Monuments Calling for Korea’s Reunification

After the Second World War, Korea was divided into north and south by foreign forces. For over 60 years since then, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (North Korea) has waged an unremitting struggle for national reunification. In this course, peculiar monuments calling for Korea’s reunification have been built in the country.

Monument to the United Front

The Korean people were beside themselves with joy when they were liberated from the military occupation of Japanese imperialism on August 15, 1945, but their jubilation did not last long; they had to suffer from national division. Regarding the Far East as an outpost for realizing its ambition to dominate the world, the United States occupation the area south of the 38^th parallel of Korea by force of arms on the excuse of “disarming the Japanese army.” It schemed to conduct a separate election in south Korea in a bid to perpetuate Korea’s division.

Around that time Pyongyang, the present capital of the DPRK, hosted the historic Joint Conference of Representative of Political Parties and Public Organizations in North and South Korea on the proposal of Kim Il Sung (1912-1994), father of socialist Korea, and under his leadership. The conference, held in April 1948 and attended by representatives of 56 political parties and public organizations in the north and south of Korea, adopted the Resolution on the Political Situation in Korea and the Appeal to the Fellow Countrymen of All Korea. The recognize the “south Korean government” to be rigged up through a separate election and that they would set up a genuine unified government by themselves on a democratic principle. They also called on all the Korean people to turn out in the struggle to check and frustrate the character as it was attended by representatives from the middle-of –the-road political parties and public organizations in the north and south of Korea.

After the conference Kim Il Sung held a historic consultative meeting for national unity with te presiding members of the conference.

The Monument to the United Front stands on Ssuk Islet in the middle of the Taedong River which runs through Pyongyang, the islet where the consultative meeting was held. The monument is plastered with 56 granite slabs, symbolic of the number of the political parties and public organizations that participated in the joint conference. The back side of the monument is inscribed with the names of the participants, and the front side is inscribed with Kim Il Sung’s instructions, which read, “Never before in the history of our nation had so many representatives of  political  parties and social organizations with different  political views got together to discuss the destiny of the country and nation and reached unanimity. The north-south joint conference will go down for all time to come in the history of our nation as a great event which united patriots of all social strata behind the banner of territorial integrity and national reunification.”

Monument to President Kim Il Sung’s Signature

This monument stands at Panmunjom in Kaesong in the central part of the Korean peninsula. The Korean Armistice Agreement was concluded here. To look back, President Kim Il Sung’s whole life can be said to have been a life of struggle devoted to reunifying his country, except the period of the anti-Japanese revolutionary struggle for national liberation. For scores of years after the country’s division, he made numerous proposals for national reunification and led the entire Korean nation to the struggle for reunification. On the day before his death on July 8, 1994, he went over a document related to the scheduled inter-Korean summit talks, and affixed his signature to it that reads, “Kim Il Sung  July  7, 1994.”

The document and the signature were the last ones he went over and affixed in his life.

In order to hand his lifetime wish for national reunification down through generations, the Korean people built a 9.4-m-long monument made of natural granite and inscribed the signature on its 7.7-m-long panel.

In November 1996, Chairman Kim Jong Il of the DPRK National Defence Commission on an inspection of Panmunjom said that the country should be reunified at all costs, true to the lifetime instructions of Kim Il Sung.

Three Charters for National Reunification Memorial Tower

Kim Jong Il formulated the three principles of the country’s reunification, the 10-Point Programme for the Great Unity of the Whole Nation and the plan for founding the Democratic Federal Republic of Koryo, which had been advanced by Kim Il Sung, as the three charters for the country’s reunification, thus providing a guideline for the Korean nation to adhere to in their efforts for implementing of the cause of the country’s reunification.

The Three Charters for National Reunification Memorial Tower stands at the entrance to Thongil Street in Pyongyang, symbolizing the unshakable determination of the Korea people to reunify their country under the banner of the three characters.

This tower was built in August 2001, when a new era of national reunification under the ideal of “by our nation itself” was being opened following the historic meeting of the north and south Korean leaders in 2000 and the adoption of the June 15 North-South Joint Declaration. The tower, made of natural granite, consists of an arch-shaped tower body which depicts two women from north and south of Korea attired in national costumes holding up a mark symbolic of the three charters, and two pedestals on which group sculptures are embossed. Inside the tower body is a four-roomed exhibition of the precious stones donated by the Korean people from all walks of life in the north, south and abroad. The number of souvenir stones increased to some 800 after three years of the erection of the tower. An avenue runs across the archway of the tower body 30metres high and 61.5 metres wide, symbolic of the three characters of the country’s reunification and the June 15 North-South Joint Declaration, showing figuratively how the bright avenue of Korea’s reunification is opening up. The tower weighs 7000 tons bearing the 70million Korean people’s wish for national reunification, and the gate of the souvenir stones exhibition weighs three tons, implying that Korea will be reunified by the efforts of the three-way solidarity of the north, south and overseas Koreans.

The aforementioned monuments instill in the entire Korean nation with confidence in and optimism of the bright prospects for their country’s reunification and inspire them to the struggle to achieve it.