Festival Commemorating June 15 Korean Unity Declaration Opens in Pyongyang

PYONGYANG -- As North Korea held a "grand festival for national unification" on June 14, according to a report from the Korea Central News Agency (KCNA), the North Korean government's official news service, the thorny topic of reunification with South Korea has come up once again.

The festival was held to mark the seventh anniversary of the June 15, 2000, joint North-South Korean proclamation declaring the two sides' intent to work toward peaceful reunification. The document was signed by North Korean leader Kim Jong Il and then South Korean President Kim Dae Jung (no relation), who recently announced that he wants to again visit the North. Both North and South Korean representatives gathered for the opening ceremony in front of Nam Gate at Mount Taesong. A large flag representing the Korean peninsula was hoisted, and according to KCNA, Pyongyang chanted pro-reunification slogans.

In attendance at the opening ceremony were delegations from, respectively, the North Side Committee for Implementing the June 15 Joint Declaration, chaired by An Kyong Ho, and the South Side Committee, chaired by Paek Rak Chong, and the overseas side committee, co-chaired by Kwak Tong Ui and Mun Tong Hwan.

In his opening remarks, An Kyong Ho said that the festival would reaffirm Koreans' commitment to implement the June 15 declaration, according to KCNA. Kim Yong Dae, Vice President of the Presidium of the Supreme People's Assembly, the North's parliament, and Honorary Chairman Ri Ji Gwan and Co-Chairman Mun Tong Hwan of the South Side Committee also spoke. The Mansudae Art Troupe performed at the East Pyongyang Grand Theatre on June 14 as part of the festival. The first day of the festival was concluded with a banquet at the People's Palace of Honor.

The festival occurred a week after some minor international recognition of the significance of North Korea and Kim Jong Il. In Cambodia, the Funcinpec Party of Cambodia held a seminar on June 5 and 7 commemorating the 43rd anniversary of the beginning of Kim's work on the Central Committee of the Workers' Party of Korea (WPK). The director of the secretariat of the chairman of the Funcinpec Party told the seminar that Kim has helped North Korea's ruling party develop into a strong instrument of revolution and the DPRK into an authentically democratic nation, according to KCNA.

Also on June 5 and 7, the Youth Group for the Study of the Juche Idea of Democratic Congo held a reading session and lecture commemorating the 43rd anniversary. The reading session centered around The Short Biography of Comrade Kim Jong Il. The group's chairman praised Kim for raising historical awareness of the achievements of the DPRK's revolutionary forerunners and developing the country's official Juche ideology, which emphasizes national self-reliance as well as socialism and communism, according to KCNA.

The director of Kinshasa Vocational School lectured to the Democratic Congo group on Kim Jong Il's contributions to the development of Juche, an ideology that was founded by Kim's father, Kim Il Sung, who died in 1994 but remains the Eternal President of the DPRK. As noted in the KCNA report, the lecturer pointed to Kim's development of Songun politics and furtherance of the Juche idea as being among the North Korean leader's most important contributions.

Songun is the DPRK's "army-first" philosophy, promulgated by Kim Jong Il in the 1990s as a corollary of Juche. Under Songun politics, the military has displaced the working class as the primary focal point of the construction of socialism. Both the Cambodian and Congolese attendees viewed DPRK films, including The Great Leader Comrade Kim Jong Il Gives Field Guidance to Work in Various Fields and Care Shown to Make Their Lives Shine, according to KCNA.

The DPRK and the Republic of Korea (ROK), the official name of South Korea, have technically been in a state of war since 1950; the 1953 armistice ending the Korean War was merely a cease-fire, not a treaty. The United States and the DPRK signed the armistice, but the ROK did not. The DPRK's missile and nuclear programs have caused considerable concern in the international community. If the two Koreas were to reunite, they would likely form a loose confederation, with a common foreign policy, currency, military, etc., but still separate leaderships and political and economic systems. North and South Korean officials have proposed different variations of the confederation idea.

References:

Korean Central News Agency. "Grand Festival for National Reunfication Opens." Korean News (English site). World Wide Web. Internet. http://www.kcna.co.jp/item/2007/200706/news06/15.htm. June 15, 2007. Accessed June 15, 2007.

_____________. "Kim Jong Il Highly Praised." Korean News (English site). World Wide Web. Internet. http://www.kcna.co.jp/item/2007/200706/news06/15.htm. June 15, 2007. Accessed June 15, 2007.