The Friendship Park of the Republic of Kazakhstan and the Republic of Korea (Russian: Парк дружбы Республики Казахстан и Республики Корея, romanized: Park druzhby Respubliki Kazakhstan i Respubliki Koreya; Korean: 한국–카자흐스탄 우호기념공원) or Kazakhstan–Korea Friendship Park (Парка дружбы Казахстан – Корея, Parka druzhby Kazakhstan – Koreya) is a park currently under construction[1] on Bastobe Hill, Ushtobe, Kazakhstan.[2][3]
Bastobe Hill stands as the location where the first Korean community settled in Kazakhstan, holding particular historical importance for the ethnic Korean Kazakhs, collectively identified as Koryo-saram. In 1937, some 170,000 ethnic Koreans were subjected to forced relocation from the Russian Far East to Central Asia as part of Stalin's ethnic cleansing policies.[1] The initial settlers in Kazakhstan found themselves without support from the Soviet government as they tried to establish new lives. After walking an additional 7 km (4.3 mi) from the drop-off point,[1] they reached Bashtobe Hill in October 1937.[4] They reportedly dug shelters out of the frozen ground with their bare hands in order to survive the cold, as temperatures could drop to −40 °C (−40 °F).[2][3][1] Around 20,000 died in these conditions.[2] Upon their arrival, they were assisted by local Kazakh people, and the ethnic Koreans and the local Kazakhs fostered a strong sense of camaraderie.[1] Within two years, the community established 20 collective farms.[1]
Development
Earlier monuments
In May 2002, a memorial was installed on the hill.[5] It is written in Korean using Hangul, and reads:[5][a]
Koreans, who were forcibly moved from the Russian Far East, first settled and lived here in burrows from 9 October 1937 to 10 April 1938.
In 2012, the Korean Association of Kazakhstan installed a memorial that commemorated the location and expressed gratitude toward the Kazakh people for their assistance.[6] Graves from early communities in the area are scattered around the hill, numbering in the hundreds. Many headstones are written in Hangul.[6][5]
Creation
In May 2018, the Korean Association of Kazakhstan, the Reunification Culture Research Center (Korean: 통일문화연구원), and the Chung-Ang University Health Care System Hyundai Hospital reached an agreement to create the park.[7] The groundbreaking ceremony was held on 26 July 2019.[2] Restoration work also began on the various monuments and tombs on the hill.[1] At the ceremony, another monument was revealed, which reads "同族如天" (Hanja; in Hangul "동족여천"), meaning "serve (your) compatriots like heaven."[2] Construction was delayed by the COVID-19 pandemic.[7] In 2021, a monument was installed in the name of the President of Kazakhstan, thanking the Korean people for their relationship with Kazakhstan.[6]
Some of the original burrows are now left as depressions in the ground.[5] Some of them have known functions, including one that functioned as a mess hall.[5] A memorial service is held on the hill every year on March 1.[7]
