[Editorial] Strengthen Basis for Korean Co-Prosperity

The North Korean delegation in Seoul for Liberation Day festivities end their four-day, three night visit and return to Pyongyang Wednesday. The delegation included important figures like Kim Ki Nam, secretary of the Central Committee of the DPRK's Worker's Party, and Lim Dong-ok, vice-chairman of the Committee for the Peaceful Reunification of the Fatherland, and it was noticed for making meaningful visits to places like the National Cemetery and the National Assembly. Before it leaves it is scheduled to call on president Roh Moo Hyun and it is expected it deliver a message from North Korea's National Defence Chairman Kim Jong Il

The Liberation Day events are about leaving the years of division and pain behind and moving forward to reconciliation and prosperity. It became a time for pledging friendship and reaffirming oneness as the Korean people through sports and meetings. Families separated by the Division were unable to grab hands and feel each other breathing when they met through video link, but it was a time when families were able to see that family members are still alive and placate their pain at least a little.

The visit to the National Cemetery gives the South a lot to think about. It was a difficult decision for the Northern delegation since North and South both experienced the tragedy of a fratricidal war, and there is no need to be stingy about recognizing the move as in intent to put the emotions of hate behind and open a new chapter of national reconciliation. For the sake of the future of the Korean nation, we need to move to a new level by freeing ourselves of an attitude that takes issue with the other side's wrongs and points fingers.

Peace on the Korean peninsula requires Korean unity and an intelligent response to stark international conditions. The fourth round of six-party talks gets started again at the end of this month, and there needs to be substantial results for stability on the peninsula and in Northeast Asia to be maintained without being shaken. It is said that during the festivities high-ranking officials on both sides got to know each other much better through private dialogue. North and South need to meet far more often so as to build the basis for mutual understanding and common prosperity.

The Hankyoreh, 17 August 2005.

[Translations by Seoul Selection (PMS)]