ScholarWorks@숙명여자대학교

초록

The Republic of Korea National Red Cross was founded on October 7, 1905 following King Gojong's edict and incorporated into the Japanese Red Cross during the Japanese rule. It restored its Korean identity under the Provisional Government of the Republic of Korea on August 29, 1919 and remained in existence since then. After Korea took back its independence, it underwent many different processes and was finally reborn with the establishment of Republic of Korea government in 1948. It managed to strengthen its organization and display its abilities during the Korean War. Following its efforts to overcome the situations of the times after the outbreak of the war in 1950, it focused on expanding its base of domestic activities and paved its way for organizational expansion in the 1960s. Entering the 1970s, it reorganized its structure and arranged its organization in each area around the nation to unfold its systematic humanitarian activities. The Republic of Vietnam collapsed on April 30, 1975, producing a flood of refugees. The governments of the Republic of Korea decided to accept Vietnamese refugees, and the Republic of Korea National Red Cross carried out the work actively. In the 1970s, South Korea accepted and relieved Vietnamese refugees in two rounds. The first round received refugees rescued through a marine evacuation operation called Operation Cross in 1975. This first batch of Vietnamese refugees entered the Busan Port on May 13, 1975 as the first Vietnamese refugees of South Korea. A total of 1,364 came off the ship and went through the entry formalities before being accepted at the temporary refugee relief headquarters in the building of former Busan Girls' High School. The Busan municipal government and the Republic of Korea National Red Cross continued their efforts to accept and protect them until the end of 1975. It took only a month to accept and protect approximately 1,500 refugees at a time and figure out their situations after the asylum largely thanks to the expanded organizational capabilities of Republic of Korea National Red Cross and the continuous volunteer activities of volunteers. The second relief round for Vietnamese refugees in South Korea began as the second batch of Vietnamese refugees that entered the port in June, 1977 were admitted to the shelter for Vietnamese refugees in Jaesong-dong, Busan in September. Over a period of 17 years until May 17, 1993, 1,382 Vietnamese refugees were rescued, accepted by Busan over 140 times or so, and left for the host country of their choice. In the first round of Vietnamese refugee relief, the South Korean government was at the center of planning, capital, and operation with the Republic of Korea National Red Cross performing these jobs sincerely. The second round was prominently characterized by the agreement between United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees(UNHCR) and the Republic of Korea National Red Cross, which carried out its relief activities in a position of temporarily protecting the refugees until they left for a third nation to settle in. This paper aimed to investigate the roles of Republic of Korea National Red Cross in the acceptance and relief activities of Vietnamese refugees in the 1970s, using its business documents provided by its office as major historical materials and shedding light on its roles and activities in 1975 and 1977.

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