hankyoreh

The representatives of “North, South, and Overseas Committee for the Implementation of the June 15 Joint Statement” met at Mount Geumgang on June 15 on the eighth anniversary of the declaration to call on both North and South Korean government authorities to fully implement the June 15 Joint Declaration and the October 4 Summit Declaration.

Former South Korean Unification Minister Lim Dong-won and a total of 258 people from South Korea attended what officially was called the “National Reunification Conference on the Occasion of the Announcement of the June 15 Joint Declaration.” Presbyterian elder Park Yong-gil, wife of the late Rev. Moon Ik-hwan, was the South's honorary top delegate, while Seoul National University emeritus professor Paik Nak-chung was the official leader of the South's delegation.

Ahead of the Southern delegation’s departure for Mount Geumgang, a total of 1,036 representatives from a wide range of sectors of South Korean society gathered at Seoul’s Hyanglin, a progressive church known for their reunification movement activities, to sign what they called the “Joint Declaration on Implementing the June 15 Joint Declaration and October 4 Declaration and on Improving Inter-Korean Relations.” Signatories included Paik, SNU professor Chung Woon-chan, and Lee Suk-haeng, chairman of the Korean Confederation of Trade Union.

The document claims that only by carrying out the two declarations adopted at the inter-Korean summit meetings “can damaged inter-Korean trust be restored and can we have a minimum basis for new accomplishments in each other's development and peaceful prosperity.”

Also on the eighth anniversary of the June 15 Declaration, joint United Democratic Party joint chairperson Sohn Hak-kyu held a press conference in which he placed the blame for the current poor state of inter-Korean relations on South Korean President Lee Myung-bak.

“The biggest reason for the disappearance of North-South relations is the Lee Myung-bak administration’s failure to recognize the June 15 Joint Declaration and October 4 Declaration,“ said Sohn. “The Lee administration must declare to Korea and the world that it will implement in a developmental way the June 15 Joint Declaration and October 4 Summit Declaration.”

The commemorative event at Mount Geumgang is scheduled to close on June 16 after a meeting by the chairpersons of “North, South, and Overseas Committee for the Implementation of the June 15 Joint Statement” and a walk through the beautiful Samilpo lake area.

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