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South Korean President Moon Jae-in waves to a crowd of North Koreans at the Rungrado 1st of May Stadium in Pyongyang on Sept. 19. (photo pool)
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North Koreans moved and applause to Moon’s peace message
“President Moon Jae-in got 150,000 Pyongyang residents to agree to denuclearization and drew an enthusiastic response. It was a very powerful moment.” Moon Chung-in, special presidential advisor on unification, foreign affairs, and national security, shared his reaction in a telephone conversation with the Hankyoreh on Sept. 20 after attending all five inter-Korean summits to date as a special entourage member, including three this year and two previous ones in 2000 and 2007. His choice as the most striking moment of the latest summit in Pyongyang was a speech given by President Moon Jae-in before 150,000 residents at the North Korea capital’s Rungrado 1st of May Stadium, where mass gymnastics and artistic performances were staged on the evening of Sept. 19. “President Moon said, ‘We [Koreans] have lived together for 5,000 years and apart for 70,’” Moon Chung-in recalled. “When we announced that they [President Moon and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un] had made a ‘firm agreement to make our landscape into a land of peace permanently free of nuclear weapons and nuclear threats and pass this on to posterity,’ the 150,000 Pyongyang residents seemed to grow quiet before immediately erupting in tremendous applause and cheers,” he said. “This shows that the North Korean leader and people all want a Korean Peninsula free of nuclear threats and nuclear weapons,” he concluded. Moon further noted that Kim “said in his own voice while announcing the Pyongyang Declaration this morning [on Sept. 19] that he had made a ‘firm commitment [with President Moon] to continue working actively to make the Korean Peninsula into a land of peace without nuclear weapons or a nuclear threat’ – remarks which President Moon once again confirmed that evening.” “This delivered a fresh shock to North Korea, which had regarded its nuclear weapon ownership as a done deal in adopting its two-track nuclear and economic development policy, and he gained its agreement,” he continued. Unprecedented level of hospitality shown to Moon and first lady Moon Chung-in was also generous with his praise for the unprecedented hospitality shown by the North Korean government to 200 members of the visiting delegation, including Moon and the South Korean first lady. “The North did provide welcomes at the first summit [in 2000] and the second one [in 2007], but there was not the same kind of consideration and hospitality seen this time,” he recalled. “All of the special entourage members received very cordial treatment. For [the surprise trip to] Mount Baekdu, they offered a special aircraft to travel by Air Koryo,” he noted. “It was a tremendous, respectful reception – enough to make me ask how we should acknowledge it when [Kim Jong-un] comes to the South,” he added. Moon also noted that Kim “ignored his governance responsibilities to spend the entire three days [of the Pyongyang visit] with President Moon.” “He and his wife showed tremendous good will and sincerity. Even internationally, it is rare to find that kind of tremendous consideration and hospitality,” he said. By Noh Ji-won, staff reporter Please direct comments or questions to [english@hani.co.kr]
