The First Official National Commemoration Ceremony After Inauguration
President Yoon Suk-yeol is delivering his inaugural address at the 20th presidential inauguration ceremony held at the National Assembly on the 10th. Photo by Yoon Dong-ju doso7@
[Asia Economy Reporter Ki-min Lee] President Yoon Suk-yeol will attend the 42nd anniversary ceremony of the May 18 Gwangju Democratization Movement.
According to the Presidential Office on the 13th, President Yoon plans to attend the national memorial ceremony held at the National May 18 Democratic Cemetery in Mangwol-dong, Gwangju, on the morning of the 18th.
Since his presidential candidate days, President Yoon's team has coordinated the attendee list and detailed schedule with ruling and opposition politicians, civil society organizations, families and related persons of the May 18 Democratization Movement, and conducted security checks.
The May 18 memorial ceremony is expected to be President Yoon's first regional schedule as a national memorial event after his inauguration.
Among former presidents, former President Moon Jae-in attended the May 18 memorial ceremony three times in total in 2017, 2019, and 2020, while conservative presidents Lee Myung-bak and Park Geun-hye attended the ceremony in 2008 and 2013, respectively.
President Yoon is also expected to deliver a message regarding his campaign pledge to include the 'May 18 Spirit' in the preamble of the Constitution. On Constitution Day (July 17) last year, after paying respects at the National May 18 Democratic Cemetery in Gwangju, President Yoon emphasized that "when democracy and human rights are violated, criticism must be based on the May 18 Spirit. The May 18 Spirit should be elevated to a universal constitutional value by incorporating the spirit of the victims into the constitutional preamble," stressing the need to insert the May 18 Spirit into the constitutional preamble during constitutional revision.
In November last year, after visiting the May 18 Democratic Cemetery, President Yoon told reporters, "The May 18 Spirit is the spirit of liberal democracy and the spirit of upholding constitutional values, so I have always insisted that it must be included in the constitutional preamble during constitutional revision."
This year's ceremony, hosted by the Ministry of Patriots and Veterans Affairs, has selected "May, with the Power of Truth, as the Light of the Era" as its official slogan and identified the core tasks as "inclusion of the May 18 Spirit in the constitutional preamble and fact-finding."
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