hankyoreh

The civic groups Road to Reunification and Goyang Citizens’ Committee gathered along the Unification Bridge in Paju

“I felt that even ordinary people like me need to take an interest in peace. It’s easy enough to just say you’re ‘too busy,’ but what good is money or a job when the peace is broken and war breaks out?”

Kim Gyeong-min, the 52-year-old owner of a construction material rental business near Incheon’s Sorae Port, joined his wife in hanging a Korean Peninsula flag on the Unification Bridge in Paju, Gyeonggi Province, for the historic inter-Korean summit two days ahead. Another flag was hung at Kim’s suggestion by the Seoul-area democratic alumni association of his alma mater Kyungsung University. The couple pooled their resources to send a message of support that was visible to South Korea’s summit delegates as they traveled toward Panmunjeom. The money they raised went to hanging flags on a roughly 20-meter stretch of “Peace Road” on the Unification Bridge.

“I hope we can progress 20 meters closer to reunification,” Kim said.

Signs of the enthusiasm and hopes of citizens like Kim were evident all along the 3-km road leading over Unification Bridge toward Panmunjeom in Paju. The civic group Road to Reunification harnessed this passion to produce 1,500 Korean Peninsula flags and use them to decorate a “Peace Road” near the Unification Bridge. The length of Peace Road was increased by two meters for every 10,000 won (US$9.26) donated by citizens – the fruits of efforts between Apr. 4 and 20 to marshal support for peace and unification.

Cho Won-ho, president of the Seoul branch of Road to Reunification and the project’s planner, explained that it was “meant to express our hopes for the success of the 2018 inter-Korean summit.”

“This is the second Peace Road, after the Korean Peninsula flags that were hung near the North Korean athletes’ lodgings during the Pyeongchang Winter Olympics,” Cho explained.

Participants in the Peace Road’s creation ran the gamut from ordinary working people to ministers and farmers. Seo Hyo-jeong, a 47-year-old company employee, joined her friends to extend the road’s length by 16 meters.

“We really wanted to support this new atmosphere of inter-Korean relations improving since the Pyeongchang Winter Olympics,” she said.

“With South and North doing a joint entrance to the Olympics and famous performers traveling to Pyongyang to perform, it seems like middle school-aged kids are more interested in unification issues than before,” a hopeful Seo noted.

Presbyterian Church in the Republic of Korea minister Rev. Hong Yo-han, 50, said, “As Jesus is a symbol for peace, Christians should be leading the way in ushering the Korean Peninsula toward peace.”

Hong explained that he took part in the road project “because I think the true form of faith is to hope and pray and act for peace.”

Choi Sang-eun, a 56-year-old peach farmer in Yeongcheon, North Gyeongsang Province, said, “I hope there will be active inter-Korean agricultural exchange, like the Jecheon apple festival held at Mt. Keumgang in 2006 during the Roh Moo-hyun administration.”

The university students who put up the decorations on the Peace Road were also looking forward to the inter-Korean summit. Seo Da-jin is a 21-year-old student who has been volunteering since Apr. 14 to put up Korean Peninsula flags on the Peace Road.

“I hope peace between South and North will be as solid at the Korean Peninsula flags we worked so hard to bind together,” a smiling Seo said.

By Choi Min-yeong, staff reporter

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