Report from socialist Korea
Koreans--south & north--call for reunification
By Scott
Scheffer
Pyongyang, Democratic People's
Republic of Korea
People from around the world came here to the capital of
socialist north Korea in mid-August to mark the anniversary of
the defeat of Japanese imperialism and show their solidarity
with the struggle to reunify Korea. Forces led by the legendary
Marshal Kim Il Sung had liberated Korea on Aug. 15, 1945.
Delegates, including a large number of south Koreans,
attended several events--an international forum calling for the
demolition of the concrete wall dividing Korea, a Pan-National
Rally and a Tri-Partite Conference for Reunification--that
focused on the Korean people's determination to reunite their
country, which was divided by the massive U.S. invasion from
1950 to 1953.
A concrete wall built by the south Korean regime with the
support of U.S. occupation troops cuts the Korean peninsula in
half at the 38th parallel. Delegates came from Bangladesh,
Belgium, Britain, Cuba, Denmark, Ecuador, Egypt, Guyana, Nepal,
Pakistan, Tunisia and the United States to call for its
demolition. They adopted a letter of support to Comrade Kim
Jong Il, the present leader of the DPRK.
They also directed letters of protest to south Korea, Japan
and the United States denouncing threats against the DPRK since
the launching of a north Korean satellite one year ago. They
strongly defended the right of the DPRK to develop its own
missile system as the "right of a sovereign state," and
condemned the U.S. for its contingency plans to invade and
overthrow north Korea.
2,500 Koreans attend from abroad
The Pan-National Rally and Tri-Partite Conference were
attended by 2,500 Koreans from a dozen or more countries. Their
participation demonstrated the growing support for
reunification and for the DPRK itself among Koreans abroad.
During the opening ceremony of the Pan-National Rally in a
Pyongyang sports stadium, foreign delegates marched around the
oval track holding banners calling for reunification and the
demolition of the concrete wall. North Koreans lining the track
cheered, hugged and thanked the delegates.
Hyundai workers send soccer team
A soccer team from the militant Confederation of South
Korean Trade Unions traveled to the north to be in a
"reunification match" as part of the opening ceremony. They
were Hyundai workers who had taken part in the great strike
last year.
Before the game, confederation chairperson Ri Kap Ryong told
the crowd, "In the south I am the subject of repression. But
here I am held up as a patriot. I am deeply moved." As the
players entered the field they embraced each other.
Each team had players from the north and south, and nobody
cared who won anyway. Under the infamous National Security Law,
the south Korean government can impose a 10-year prison
sentence on anyone traveling to the north. But the soccer team
was granted permission for the trip.
Later it was learned that after their return to the south,
the entire team was being investigated and might be arrested
after all.
Six other south Koreans came knowing they would be arrested.
Warrants were issued by the Kim Dae Jung regime even before
they arrived. One woman in her early twenties, Hwang Hye Ro, is
from the South Korean Federation of University Student
Councils.
The other five--Ra Chang Sun, So Won Chol, Ri Song U, Pak Gi
Su and Kang Hyong Gu--are representatives of the South
Headquarters of the Pan-Korean Alliance for National
Reunification. Two are from its youth group.
The arrests are a bitter irony for all Korean people because
south Korean President Kim Dae Jung himself narrowly escaped
execution under this same law. When he was elected, he was
touted by the U.S. media as someone who would bring democracy
to south Korea.
South Korean police attack
festival there
A pan-national festival was also held in the south to
coincide with the rally in Pyongyang. The organizers tried to
hold it at Seoul University, but were blocked by police. So
they marched into the city and carried out the activity all
night long.
South Korean police attacked on the morning of Aug. 16.
Seven people were arrested and scores were injured, many
seriously. The rest then marched to police headquarters and
protested. When the police tried to prevent them from going
into the streets again, they lay down, chanting and singing
reunification songs. Eventually they broke through the police
blockade and marched back to Seoul University--this time
successfully.
The Tri-Partite Conference--referring to Koreans in the
north, south, and living in other countries--was held in
Kaesong, a city inside the DMZ that is divided in half by the
demarcation line. Families from Kaesong were split when the
division happened.
After the conference some delegates visited a DPRK
observation post to view the concrete wall through binoculars.
Korea is the only country in the world divided in such a
manner, and Kim Il Sung, who was president of the DPRK until
his death in 1994, referred to the wall as a "disgrace on our
country."
The common political theme that ran through all the
liberation day events was that the people of Korea will never
submit to the threats and dictates of U.S. imperialism. North
Korean people see the U.S. as the biggest obstacle to the
reunification and further development of their country.
New U.S. military threats
Since the collapse of the Soviet Union and the vicious
attack on Yugoslavia, threats from the U.S. have grown harsher.
The U.S. and Japan have been using the launching of a north
Korean satellite last August as a justification to strengthen
their aggressive military position in Asia.
The DPRK is one of only a handful of nations to have a
satellite. Furthermore, they launched it themselves, showing
that despite years of sanctions and hostility from the
imperialists, they have developed great technological
strength.
Kim Yong Sun, secretary general of the Korean Workers Party,
told CNN on Aug. 19 that the world "should be congratulating us
for launching a satellite, yet instead we are being condemned."
In fact, shrill protests from the U.S. have given way to
dangerous threats since the north announced plans for a second
launch.
U.S. Secretary of Defense William Cohen, calling the
intended launch a virtual "act of war," is going ahead with
developing a Theater Missile Defense system in Japan and Taiwan
that would constitute a serious military danger to the DPRK and
China.
The U.S. has also worked to isolate and starve north Korea.
As part of a 1994 agreement the DPRK froze its nuclear energy
program under pressure from the U.S., which claimed it could be
used to make weapons-grade plutonium. However, the DPRK needs
energy, so the U.S. was supposed to help it build a light-water
reactor, which has not happened. It also agreed to ease trade
sanctions. Yet according to a column by Leon Sigal of the
Social Science Research Council in the Aug. 16 Los Angeles
Times, the U.S. "has not even kept the promise to ease
sanctions."
Washington has the economic and military clout to make
sanctions a powerful weapon. Its sanctions against Iraq have
killed 1.7 million people, and the embargo against the Cuban
people has caused great hardship.
Exaggerated stories of widespread famine in north Korea have
appeared in the capitalist media with the intent of
discrediting socialism. In Pyongyang, Kaesong and other parts
of the DPRK visited by this reporter, the people appeared
healthy. But three years of natural disasters damaged the
infrastructure and created a very serious food shortage that
undoubtedly affected many people. The DPRK says it is only now
beginning to recover.
So it is a grave problem when the U.S. government withholds
energy funds and keeps sanctions in place, despite an agreement
the DPRK has lived up to.
The people in the north have answered that they will never
surrender their socialist system, despite U.S. threats. Their
determination is matched by those in the south who are fighting
to get U.S. troops out and reunite their country. The vitality
of these companion movements was unmistakable as they met here
in the DPRK.
This article is copyright under a Creative Commons License.
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