Liberation Day Fete Held in Pyongyang By Joint Press Corps PYONGYANG _ Despite a tumultuous beginning, civic representatives of South and North Korea finally met in Pyongyang yesterday for Aug. 15 festivities commemorating Korea's liberation from Japanese colonial rule in 1945. A 366- member South Korean delegation from the `Organizing Committee for 2001 Inter-Korean Joint Events,'' including a 20-member press corps, attended the North's Liberation Day festivities held in the North Korean capital. ``Welcome!'' shouted masses of citizens in the usually quiet city of Pyongyang, who had lined up the streets to welcome the South Korean delegation. It is the first time that two Koreas have met for Aug. 15 celebrations, although South Korean unification movement groups have sent delegates illegally in the past, facing lengthyjail terms upon return. For Lim Su-kyung, who was dubbed the ``flower of unification'' after her first clandestine visit to North Korea as a student movement representative, it was the first visit in 12 years. Lim, who is a household name in North Korea, received the warmest welcome by the North Koreans present. Also included in the delegation was novelist Hwang Suk-young, who also visited there 1989 and spent five years in exile, followed by five years in prison. The South Korean team, whose departure was delayed by one day from the original itinerary of Aug. 14-21, flew directly from Incheon International Airport to Pyongyang's Sunan International Airport earlier in the day, using the direct air route skirting the West Sea. On Tuesday night, the Seoul government made a last-minute reversal of its earlier decision not to allow the delegation's visit, on condition that it does not go near the newly-erected`Monument for Three Major Chapters for National Unification.'' The 30-meter tall tower, the North's original choice for the venue of the main event, is symbolically connected to North Korea's unification formula and is deemed ideologically sensitive by South Korea. The Movernment's original refusal to give the approval to the delegation, most of which is made of representatives from civic organizations, stemmed from its displeasure at the North's insistence on holding the events there. In addition government officials had said that holding a joint South-North event only in North Korea was unacceptable. However, North Korea sent a fax message Monday to the South saying that it would change the status of the event from an inter-Korea festival to a North Korean one, which South Koreans would attend as spectators. ``We have made a very difficult decision by granting the visit,'' a senior Unification Ministry official said yesterday, explaining the government's decision was made in order not to hurt the process of Inter-Korean rapprochement. Official-level talks and contacts between the two Koreas have been at a standstill since March, when North Korea abruptly called off the ministerial talks, in an apparent protest of the Bush administration's hard-line North Korean policy. In the meantime, the South Korean delegation today will visit a photo exhibition in Pyongyang featuring the brutality of the Japanese colonial rule. While the schedule is subject to change, the Southerners are likely tour Mt.Myohyang some 150 km north of Pyongyang tomorrow, and will go on to visit Mt.Paektu on the Northern tip of the peninsula. They are to return on Aug. 21, ending the one-week visit. Koreans Celebrate Liberation Day, Condemn Revival of Japanese Militarism By Soh Ji-young Staff Reporter Korean citizens marked the Liberation Day yesterday with heavy hearts and resoluteness rather than joy, as national fury over the Japanese prime minister's tribute to Japan's war dead continued to ripple across the country. Thousands of Koreans took to the streets to vent their anger and indignation regarding Junichiro Koizumi's Monday visit to Yasukuni Shrine, which enshrines, among others, Japanese war criminals. Hundmreds of citizens, including several former sex slaves for the Japanese military during World War II, staged a protest rally in Tapkol Park in central Seoul, to denounce Koizumi's pilgrimage to the controversial war shrine. ``Koizumi's visit proves that Japan has no intention of repenting for its past aggressions,'' they chanted before marching to the Japanese Embassy. Koizumi's visit to the shrine worsened the already strong anti-Japanese sentiments that filled Koreans after Tokyo approved history textbooks which are criticized as glorifying Japan's wartime aggressions. Korea and other Asian countries are voicing apprehension that Japan's militarism is ``rearing its ugly head'' once more. A bell-ringing ceremony was held in Chongno in central Seoul at noon, with several former independence fighters in attendance, while some 20,000 people, including some 8,000 students, attended a Liberation Day event in Yoido. About 200 high school students and teachers of an art school in Kwanak-gu, southern Seoul, also staged rallies urging Japan to rectify the distorted textbooks. During the rally, students showed a comic book they drew themselves, which tells of the distorted textbook dispute, and sent it to the Japanese Embassy in the afternoon. The 39-page book centers on the former comfort women's fury over the sexual slavery issue being omitted from the recently approved Japanese textbooks. Alongside the protests, some 200 cultural and sporting events, such as marathons, exhibitions and commemorative ceremonies, were held to celebrate Korea's liberation from the brutal Japanese colonial rule. In Sosan, South Chungchong Province, more than 2,000 citizens participated in a 3.3 km-long marathon to celebrate the freedom of the country. On Tuesday, hundreds of students marched and burned Japanese flags to vent anger over Japanese Prime Minister Koizumi's visit to Yasukuni Shrine. ``Let's execute Koizumi and Japanese militarism!'' the students chanted as the paper flags went up in flames. Several students threw punches and kicks at riot police who blocked them from marching to the Japanese Embassy in central Seoul. Police fought back with plastic shields and kicks. In a separate rally in a nearby park, 50 elderly Koreans burned a Japanese flag and a large picture of Koizumi with his mouth dripping with blood. They waved pickets urging people not to buy Japanese goods. A man covered his van with anti-Japanese slogans and drove through downtown Seoul with an effigy of Japan's wartime emperor chained to the vehicle. The student protesters first rallied in central Seoul's bustling Chongno shopping district and then marched two blocks toward the embassy before police stopped them 200 meters (yards) away. Students, all wearing identical light blue shirts and beige hats lay down on the pavement in protest. Some of them wore masks that showed an X drawn across a Japanese flag. They distributed leaflets carrying a photo that allegedly showed Koreans killed during Japan's colonial rule of Korea in 1910-45. Two elderly men angrily protested to a police commander for blocking the students, repeatedly shouting, ``Don't you know the history!'' Koizumi's Monday visit to the Yasukuni Shrine escalated anti-Japanese sentiments that had simmered for weeks over new Japanese textbooks that allegedly gloss over atrocities by Japanese soldiers during World War II. South Korea, China and other Asian nations regard the Yasukuni Shrine as a symbol of Japan's militarism. Communist North Korea's official news agency, KCNA, warned on Tuesday that ``militarism is raising its head again in Japan.'' Despite the antagonism, South Korea and Japan are major trading partners and will co-host the World Cup soccer tournament next year. [EMAIL PROTECTED] 14,08,2001 Civic Groups to Sue Koizumi South Korean and Japanese civic organizations will soon file a suit with a Japanese court claiming that Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi violated Japan's constitution when he visited the controversial Yasukuni Shrine. The Korean Council for Redress and Reparations for the Victims of WWII Atrocities said yesterday that it contacted Japanese organizations right after Koizumi visited the shrine and agreed to file the suit together as soon as possible. The suit charges the Japanese prime minister with breaking the principle of church-state separation as stated in the constitution by paying respects at Yasukuni, a Shinto religious facility. The council will name the Korean women mobilized as sex slaves for Japanese soldiers at frontline brothels as direct victims of Koizumi's conduct. Koizumi outraged Asian neighbors by going to Yasukuni, a shrine dedicated to millions of Japanese war dead, including 14 class-A war criminals. The last Japanese prime minister to go to Yasukuni was Yasuhiro Nakasone in 1985. ``The suit had already been discussed with our Japanese counterparts last month when we planned our response to Koizumi's visit to Yasukuni,'' said Kim Eun-shik, director of the council. ``We will highlight the matter internationally as a diplomatic issue.'' Civil Groups React Furiously to Koizumi's Visit to War Shrine By Soh Ji-young Staff Reporter One day ahead of the Liberation Day, rallies erupted all across the nation yesterday in fierce protest over Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's visit to the controversial Yasukuni Shrine. More than 1,000 student activists and labor unionists demonstrated in the streets of Chongno, central Seoul, in protest of Koizumi's Monday visit to the site which enshrines Japan's war dead, including war criminals. Despite fierce protests from the international community, Koizumi paid a visit to the Yasukuni Shrine on Monday afternoon. It was originally slated for today, to commemorate the anniversary of Japan's surrender in World War II. But Koizumi moved up his visit to the shrine, in an apparent move to refrain from further enraging his angry Asian neighbors. ``Koizumi's visit to the war shrine is a revival of Japan's militarism, an act equal to paying tribute at Adolf Hitler's grave,'' the activists charged in a statement. The protesters then took part in a street march toward the Japanese embassy. Some 200 victims, who had to perform forced labor under Japanese rule, held rallies denouncing Japan's actions in front of Tapkol Park in Chongno. They blasted the Japanese government for going ahead with the visit to the war shrine, and refusing to rectify the distorted middle school history textbooks that gloss over its wartime crimes. The Citizen Movement for Anti-Overconsumption also conducted a boycott campaign of Japanese goods at Tapkol Park. In Pusan, about 2,000 members of 58 civil groups demonstrated at the plaza of Pusan Railway Station in protest of the Japanese leader's tribute to Japan's war criminals. After burning the Japanese flag, various Japanese goods and a picture of Koizumi, they marched toward the nearby Japanese Consulate General building. More rallies are set to be held today, which marks the 56th anniversary of Korea's liberation from Japanese colonial rule. The Korean Council for the Women Drafted For Military Sexual Slavery By Japan will stage their weekly Wednesday rally today in front of Tapkol Park with civic groups, and then conduct a street march toward the Japanese embassy. Meanwhile, netizens will stage cyber demonstrations every three hours, starting from 9 a.m., at major Japanese Internet sites related to the distorted Japanese textbooks. Some of the Internet sites they are targeting are the Japanese Education Ministry (http://www.mext.go.jp) and the ruling Liberal Democratic Party (http://www.jimin.or.jp ). For more information, visit http://www.antischoolbook.wo.to. _________________________________________________ KOMINFORM P.O. Box 66 00841 Helsinki Phone +358-40-7177941 Fax +358-9-7591081 http://www.kominf.pp.fi General class struggle news: [EMAIL PROTECTED] subscribe mails to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Geopolitical news: [EMAIL PROTECTED] subscribe: [EMAIL PROTECTED] __________________________________________________
