Overview
Bastobe Hill rises a modest 30 m above the surrounding steppe on the northern edge of Ushtobe. In October 1937 deportees who arrived here had walked 4.3 km from the railway drop-off point and dug shelters into the frozen ground. The Kazakhstan–Korea Friendship Park now occupies the hill, and several memorials have been installed over the years. The 2002 stele carries a Hangul inscription: it records that Koreans forced from the Soviet Far East first settled in burrows on this site from 9 October 1937 to 10 April 1938. A 2012 monument from the Korean Association of Kazakhstan expresses gratitude to the Kazakh families who provided food and shelter in that first winter. A 2022 monument wall lists fifteen Koryo-saram independence activists. Hundreds of graves with Hangul headstones are scattered across the hillside — many without dates, many with only transliterated names. An annual memorial service is held on 1 March. The park is unenclosed and accessible at all hours; the ground is uneven and partly overgrown.
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Visit notes
Viewing visit notes for Ushtobe — Koryo-saram Memorial
Bastobe Hill — Kazakhstan–Korea Friendship Park
Step 5 · 5 km from previous · 10 min drive
Bastobe Hill rises a modest 30 m above the surrounding steppe on the northern edge of Ushtobe. In October 1937 deportees who arrived here had walked 4.3 km from the railway drop-off point and dug shelters into the frozen ground. The Kazakhstan–Korea Friendship Park now occupies the hill, and several memorials have been installed over the years. The 2002 stele carries a Hangul inscription: it records that Koreans forced from the Soviet Far East first settled in burrows on this site from 9 October 1937 to 10 April 1938. A 2012 monument from the Korean Association of Kazakhstan expresses gratitude to the Kazakh families who provided food and shelter in that first winter. A 2022 monument wall lists fifteen Koryo-saram independence activists. Hundreds of graves with Hangul headstones are scattered across the hillside — many without dates, many with only transliterated names. An annual memorial service is held on 1 March. The park is unenclosed and accessible at all hours; the ground is uneven and partly overgrown.