Anti-US Rally at Unification Festival?

It was reported that the executive members of the Pan Korean Alliance for the Reunification of South Korea (PKAR) would join the steering committee of June 15 Grand National Unification Festival being held in Gwangju starting from tomorrow. The PKAR was classified by the Supreme Court as an illicit organization that works in favor of North Korea. During the festival, an anti-U.S. rally is also planned.

A source from the PKAR said yesterday, “The PKAR chairman will join the steering committee, the president of PKAR Gwangju/Jeonnam branch will join a joint delegation, and other executive members will join the executive committee.”

During the festival, it is expected that 50 members from PKAR and 800 members of the Korean Federation of University Student Councils (KFUSC), which is also classified as an illegal organization by Supreme Court, will play a leading role in anti-U.S. rallies.

The PKAR also plans to hold the PKAR’s resolution convention and a grand meeting for the implementation of patriotic movements in three fields (such as autonomous unification, anti-war and peace, and national solidarity) separately at Chosun University on the first day of the festival.

According to a guide available to the public yesterday through the KFUSC’s homepage, the PKAR’s resolution convention will be a place to drum up power that was shown through the June 15 South-North Joint Declaration, and to prevent the rise of the U.S. and anti-unification bloc.

At the PKAR’s grand meeting, they will call for people’s efforts to curb U.S. war plans, and the withdrawal of U.S. troops from Korea. They also plan to stress the importance of war preparation against the conservative bloc. The keynote of this meeting is, therefore, the withdrawal of U.S. troops and the anti-U.S. movement.

On the other side, the KFUSC is preparing banners and pickets for this festival saying, “Let’s achieve national unification without U.S. intervention”; “Let’s concentrate national power to stop the U.S. war plan”; “Anti-U.S. and anti-war movement is the only recourse for the national survival”; and “Let’s make the Korean peninsula peaceful soil.”

A source from the Ministry of Unification, which is involved in this event, said, “It is not a big problem because in official events, the members of these illegal organizations don’t take part as members of KFUSC and PKAR,” adding, “In regard to their separate events, we have no right to control them.”

However, people have begun to express worry over the festival.

Park Hyo-jong, professor of national ethics education at Seoul National University, said, “If those who are dedicated to particular ideology play a leading role in the committees of the festival, the purity of this event could be polluted.”

ditto@donga.com