July 1st is Designated as a Temporary Holiday

The Blue House announced on the 24th that the government decided to designate the 1st of July as a temporary holiday and make it a ‘national festival day’ to commemorate our national football team’s ‘semifinal miracle’ regardless of the outcome of the semifinal match.

After that, they decide to have ‘National Festival to Celebrate the Success of the World Cup’ co-sponsored by private organizations and government on July 2nd.

Presidential Secretary for Policy Planning, Kim Jin-pyo, said, “We originally planned to designated the day as a temporary holiday if our team made it to the final; however, during the meeting between the competent authorities and gathering of the people’s opinion, we recognized our people’s enthusiastic support and the fact that the ‘semifinal miracle’ itself was the matter for congratulation, so we decided like that.”

The plaza in front of the Seoul City Hall, Sangam World Cup Stadium, or the Peace Park are considered for the ‘World Cup National Festival,’ and the highlight of all the cultural events held during the World Cup will be performed.

In addition the government will come up with a comprehensive post-World Cup programs to further promote the nation`s football. The programs include △ establishing ‘North East Asian Pro-Football League’ among Korea, Japan and China, and promoting a football exchange between South and North Korea, △ building more grass fields and fostering young football players, △ dispatching large-scale delegations in culture, export, tourism and investment fields (in September ~ October), and △ building a World Cup memorial.

President Kim Dae-jung emphasized after hearing the briefing, “the real success of the World Cup is △to achieve the union of all the people △to use the raised ‘Korea Brand’ as a chance for national prosperity, and △to make Korea as friend of the world,” and emphasized, “the second World Cup should be started now.”

The government decided to have successive meeting to materialize the ‘post World Cup’ program in each field starting the gathering of the economical ministers on the 26th and followed by the meeting of the World Cup related ministers on the 7th of the next month, the collective report meeting of each field on the 13th, and the report meeting to maximize the economical effect on the 18th.

Chol-Hi Lee klimt@donga.com