“Without making one Korea, it is all a vain attempt to attain economic power, national prosperity, elementary human right, welfare, education, culture and new political administration. Only after Korea becomes one along the road indicated by the June 15 Joint Declaration and the October 4 Declaration, will the greatness of our nation be able to come into limelight with our resourcefulness and talent flourishing, and make contribution to peace and prosperity of the world and mankind.” This is a quotation from an article carried by Jajuminbo, a south Korean Internet newspaper.
National reunification is the unanimous desire and will of the Korean people. What is essential in achieving reunification as aspired by all the people is to adhere to the banner of “by our nation itself.”
The Korean peninsula has been suffering from division caused by the foreign forces for nearly 70 years. This tragedy of the nation carries a serious lesson that reunification can be won only when the foreign forces are rejected and the efforts of all the Korean people are joined.
The Koreans had long lived harmoniously in a single land as a homogenous nation until they were divided into north and south by the US along with the end of the Second World War. The Americans have pursued inter-Korean confrontation to attain their aggressive DPRK policy for their strategy of control of the world. It is self-evident that they will not bring reunification to the Korean nation.
The Koreans realized through the June 15 reunification era that there is nothing they can’t get when they join hands as members of the same nation. The north-south summit meeting held in Pyongyang in June 2000 adopted the June 15 North-South Joint Declaration to solve the problem of reunification by the concerted efforts of the Koreans. And in October 2007 the October 4 Declaration was adopted which is geared to implement the June 15 Joint Declaration. The north-south dialogue entered the arena of trust and cooperation whereby to solve substantial problems, discarding the outmoded frame. Railways and roads that had been cut for more than half a century were reconnected, and air and sea routes were opened, making a breakthrough in the wall of division. This was a tangible contribution to the effort to remove inter-Korean distrust and expand cooperation and exchange. Experiencing the validity and vitality of the ideal of “by our nation itself,” the Koreans keenly felt that the ideal is essential to independent reunification, peace and prosperity.
Today they sorely miss the time when they travelled to and from each other to meet and share the hope for national reconciliation and unity, and want to see the era resume with vigour. Having suffered the vicious cycle of distrust and confrontation for some years, the north-south relationship gives an evident lesson that the adhering to and the implementing of the joint declarations will provide the future to the nation and a shortcut to achievement of national reunification and peace.
Both the principle of the north-south relationship and the starting point of trust lie in the respect and thorough implementation of the joint declarations that are comprehensive crystallization of the nation’s desire and aspiration; the success in the effort to open a new future for reunification, peace and prosperity by the concerted efforts of the Korean people depends on how to keep the fundamental spirit of the declarations. History has already proved that to deny the other’s social system and establishment and approach dialogue for a political aim is the cause of the acute situation in the Korean peninsula.
Improvement of the inter-Korean relations leads to one Korea. However difficult and complicated the matter of national reunification may be, anyone will be able to reject flunkeyism and dependence on foreign forces and uphold the banner of independent reunification if he considers the reunification from the view of “by our nation itself.”
The motive force of independent reunification is the ideal of By Our Nation Itself.
When all the Koreans share the same intention and join hands there will be no impossible problem for them to solve. There are still ordeals and obstacles in the way to reunification, but the dawn of one Korea will surely break as there is the guidance of the June 15 Joint Declaration and the October 4 Declaration which are the crystallization of the ideal of By Our Nation Itself.
