Shin Ikhui Statue해공신익희선생동상

About

This statue was erected in Cheonho-dong under the auspices of the Gangdong-gu Office to honor Haegong Shin Ikhui, an independence activist who devoted himself to the independence of the Korean people and the development of democracy. Born in 1894 in Gwangju, Gyeonggi-do, he graduated from the Hansung Government Foreign Language School in 1910 and entered the School of Political Science and Economics at Waseda University in Japan in 1912. There he organized the Hakuhoe, a united association of Korean students studying abroad, and published its journal, Hakjigwang, to promote national spirit and the idea of independence. Returning home in 1913, he opened the Dongmyeong Institute in his hometown to spread new culture and enlightenment ideas, and in 1919 he distributed the Declaration of Independence and led independence demonstrations. That same year, escaping an arrest warrant issued by the Japanese police, he went into exile in Shanghai, where he took part in founding the Provisional Government and served as Vice Minister of Home Affairs, Secretary-General of the State Council, Acting Minister of Foreign Affairs, and Minister of Home Affairs, returning home upon Korea's liberation. After his return, he served as a supreme council member of the Democratic Party and as Speaker of the National Assembly. In 1956, while running as the Democratic Party's presidential candidate and devoting all his energy to realizing democracy, he died of a cerebral hemorrhage on a train on his way to a campaign rally.