[Editorial] The World Cup Finals Has Dawned

The first global village festival in the 21st century, the World Cup finals in Korea and Japan will take place with the colorful opening ceremony at the Seoul Sangam World Cup Stadium in the evening of the day. For a month-long period, the eyes and ears of the citizens of the world will focus on the Korean Peninsula and Japanese Archipelago. It is not a coincidence that the first World Cup of the first millennium takes place in two countries, South Korea and Japan. That is itself symbolize in connoted sense the 21st century is an era of Asia and its central stage is in Northeast Asia.

The central value of the new century is `tolerance.` To open a period of new global village after the disappearance of so-called cold war requires a spirit of tolerance to understand and embrace the other parties in region, race, culture, and religion. However, as it is shown at the September 11 terrorism, which shocked the world last year, and the ensuing anti-terrorism war, still the exclusiveness of civilization and the wall of conflicts among races and regions are still too high to realize an era of global village based on tolerance.

The World Cup football is here to overcome the wall of ignorant conflict and exclusive hate. Furthermore, the games itself take place simultaneously in two countries in Northeast Asia in the early period of the new century. The World Cup finals in Korea and Japan has an implication in world history as Korea and Japan are in the center of harmony, tolerance, and peace. Moreover the images of harmony and tolerance are so much refreshing as the two countries of Korea and Japan share the painful history of the past days.

What is lacking here is the North Korea`s eventual absent. However, the interest of peace loving people of the world on the reality of division in the Korean Peninsula will be heightened more, and that itself will contribute to the peaceful coexistence of North and South Korea

The World Cup finals to be watched by an accumulated 40 billion people is not a mere football event, it is a festival of the world citizens. Now the two countries of Korea and Japan, which prepared the festival should mange successfully the games while feeling proud. In our case, we have been applauded for our ten stadiums` level of quality as being the best in the world. Additionally, our national teams fighting capability has rapidly increased as to expect not only a first victory in the World Cup finals, but further advancing into the strong 16. As we see clearly from the recent heat of cheering crowd, the attention of the people is so intense. However, neither the superior facilities nor the advancement into the strong 16 is the criteria for evaluating the games a success. To have a successful World Cup, the citizens` consciousness should be up to the standard of the globalization. The mature cheering and game watching culture are basic ingredients of the consciousness.

Also taking care of the World Cup families visiting South Korea is important. We should prepare completely lodging, transportation, and interpretation so that more than 500 thousand foreign tourists would not feel any inconvenience and further provide opportunities to feel and see the true taste of Korean culture. Especially, we should manage a tight security system in preparation for terrorist attempts that may happen.

The festival is started. We hope that the World Cup finals would resurrect our national sprit, and further simultaneously to be a great party of having the centurial meaning of harmony, peace, and tolerance in an era of global village. Now a new day is dawn to shine the oriental light to the world.