AFP. 21 January 2002. North Korea invites South Koreans to huge festival.
SEOUL -- North Korea has proposed that people from rival South Korea attend a festival in Pyongyang in April which will feature one of the Stalinist state's renowned mass rallies, officials said Monday. The festival could be used to bolster tourism from the South, according to officials of the Hyundai Asan Co. tour group who held talks with North Korean officials at the northern resort of Mount Kumgang at the weekend. Hyundai Asan, the key North Korea trading arm of South Korea's disbanded Hyundai group, has suffered losses on tours to Mount Kumgang, close to the inter-Korean border. "The North offered that Hyundai organize a tour by South Koreans of the planned 'Arirang' festival," Hyundai Asan spokesman Kim Young-Soo said. "In return, we proposed to link it to the Mount Kumgang tour." The show-case fete is to be held from April 29 to June 29 in Pyongyang. Hyundai Asan said it needed more time to finalize a deal over the North's offer. All inter-Korean exchanges require government approvals. Both Koreas, separated since 1945, have launched various reconciliation events since the June 2000 summit between their leaders. The upcoming festival is the North's first using the name Arirang, the title of Korea's most famous folk song. The Stalinist state normally uses political terms, like "unification," for such occasions. In previous festivals, the North has mobilized hundreds of thousands of people and held mass displays calisthenics in a huge stadium. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Barry Stoller http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ProletarianNews
