Special to the World
PYONGYANG, North Korea - This year marks the 44th year of the Korean division by the foreign forces. Despite the passage of over half a century, many Koreans are more determined than ever to reunify the country. This is eloquently proved by the monument to the Three-Point Charter of National Reunification under construction in Pyongyang, the capital of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK).
The three-point charter stands for the three principles of independence, peaceful reunification and national unity, the 10-point program of the unity of the whole nation, and the proposal for founding the Democratic Federal Republic of Korea, advanced by President Kim Il Sung. His successor, Kim Jong Il, has formulated them as the charter of national reunification.
This accounts for the erection of the monument to national reunification. The monument is to be modeled on the theme of single-heartedness, a unity pole with 13 colorful ribbons. The monument will have a major pillar plus three branches to symbolize the Korean people in the north, the south and abroad. The branches will rise slantwise towards the pillar and finally join it.
The pillar will be topped by a globe, four meters in diameter, embossed with a map of Korea. The monument measures 55 meters in height. It stands for the 55th year of the Korean liberation and division. It will cover an area of 20,000 square meters.
The groundbreaking ceremony took place last August in the presence of many Korean representatives. The Joint Committee of the Domestic and Overseas Koreans for the Promotion of the Monumental Construction was formed in November to erect the monument through the pan-national reunification movement.
The DPRK takes upon itself the construction of the monument, but many Koreans in the south and abroad contribute faithfully to it. The Korean-Japanese Society for Peaceful reunification of Korea sent excavators, lorries and other machines and materials.
The headquarters of the Korean residents in China donated a great number of spades and push carts. Korean visitors to Pyongyang work in the construction site and individuals sent memorial stones to mirror their desire for Korean reunification. They will be affixed to both flanks of the pedestal.
The north and the south of Korea, reaffirming the three principles of national reunification clarified in the historic July 4 North-South Statement of 1972, reached an agreement April 10 aimed at accelerating exchange, cooperation, and reunification.
The agreement says: "President Kim Dae Jung will visit Pyongyang from June 12 to 14. In Pyongyang a historic meeting between Kim Jong Il and Dae Jung will take place and inter-Korean summit talks will be held." It was signed by Song Ho Gyong, vice-chairman of the Korean Asian and Pacific Peace Committee, for the north, and Pak Ji Won, minister of culture and tourism, for the south.