hankyoreh

there has been no substantial talk between South and North Korea.

On June 6, opposition parties and citizens urged the government to cancel the appointment of controversial new senior researcher at the Education Center for Unification, Hong Kwan-hee. The new senior researcher has denounced the June 15 Joint Declaration as “documents benefiting the enemy” and openly advocated “unification through absorption.” These groups were especially concerned that the appointment would have negative effects on inter-Korean relations, saying that appointment of the new senior researcher on Unification is an anachronistic and dangerous choice. Opponents say the designation Hong is reminiscent to the nomination of political professor Nam Joo-hong to the office of Unification Minister. Professor Nam remarked that the June Joint Declaration is only a North Korean operational document against the South.

During a briefing on this day, Cha Young, spokesperson for the main opposition United Democratic Party(UDP), urged the government to immediately withdraw the appointment of Hong, warning that this could ruin North-South ties. Cha remarked that Hong would have been a suitable person in the era of the nation’s first President Rhee Syng-man. He also asked, “If President Lee Myung-bak newly appointed head of the Education Center for Unification advocates “absorption,” does his administration aim to achieve unification by marching northward?” The Democratic Labor Party (DLP)’s council promoting independent and peaceful unification also issued a statement, saying that the government wants to re-indoctrinate citizens into the views of the 1970s by appointing a person who still considers anti-communism the national policy.

The Korean Teachers and Education Workers’ Union urged the government to cancel the appointment of Hong, and to restore inter-Korean relations through establishing plans to implement the June 15 and October 4 joint statements, They also encouraged the government to prepare guidelines for the education for peaceful and cooperative unification. They criticized the government’s anti-unification movement as going against the times.

Han Chung-mok a representative from an organization assigned to carry out the June 15th Joint Declaration noted that to name Hong as the director of the Education Center for Unification is an attempt to return to the era of confrontational division. The organization will hold a press conference to protest against Hong’s appointment in front of the Unification Ministry on June 9. Hankuk University of Foreign Studies’ Professor Lee Jang-hee, an advisor to the Korean Council for Unification Education (a consultative body of civil organizations for unification education) spoke, “President Lee Myung-bak’s perception of the inter-Korean relations and the international political situation is stuck in the 1960s and 1970s. It is too embarrassing.”

A high-ranking official of the Korean Council for Reconciliation and Cooperation remarked, “If the government appoints a person who has criticized the June 15 Joint Declaration which the North values above everything else, the North will think that the South’s new government showed its intention to do nothing regarding ties between the two Koreas for the next five years. The new government has made the worst possible move.”

In regards to this controversy, an official from the Unification Ministry said that the appointment of new head of the Education Center for Unification has not been finalized.

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