Prime Minister Kim Min-seok delivers an address during a ceremony commemorating the 1987 nationwide democracy uprising, Wednesday. Yonhap
The government resumed awarding state honors to pro-democracy martyrs and activists Wednesday after a four-year suspension that began under the administration of ousted former President Yoon Suk Yeol in 2022.
Twenty-eight individuals and three organizations have been selected as award recipients this year, including the late Seoul National University professor Choi Jong-gil who was tortured to death in 1973 at the then state intelligence agency while under investigation for protesting the authoritarian Yushin rule of then President Park Chung-hee.
"Today, we are resuming government awards for the development of democracy, which had been suspended for four years since 2022," Prime Minister Kim Min-seok said in an address at a ceremony commemorating the 1987 nationwide democracy uprising that eventually led to the adoption of a direct presidential election system.
"This is an expression of our will to remember the noble sacrifice made for the country until the end," he said.
