Veterans Minister Kang Jung-ai, left, posthumously confers the Order of Merit for National Foundation to Louis Dominici, center, the president of the Academy of Overseas Sciences, during a ceremony at the Korean Embassy in Paris, May 7, in this photo provided by the ministry. Yonhap

Veterans Minister Kang Jung-ai has posthumously conferred a medal to a late French politician, Louis Marin (1876-1960), to honor his support for Korea's independence from Japan's 1910-45 colonial rule, the ministry said Wednesday.

Kang presented the Order of Merit for National Foundation to Louis Dominici, the president of the Academy of Overseas Sciences, during a ceremony at the Korean Embassy in Paris on Tuesday (local time). Marin was a founding member of the academy.

The minister also delivered a plaque celebrating his selection as the Independence Activist of June 2024 to Catherine Leprun, the deputy mayor of Marin's hometown, Faulx.

Louis Marin, who was elected to the French National Assembly 12 times and served as minister five times between 1905 and 1952, founded the French Korea Friendship Association in Paris in 1921.

He supported the foundation of the Korean provisional government in China during Japan's 1910-45 colonial rule of the Korean Peninsula, and the establishment of the Korean Commission in Paris in 1919, according to the ministry. (Yonhap)