The Seoul National Cemetery () is located in

Dongjak-dong Dongjak-dong is a '' dong'', neighbourhood of Dongjak-gu in Seoul, South Korea. See also * Administrative divisions of South Korea South Korea is made up of 17 first-tier administrative divisions: 6 metropolitan cities (''gwangyeoksi'' ), 1 ...

Dongjak-gu Dongjak District (Dongjak-gu) is one of the 25 '' gu'' that make up the city of Seoul, South Korea. Its name was derived from the Dongjaegi Naruteo Ferry, on the Han River which borders the district to the north. It was the 17th ''gu'' create ...

Seoul Seoul (; ; ), officially known as the Seoul Special City, is the capital and largest metropolis of South Korea.Before 1972, Seoul was the ''de jure'' capital of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (North Korea) as stated iArticle 103 ...

South Korea South Korea, officially the Republic of Korea (ROK), is a country in East Asia, constituting the southern part of the Korea, Korean Peninsula and sharing a Korean Demilitarized Zone, land border with North Korea. Its western border is formed ...

. The cemetery is reserved for Korean veterans, including those who died in the

Korean independence movement The Korean independence movement was a military and diplomatic campaign to achieve the independence of Korea from Japan. After the Japanese annexation of Korea in 1910, Korea's domestic resistance peaked in the March 1st Movement of 1919, which ...

Korean War , date = {{Ubl, 25 June 1950 – 27 July 1953 (''de facto'')({{Age in years, months, weeks and days, month1=6, day1=25, year1=1950, month2=7, day2=27, year2=1953), 25 June 1950 – present (''de jure'')({{Age in years, months, weeks a ...

, and

Vietnam War The Vietnam War (also known by #Names, other names) was a conflict in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from 1 November 1955 to the fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975. It was the second of the Indochina Wars and was officially fought between North Vie ...

. Four South Korean presidents are buried in the cemetery. The Seoul National Cemetery is near Dongjak Station on

Seoul Subway Line 4 Seoul Metropolitan Subway Line 4 (dubbed ''The Blue Line'') of the Seoul Metropolitan Subway is a long line crossing from the southwest to the northeast across the Seoul National Capital Area. The central section in Seoul City is operated by Se ...

Seoul Subway Line 9 Seoul Subway Line 9, operated by Seoul Metro Line9 Corporation, is a subway line in Seoul. The line runs east from Gaehwa Station (local train terminal) or Gimpo Airport Station (express train terminal, connecting to Line 5 and Airport Railroad ...

. Except for some special days, the Seoul National Cemetery usually allows access to the public.

History

When established by presidential decree of

Syngman Rhee Syngman Rhee (, ; 26 March 1875 – 19 July 1965) was a South Korean politician who served as the first president of South Korea from 1948 to 1960. Rhee was also the first and last president of the Provisional Government of the Republic of Ko ...

in 1956, Seoul National Cemetery was the country's only national cemetery. As the cemetery reached capacity in the early 1970s,

Daejeon National Cemetery The Daejeon National Cemetery () is located in Hyeonchungwon-ro, Yuseong-gu, Daejeon, South Korea. It is South Korea's second national cemetery after the Seoul National Cemetery and is overseen by the Ministry of Patriots' and Veterans' Affair ...

was established in 1976. Both cemeteries were originally overseen by the

Ministry of Defence {{unsourced, date=February 2021 A ministry of defence or defense (see spelling differences), also known as a department of defence or defense, is an often-used name for the part of a government responsible for matters of defence, found in states ...

until 2006, when the Daejeon National Cemetery was transferred to the

Ministry of Patriots' and Veterans' Affairs (South Korea) The Ministry of Patriots and Veterans Affairs (MPVA; ; Hanja: 國家報勳處) is a ministry under the Government of South Korea which handles veterans. It was established in August 1961 as the Soldiers' Affairs Agency. List of Ministers Timel ...

Notable people buried

Seoul National Cemetery 29 (18290547068)

Tomb of President Park Chung Hee and Mrs

– first

President of South Korea The president of the Republic of Korea (), also known as the president of South Korea (often abbreviated to POTROK or POSK; ), is the head of state and head of government of the Republic of Korea. The president leads the State Council, and is ...

– buried 1965 *

Park Chung-hee Park Chung-hee (, ; 14 November 1917 – 26 October 1979) was a South Korean politician and army general who served as the dictator of South Korea from 1961 until his assassination in 1979; ruling as an unelected military strongman from 1961 ...

– third President of South Korea – buried 1979 **

Yuk Young-soo Yuk Young-soo (; 29 November 1925 – 15 August 1974) was the wife of the 3rd South Korean president Park Chung-hee and the mother of the 11th South Korean president Park Geun-hye. She was killed in 1974 during an attempted assassination of ...

– wife of President Park – buried 1974 *

Kim Dae-jung Kim Dae-jung (; ; 6 January 192418 August 2009), was a South Korea, South Korean politician and activist who served as the eighth president of South Korea from 1998 to 2003. He was a 2000 Nobel Peace Prize recipient for his work for democra ...

– 8th President of South Korea – buried 2009 *

Kim Young-sam Kim Young-sam (; or ; 20 December 1927 – 22 November 2015) was a Demographics of South Korea, South Korean politician and activist who served as the seventh president of South Korea from 1993 to 1998. From 1961, he spent almost 30 year ...

– 7th President of South Korea – buried 2015 * Lee Beom-seok –

Prime Minister of South Korea The prime minister of the Republic of Korea (PMOTROK or PMOSK; ) is the deputy head of government and the second highest political office of South Korea who is appointed by the President of the Republic of Korea, with the National Assembly's app ...

– buried 1972 *

Park Tae-joon Park Tae-joon (September 29, 1927 – December 13, 2011) was a South Korean business tycoon, war hero, political leader, and philanthropist. His most renowned accomplishment includes founding of POSCO and growing it into one of the world's larg ...

– Founder of

POSCO POSCO (formerly Pohang Iron and Steel Company) is a South Korean steel-making company headquartered in Pohang, South Korea. It had an output of of crude steel in 2015, making it the world's fourth-largest steelmaker by this measure. In 2010, i ...

– buried 2011 *

Chae Myung-shin Chae Myung-shin (; November 27, 1926 – November 25, 2013) was a South Korean army officer who commanded South Korean military forces in the Vietnam War. He was also the co-founder of the Korean Taekwondo Association. Early life Chae Myung-sh ...

–

ROK Army The Republic of Korea Army (ROKA; ko, 대한민국 육군; Hanja: 大韓民國陸軍; RR: ''Daehanminguk Yuk-gun''), also known as the ROK Army or South Korean Army, is the army of South Korea, responsible for ground-based warfare. It is the l ...

General – buried 2013 *

Jang In-hwan Jang In-hwan (March 30, 1875 – April 24, 1930) was a Korean independence activist. He is best known along with Jeon Myeong-un for his role in the 1908 assassination of Durham Stevens, a former diplomat and Japan lobbyist. Incident Jang, ...

–

Korean Independence The Korean independence movement was a military and diplomatic campaign to achieve the independence of Korea from Japan. After the Japanese annexation of Korea in 1910, Korea's domestic resistance peaked in the March 1st Movement of 1919, which ...

activist and assassin of

Durham Stevens Durham White Stevens (February 1, 1851 – March 25, 1908) was an American diplomat and later an employee of Japan's Ministry of Foreign Affairs, working for the Japanese colonial office in Korea, the Resident-General. He was fatally shot by Kor ...

– buried 1975 *

Yi Cheol-seung Lee Chul-seung (or Yi Cheol-seung, Lee Chul-sung or Lee Chul Sung) (Hangul: 이철승, Hanja:李哲承; May 15, 1922 – February 27, 2016) was a South Korean 7-term National Assemblyman (lawmaker, conservative) and a founding father of the Re ...

– Member of the

National Assembly of the Republic of Korea The National Assembly of the Republic of Korea, often shortened to the National Assembly in domestic English-language media, is the unicameral national legislature of South Korea. Elections to the National Assembly are held every four years. T ...

Frank Schofield Frank W. Schofield (1889–1970) was a British-born Canadian veterinarian and Protestant missionary who was involved in the Korean independence movement against the Japanese Empire. Schofield graduated in 1910 from the Ontario Veterinary Colleg ...

– Canadian veterinarian and Korean Independence activist – buried 1970 (first foreigner to be buried in the cemetery) *

Soh Jaipil Soh Jaipil or Seo Jae-pil (January 7, 1864 – January 5, 1951), also known as Philip Jaisohn, was a Korean-American political activist and physician who was a noted champion of the Korean independence movement, the first Korean naturalized citi ...

– Korean Independence activist and first Korean

naturalized citizen Naturalization (or naturalisation) is the legal act or process by which a non-citizen of a country may acquire citizenship or nationality of that country. It may be done automatically by a statute, i.e., without any effort on the part of the in ...

of the United States –buried 1994 *

Lee Hee-ho Lee Hee-ho, sometimes spelled as Lee Hui-ho, (; 21 September 1922 – 10 June 2019), was a South Korean women's rights activist, peace advocate and former First Lady of South Korea during the presidency of her husband Kim Dae-jung from 1998 to 2 ...

widow A widow (female) or widower (male) is a person whose spouse has Death, died. Terminology The state of having lost one's spouse to death is termed ''widowhood''. An archaic term for a widow is "relict," literally "someone left over". This word ...

of President Kim - buried 2019 *

Hong Gi Hong Gi (Hangul: 홍기, Hanja: 洪基) (3 March 1916 – 20 July 2004) was the wife of South Korean President Choi Kyu-hah. She was the first lady when Choi Kyu-hah was in office, from 1979 to 1980. Early life Hong Gi was born in 1916 in Chūs ...

- wife of former president

Choi Kyu-hah Choi Kyu-hah (; ; July 16, 1919 – October 22, 2006), also spelled Choi Kyu-ha or Choi Gyu-ha, was a South Korean politician who served as the fourth president of South Korea from 1979 to 1980. Early life Choi was born in Wonju-myeon, Wonj ...

- original buried 2004 (reinterred at

on October 26. 2006)

Incidents and controversy

Bombing incident at the gate of Seoul National Cemetery

On June 22, 1970, three

North Korea North Korea, officially the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK), is a country in East Asia. It constitutes the northern half of the Korea, Korean Peninsula and shares borders with China and Russia to the north, at the Yalu River, Y ...

n agents broke into the cemetery and planted a bomb. One agent was killed when the bomb was accidentally detonated.

Visited by the North Korean delegation

In August 2005, controversy was stirred by the visit of a North Korean delegation to the cemetery. The delegation was led by Kim Ki-Nam, and numbered 182 officials. The visit not only sparked outrage among those opposed to warmer relations with the North, but also raised fears that a future delegation from the South might be expected to pay their respects to

Kim Il-sung Kim Il-sung (; , ; born Kim Song-ju, ; 15 April 1912 – 8 July 1994) was a North Korean politician and the founder of North Korea, which he ruled from the country's establishment in 1948 until his death in 1994. He held the posts of ...

in Pyongyang.

Kim Dae-jung Kim Dae-jung (; ; 6 January 192418 August 2009), was a South Korea, South Korean politician and activist who served as the eighth president of South Korea from 1998 to 2003. He was a 2000 Nobel Peace Prize recipient for his work for democra ...
's Burial

On his death on August 18, 2009, former President of South Korea

was buried in his wife's friend's old grave at the National Cemetery, instead of in

, the initially planned burial site.

Hong Gi's remains from the National Cemetery to be re-interred at
Daejeon National Cemetery The Daejeon National Cemetery () is located in Hyeonchungwon-ro, Yuseong-gu, Daejeon, South Korea. It is South Korea's second national cemetery after the Seoul National Cemetery and is overseen by the Ministry of Patriots' and Veterans' Affair ...
on October 26. 2006

On her death on July 20. 2004. the remains of former First Lady

were moved from the National Cemetery to

. On October 26. 2006. the remains of her husband former president

were buried there.

References

External links

Korean-language site of the National Memorial Board
* {{Find a Grave cemetery Buildings and structures in Seoul Korean War memorials and cemeteries Cemeteries in South Korea National cemeteries 1956 establishments in South Korea Ministry of National Defense (South Korea)