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Joint Liberation Day celebrations of the two Koreas in Seoul are turning into a platform for North Korea to publicize its views as the South Korean hosts are going out of their way to avoid offending their guests. The North Koreans are unabashedly airing demands for the withdrawal of the U.S. military and the rejection of ¡°foreign influences,¡± while in the heart of downtown Seoul, participants from pro-North Korean labor, civic and student groups openly shout slogans in that vein. On Tuesday, the North Korean delegation gleefully waved sashes given them by South Korean supporters that read, "Withdraw USFK!"
There are fears from some that the events marking the 60th anniversary of Korea's liberation from Japanese colonial rule could have serious consequences, even to the point of undermining the legitimacy of the Republic of Korea and sparking serious tensions between opposing camps in the South.
The North Koreans were given the sashes at a meeting of North and South Korean labor representatives at the Seoul Olympic Parktel on Tuesday by two members of the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions, who shouted, "We must throw out the USFK and unite by combining our strength!"
North Korean delegate Choi Chang-man replied "The thing that stands in the way of our unification is the U.S. military, and our workers must stop this. This sash reading 'Withdraw USFK', handed to me by the vanguard of unification, gives great strength to the laborers of North and South who wish for the withdrawal of the U.S. military."
At a meeting of agricultural representatives around the same time in the central hall of the National Agricultural Cooperative Federation, North Korean delegate Kim Sun-bok also said the biggest obstacle to unification ¡°is the war schemes of foreign powers, and we must immediately block all invasion exercises that create strife between Koreans." It was an apparent reference to U.S. military war games which Pyongyang says constitute aggression.
A meeting of youth representatives from the two Koreas and abroad at Kyung Hee University's Peace Hall, meanwhile, provided an opportunity for North Korean delegate Cho Yong-min to exhort participants, ¡°Now, with our home threatening to become a war zone, let us hold high the flag of peace and use our strength to protect peace.¡± He said the young people of North Korea, ¡°giving their youth to turn Korea into a wealthy and powerful country and unify the nation, have never forgotten South Korean and overseas Korean students."
At demonstrations on Monday, protesters also called for the toppling of a statue of U.S. general Douglas McArthur, to some a hero of the Korean War, an end to the Korea-U.S. alliance and closer ties between the two Koreas. KCTU secretary-general Lee Soo-ho told protesters the U.S. was ¡°the principal offender behind civilian massacres, the usurpation of power and the liquidation of democracy" around the globe.
The homepage of the Pan-Korean Young Students Alliance to Unify the Fatherland (http://bchy.jinbo.net/), meanwhile, features paeans to the dear leader and other hail and praise of Pyongyang.
Korean Bar Association spokesman Ha Chang-woo warned the developments meant Korea¡¯s National Security Law had become ¡°useless.¡± He said inter-Korean reconciliation was fine, but it would not do to brush violations of the law, which bans North Korean propaganda, under the carpet. Only the rule of law was capable of putting a country¡¯s national identity on a firm footing, he said. Lawyer Lee Gyeong-jae said, "The string of statements were a clear violation of positive law. We must change this idea that everything is permissible as long as it¡¯s for the sake of unification."
Prof. Yoo Ho-yeol of Korea University said the celebrations had become the site of a political struggle. ¡°Agitation and political propaganda will have a detrimental effect on the desire for unification," he warned.
(englishnews@chosun.com )
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