An Jung-Geun

Place: Haeju

Born: 1879

Death: 1910

Biography:

An Jung-geun, also known as Ahn Jung-geun, was a Korean independence activist and pan-Asianist. He is remembered as a martyr in both South and North Korea for his 1909 assassination of the Japanese politician Itō Hirobumi, who had previously served as the Resident-General of Korea and first Prime Minister of Japan. An was imprisoned and later executed by Japanese authorities on 26 March 1910. He was posthumously awarded the Order of Merit for National Foundation in 1962 by the South Korean government, the most prestigious civil decoration in the Republic of Korea, for his efforts for Korean independence.