Email this article
-------------------------
Via Workers World News Service
Reprinted from the Sept. 14, 2000
issue of Workers World newspaper
-------------------------Eyewitness south Korea
Students defy repression, demand reunification
By Phebe Eckfeldt
Seoul, south Korea
For three days in mid-August, Hanyang University here in Seoul, south Korea, was the site of rallies, meetings, cultural events, press conferences and demonstrations at which tens of thousands of left and progressive students marked the 55th anniversary of the liberation of Korea from Japanese occupation.
They are too young to remember the end of World War II, but their parents and grandparents can recall those days. They have related to these young people how their joy soon turned to anger as the Pentagon, which claimed to have sent troops only to help the Koreans liberate themselves from Japanese rule, stayed on to divide the country at the 38th parallel. Ten million Korean families were ripped apart. U.S. military occupation led to the suppression of the anti-imperialist movement in the south and, in 1950, to a war with the northern part of Korea.
This August, the sentiment to reunite the country was so strong that the students openly defied the onerous National Security Law to show their admiration for the north, singing revolutionary songs and displaying the flag of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea. All this is illegal in south Korea and can bring long jail sentences.
The event at the university was called the 2000 Great Festival on Reunification for Implementation of the South-North Joint Declaration, National Self-Determination and Great Unity. South and north Korea have been holding discussions on how to break down the painful division of the country. The south is still occupied by 37,000 U.S. troops.
Liberated territory
Although the perimeter of the university was surrounded by thousands of south Korean troops, the university area itself, which sits on top of a hill overlooking Seoul, had been taken over by the students. Every walkway, road, stadium, building, courtyard and stairway was filled with political banners, photo displays, murals, flags and literature tables.
They depicted struggles by workers and students all over south Korea. There were pictures of Maehyang-ri, a small fishing village near a U.S. bombing range where the people have been demonstrating to stop the U.S. Air Force from using their land for target practice. There were banners about the Lotte Hotel workers, who were brutally beaten by police earlier this summer when they demanded better working conditions.
Some literature exposed the massacres of civilians by U.S. troops during the Korean War. There were placards about the plight of student political prisoners.
The main themes running through all were to demand U.S. troops out of Korea, reunification of Korea and self-determination for the Korean people.
A visiting delegation of U.S. activists invited by the Korea Truth Commission of the National Alliance for Democracy and Reunification of Korea (NADRK) felt like we were in liberated territory. And in fact, we were. Under south Korean law these activities are illegal and outlawed.
The students, through their strength, unity and tight organization, kept the troops at bay. The two main student groups--Hanchongryon (South Korean Federation of University Student Councils) and Ponminryon (National Alliance for the Unification of the Fatherland)--are banned under the anti-communist National Security Law.
In fact, during the day on Aug. 14 our delegation attended a militant student rally at Meyung Dong Cathedral in downtown Seoul when it was attacked by riot police after demonstrators burned a U.S. flag. Students fought hand to hand with the police. Many were seriously injured and arrested.
50,000 at all-night rally
That night 50,000 students and their supporters filled a huge outdoor stadium for an all-night rally. They sang revolutionary songs from north Korea, flew the north Korean flag, and shouted praise for Kim Il Sung, the late leader of the socialist north. A huge hand-painted mural acted as a backdrop for the stage. It depicted the struggle of the Korean people to reunify their country.
Any of these activities just a few months earlier would have meant life imprisonment, torture and sometimes death under the National Security Law. The NSL defines north Korea as an "anti-state entity" and forbids any acts praising the north or mentioning its leader.
Korean activists pointed out that this was the largest rally of the student left since 1994. In recent years similar events had attracted about 10,000. However, an effort to unify the two student groups and a more relaxed political atmosphere created by the June summit between south Korean leader Kim Dae-jung and north Korean leader Kim Jong Il have encouraged student organizers to be proud and defiant about their support and admiration for the socialist DPRK.
Amidst militant speeches, student organizations from all over the country flew their flags, choruses sang, and the audience chanted slogans with their fists pumping.
Several of the student leaders who addressed the rally had to slip away from the university afterward and return to a clandestine existence.
Most of the leaders of the progressive movement in south Korea were once student leaders. Many have spent years in jail and have been tortured.
The audience cheered as leaders of groups from all over south Korea were introduced, including the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions, the National Farmers Association and the NADRK. The U.S. solidarity delegation was also warmly received.
More than 40 long-term political prisoners were welcomed as heroes. These are people who spent 30 to 40 years in jail and were just recently released. They had come from the north to the south during the Korean War to organize people's committees and were captured by south Korean troops. They were finally allowed to return to the north at the beginning of September.
The night before the mass rally, an awesome cultural spectacle took place. Student cultural groups competed against each other with revolutionary songs, dance and music that they had written, choreographed and composed. Some songs were put to rock music, others were slow, but all had the unmistakable qualities of exhilaration, commitment and dedication exuded by the youth in the struggle for the liberation of the people of south Korea.
The U.S. delegation felt we had glimpsed the future at Hanyang University.
This article is copyright under a Creative Commons License.
Workers World, 55 W. 17 St., NY, NY 10011
Email: ww@workers.org
Subscribe wwnews-subscribe@workersworld.net
Support independent news http://www.workers.org/orders/donate.php)HOME :: U.S. NEWS :: WORLD NEWS :: EDITORIALS :: SUBSCRIBE :: DONATE