North Korea on Tuesday called off joint celebrations with South Korea of the nation's liberation from the past Japanese colonial rule, citing damages from recent floods in the communist state that reportedly left more than 270 people killed or missing, the South Korean Unification Ministry said.
The sudden cancellation comes amid escalating tension between the divided Koreas over the North's recent launch of a long-range missile, which is believed capable of reaching the U.S. west coast.
"The North Korean organizing committee (of the joint events) said in a faxed message on Aug. 1 that it was unable to hold the Aug. 15 joint unification events due to damages from the floods," a Unification Ministry spokesman told reporters.
The Koreas have held joint events to celebrate the nation's independence from the Japanese colonial rule in 1945 since the historic meeting of their leaders in the North Korean capital Pyongyang in 2000.
This year's events were scheduled to be held in Pyongyang as the two sides alternately hosting the joint celebrations.
About 190 South Koreans, mostly civic leaders and members of an inter-Korean committee working to uphold a joint declaration of peace and reconciliation from the 2000 inter-Korean summit, were scheduled to travel to the North Korean capital from Aug. 14 through 17, according to officials at the South Korean organizing committee of the events.
The North Korean message forwarded to the South Korean side of the joint organizing committee said the country would be unable to mobilize personnel needed for the joint celebrations because "a large number of people have been mobilized to" help recover damages from the floods.
Reports by international relief agencies with officials in the reclusive North, such as the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, had said heavy rains on July 16 left 154 people killed and 127 others missing while more than 60,000 people were displaced and some 30,000 hectares of farmland either submerged or washed away.
Officials at the Unification Ministry said there seemed to be no other reason for the cancellation of the joint events.
Still, the cancellation follows a series of similar incidents that showed soured relations between the Koreas after Pyongyang launched seven ballistic missiles, including a long-range Taepodong-2, on July 5.
A four-day inter-Korean ministerial talks in early July came to a sudden closure as the North's five-member delegation, headed by chief councilor of the Cabinet Kwon Ho-ung, cut short of its schedule by one day and returned home.
The communist North has also postponed a scheduled meeting of an inter-Korean committee of literary writers to inaugurate the joint committee, which was to take place in the North's Mount Geumgang on Monday.
"The government has no official comment," a ministry official said.
The official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the government has been working to manage, or maintain, inter-Korean relations since the missile launches, but said it would not be able to intervene in what he said "largely civilian events."
Government delegates from the Koreas often participated in the joint celebrations of the Aug. 15 Liberation Day, but only as observers, the official said.
"The reason (for the cancellation) is as stated. It is hard to believe there are any other," the official added.
Seoul, Aug. 1 (Yonhap News)
N. Korea cancels inter-Korean events citing flood damages |
