Patriot / March 1st Movement / Patriotic Medal (1990)
| Life | 1890 ~ 1977 |
| Era | 근현대 |
| Clan | 밀양 박씨 |
Park Bok-yeong (1890-1977), of the Miryang Park clan, was born in Dan-gori, Amtae-myeon, Sinan County, South Jeolla Province. After enrolling at a Bible institute in Mokpo in 1908 and being baptized, he joined Ilsimhoe, a clandestine anti-Japanese society formed by members of Mokpo's Yangdong Church, and on April 8, 1919, together with fellow members Seo Sang-bong and Gang Seok-bong, prepared Korean flags and independence declarations to lead a mass demonstration in Mokpo.
After serving time for this, he fled to Shanghai in 1920, where he lived in the household of Provisional Government Finance Minister Yi Si-yeong and assisted him; from 1922 he was tasked with raising funds for the Provisional Government inside Korea. In March 1925 he was arrested while carrying a secret document from Yi Si-yeong to deliver to Yi Sang-jae in Seoul, and was imprisoned again.
After returning home, he chaired the Amtae Youth Association in 1923 and became the general representative of the Amtae Tenant Farmers' Association in 1925, leading the Amtae tenant farmers' dispute, and after liberation in 1945 he served as chairman of the National Founding Preparatory Committee for Muan County. He died in 1977; the government awarded him a Presidential Citation that year and posthumously the Order of Merit for National Foundation, Patriot's Medal, in 1990. He is interred in the Independence Patriots' section of the Daejeon National Cemetery.
Independence Patriots' Section 1, Daejeon National Cemetery, Yuseong-gu, Daejeon