Unification Festival: Too Exclusive?

The closing ceremony at Gwangju Yeomju Stadium on June 16 wrapped up the three-day official schedule of the Grand National Unification Festival held to celebrate the sixth anniversary of the June 15 Joint Declaration.

The North Korean delegation will go back to Pyongyang on a chartered flight at 4:00 p.m., June 17, after touring Yudal Mountain in Mokpo, Jeolla South Province, and visiting the monument for the May 18 Gwangju Democratization Movement.

Anti-U.S. Rallies? –

It is evaluated that the non-governmental event, which has been held in South and North Korea by turns on June 15, the day of Joint Declaration after the South and North Korea Summit Talk in 2000, and on August 15, the Independence Day of Korea, has firmly settled as a regular event. Unlike official talks in a stalemate situation, this event has continued to be held for 6 years.

However, there are skeptical views of the annual slogan-like joint declaration, “Our nation should unite to achieve self-reliant unification.” Conflicts among South Korean participants have deepened as the event continues on.

Anti-U.S. slogans from organizations and individuals directly or indirectly related to this event were heard here and there in the stadium. Members of the Korean Federation of University Student Councils, which is classified as an illegal organization, sang a song to urge the withdrawal of the U.S. troops from Korea at the National May 18 Cemetery in Unjeong-dong, Gwangju, on June 15. A banner, “South and North Korean farmers unite to drive away the U.S. troops from Korea,” was hung in some areas of downtown.

Some think this event was only “their own party” that failed to attract the ordinary people. Jeong, 34, housewife from Duam-dong, Gwangju, said, “There were few events for citizens. I couldn’t feel the heat of the festival since it was centered on those civil organizations.”

Ahn Kyung Ho As the Leading Part? –

With higher level North Korean officials absent, it seems that the “leading part” of the festival was played by Ahn Kyung Ho, director of the Secretariat at the Committee for the Peaceful Reunification of the Fatherland, who stated, “The flames of war will devour the whole nation when the Grand National Party takes power,” along with threats of missile attack before the festival started.

There have been complaints and escalating debates about the fact that Ahn, who made an outspoken objection to the first opposition party and comments of intervention in the internal affairs, talks about “national harmony” or “unification” as the head of the North Korean delegation.

Seung-Ho Jung taewon_ha@donga.com shjung@donga.com