Tuesday, April 24, 2001

By Jim Lea, Osan bureau chief

About 1,300 workers from the two Koreas will hold the first joint May Day celebration in North Korea next week to help erase the divisions that have separted the two countries since the Korean War.

In a joint statement issued Sunday, officials from the South’s two major labor conglomerates — the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions (KCTU) and the Federation of Korean Trade Unions — said they will send 650 members to Mount Kumgang National Park on April 30 to attend the three-day celebration.

They will be joined by 650 members of the North’s General Federation of Trade Unions, a KCTU official said.

The South Korean unionists believe they will have mandatory government approval to make the trip, but government officials could not be reached for confirmation.

Labor unionists from the South have visited their counterparts in the North several times in the past.

In 1999, a goodwill soccer tournament between workers from the two Koreas was held in Pyongyang.

The observance comes at a time when gradually improving relations between the Koreas have been derailed for more than a month, apparently over the Bush administration’s hardened attitude toward Pyongyang.

North Korea began canceling scheduled meetings with the the South immediately after Bush told South Korean President Kim Dae-jung that he was in no hurry to resume talks with Pyongyang and that he was skeptical of the North Korean leadership.

Since the Bush-Kim meeting, North Korean news media have been conducting an aggressive anti-Bush propaganda campaign, including demands that all U.S. troops be withdrawn from the country, something Pyongyang had not mentioned since the historic Inter-Korean Summit last June.

In spite of the stalled relations, the South Korean government said last week that it will provide 200,000 tons of fertilizer the North has requested.

A Unification Ministry spokesman said details on how and when the fertilizer will be sent will be announced later this month.

Bae Gi-chul contributed to this report.

Back to April's stories
Page Two news roundup
Stories from March, 2001
Stories from February, 2001
Stories from January, 2001
Stories from December, 2000
Stories from November, 2000
Stories from October, 2000
Stories from August and September, 2000
Stories from June and July, 2000
Home