Celebrations for 70th anniversary of National Liberation Day
By Park Sae-jinPosted : August 5, 2015, 17:14Updated : August 5, 2015, 17:14
With 10 days to go before the 70th anniversary of Korea's liberation from Japanese colonial rule (1910-1945), South Korean government officials put up pinwheel-shaped national flags in front of Gwanghwamun in central Seoul on Wednesday. A day earlier, the government decided to designate the day before the Liberation Day, a major holiday in both South and North Korea which falls on Aug. 15, as a temporary holiday, as part of efforts to boost domestic consumption hit hard by the outbreak of Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) in the country in May. The government declared the de facto end of the MERS crisis on July 28, more than two months after it confirmed the first outbreak of the viral respiratory disease May 20.