseas missions-hosted centennial celebrations and receptions” along with overseas Korean communities, which, by conducting independence movement across the world, provided an impetus for the start and spread of the March First Independence Movement, the establishment of the Provisional Government and the liberation.

※ Forty-nine overseas missions will carry out 64 projects.

° At the cradles of the independence movement across the world, overseas diplomatic missions, together with overseas Korean communities, will hold not only celebratory receptions but also tours of independence movement sites, expert lectures, academic seminars, photo exhibitions, film screenings, and brochure publications, all in a bid to bring renewed attention to the significance of the March First Independence Movement and the establishment of the Provisional Government.

° The commemorative events to be hosted by overseas missions will take place in the presence of many guests, including not only overseas Koreans but also citizens and major figures of the host countries of those missions as well as meritorious contributors to the independence from those and other countries; and will be promoted in those countries by local media. As such, the events will serve as an opportunity to bring attention to the history and the value of the March First Independence Movement and to win broader support from international community for peace on the Korean Peninsula, in Northeast Asia and beyond.

3. In July 2019, “an ROK-China friendship caravan,” composed of 100 youngsters from all walks of life, will tour the Provisional Government’s five locations in China by train, holding various communicative exchanges between peoples of the two countries. In addition, a three-year project of establishing a peace memorial museum in Utoro, Japan, will begin in 2019.  

° “The ROK-China friendship caravan” event, which will be conducted as a “people-participated public diplomacy” project, will serve as an opportunity to bring renewed attention to history; to diffuse a message of future-oriented peace and cooperation in Northeast East; and, in particular, to provide education on global citizenship and peace.

° The project to set up “a Utoro peace memorial museum” has been designed to preserve the history of the ROK and Japan, with the assistance of the international community, saving from the verge of a forced demolition the residential area of Korean laborers, who were mobilized to the construction of military airfields in Japan; and to hand down the friendship between the two countries as well as the values of peace and human rights.

4. These events are intended to share with people of neighboring countries and beyond the spirit of the March First Independence Movement that sought not only the liberation of Korea but also peace in the East and the world; and to build trust and solidarity needed for establishing future-oriented peace in Northeast Asia for reconciliation and co-existence as well as peace in the entire world.

5. On February 19, 2019, the Foreign Ministry will host a seminar on “centennial celebrations for the March First Independence Movement and the establishment of the Provisional Government, and the ROK’s diplomatic landscape” at the people's diplomacy center.

° The seminar will cover the full range of centennial celebrations to be hosted by the Foreign Ministry and will feature expert presentations, followed by a question-and-answer session. It will serve as an opportunity to delve into implications of the Foreign Ministry’s centennial celebrations for the ROK’s future diplomacy and to seek ways to make each and every project more productive.

6. It is the expectation of the Foreign Ministry that the centennial celebrations for the March First Independence Movement and the establishment of the Provisional Government will serve as an opportunity to reminisce about the 100 years of history built by all the Koreans at home and abroad; and to move forward into the future of peace and hope in the spirit of the March First Independence Movement and the Provisional Government.

* unofficial translation