hankyoreh

President Moon Jae-in signs a directive to mandate singalongs of “March of the Beloved” and to cancel plans for state-authored history textbooks in his office at the Blue House in Seoul

President Moon Jae-in has ordered the scrapping of state-authored history textbooks and directed relevant agencies to hold a singalong of the song “March for the Beloved” during a May 18 event, Senior Secretary to the President for Public Relations Yoon Young-chan announced on May 12.

The designation of history textbooks and banning of the “March for the Beloved” singalong were heavily criticized as examples of regressive historical practices by the preceding Park Geun-hye administration.

Yoon explained the abolition of the textbooks was “intended to restore common sense and justice.”

“The state-authored history textbooks are symbols of old-fashioned uniform history education and divisive education that drives a wedge between members of the public,” he added, saying the decision “shows the president’s firm commitment that history education should no longer be used according to political logic.”

May 12. (Blue House photo pool)

Yoon also said Moon’s order on the singalong “reflects his strong determination that the May 18 Gwangju Democratization Movement, which has been designated a government commemorative day, and its spirit must no longer be marred.”

During his run for the presidency, Moon pledged to abolish the state-authored history textbooks, which he listed one of the targets for “clearing away old vices.” He also pledged to “attend the May 18 commemorative ceremony and sing along with the ‘March for the Beloved’ as president” if elected. The song had been sung in unison by all attendees at the May 18 events since the government commemorative day was first enacted in 1997. But the song was cut out of the main event in 2009, just after conservative Lee Myung-bak took office as president. Since 2011, the singalong has been eliminated and the song sung by a choir before the main ceremony.

Park Seung-chun, whose resignation as Minister of Patriots’ and Veterans’ Affairs was accepted on May 11, banned singalongs of the march because of its use as background music in North Korean films.

By Lee Seung-jun, staff reporter

Please direct questions or comments to [english@hani.co.kr]