Download - Korea.net

NATIONAL
South Korea celebrated the 60th
anniversary of its foundation and
63 years since its liberation from
Japan’s colonial rule on Aug. 15, with
President Lee Myung-bak’s call for a
new and hopeful start to the next 60
years at a ceremony in central Seoul.
The Government of South Korea,
formally called the Republic of Korea,
was founded on Aug. 15, 1948 — exactly
three years after Korea was liberated
from 36 years of colonial rule.
The nation’s first parliament was
convened the same year, along with
the promulgation of its constitution
and the creation of its armed forces.
In Korea, a person’s 60th birthday
— known as the “hwangab” — symbolizes
the completion of a full cycle and
the beginning of another.
The anniversary ceremony in Seoul
featured music and dance performances
representative of Korea’s modern
history. In a separate event, hundreds
of officials and citizens gathered
at the nation’s easternmost island of
Dokdo, a recent diplomatic flashpoint
between South Korea and Japan, in a
celebration of Korea’s liberation.
Concerts, musicals and other public
performances were staged in celebration
of the anniversary in Seoul and
major provincial cities nationwide,
while a large-scale celebratory concert
was held aboard the Navy’s amphibious
assault ship — named “Dokdo” after
the islets — on Aug. 15 in Donghae,
a port on the eastern coast.
In his speech celebrating the
Liberation Day and the national founding
anniversaries, President Lee said
the Government will vigorously push
to link the trans-Korean railroad with
Russian and Chinese transcontinental
rail lines in preparation for the emergence
of a unified Korea as the world’s
logistics hub linking Eurasia and the
Pacific Rim in the next 60 years.
The President also urged North
Korea to immediately abandon its nuclear
weapons and embrace inter-
Korean dialogue and economic cooperation
to create a unified economic
zone on the Korean Peninsula.
“A unified Korea promises to be
the main gateway for prosperity linking
the Eurasian continent to the
Pacific Ocean by land, air and sea. A
train leaving Busan with cargo will be
able to travel the trans-continental
railway all the way to Central Asia and
Western Europe...A unified Korea will
A large Korean flag across the Cheonggyecheon Stream in central Seoul to celebrate the 60th anniversary of Korea’s founding
leap toward the center of the global
community,” Lee said in the address.
“I want to share this dream with all
the 80 million Koreans. I am not going
to give up the dream of both Koreas
living well together...First and foremost
for that to happen, permanent
peace must be brought about. The nuclear
weapons program, which is the
source of distrust and conflict, has to
be eliminated completely,” the
President said, proposing the resumption
of across-the-board dialogue with
North Korea.
The two Koreas, divided shortly after
the 1945 liberation, are still technically
at war, with no peace treaty
signed at the end of the 1950-53
Korean War.
During the ceremonial speech given
in front of about 20,000 dignitaries
and citizens, the President also declared
that his administration has selected
“low carbon, green growth” as
the nation’s new vision going into the
next 60 years.
“If the last six decades since the
nation’s founding have been spent
achieving fundamental freedoms, the
next 60 years should be dedicated to
realizing freedom with responsibility.
Only then will the founding of the
Republic of Korea be completed,” said
the President.
Data released by the Statistical
Office show that South Korea’s population
increased 2.4-fold to 48.45 million
in 2007 from 20.19 million in 1953. In
the same period of time, its gross domestic
product surged 746-fold to
$969.9 billion from $1.3 billion.
As a result, the per-capita gross
national income soared from $67 in
1953 to $20,045 last year. The nation’s
trade volume increased 3,167-fold in
the past 60 years.
In the 1950s, South Korea ranked
among the poorest countries. Today, it
is the world’s 13th largest economy.
Syngman Rhee was elected the
first president of the Republic of Korea
in 1948. On June 25, 1950, North
Korea launched an unprovoked fullscale
invasion of the South, triggering
a three-year war which involved U.S.,
Chinese and other foreign forces. The
entire Peninsula was devastated by the
conflict. A cease-fire was signed in
July 1953.
Rhee was forced out of office on
April 26, 1960 in the aftermath of the
April 19 Movement, a student-led uprising.
Park Chung-hee, who rose to
power in a bloodless military coup on
May 16, 1961, and became the nation’s
new president, is largely credited
with South Korea’s rapid industrialization
through export-led growth.
During Park’s tenure, per-capita
income increased 20-fold, and South
Korea’s rural, undeveloped economy
was transformed into an industrial
powerhouse.
South Korea’s growth-oriented,
export-led economic development
since the 1960s was so remarkable
that it earned the phrase “the Miracle
A celebration takes place at Dokdo, the nation’s easternmost islets, on Aug. 15
on the Han River” in the 1970s.
Subsequently, Seoul successfully hosted
the 24th Olympics in 1988, and
South Korea co-hosted the 2002 FIFA
World Cup soccer finals with Japan.
After the year 2000, relations between
South and North Korea remarkably
improved, paving the way for
initiating the peace process on the
Korean Peninsula. In June, 2000, then
South Korean President Kim Dae-jung
and North Korean leader Kim Jong-il
held the first inter-Korean summit, a
landmark event in Korea’s modern
history.
Following the Kim Dae-jung government,
liberal President Roh Moohyun
governed the nation for five
years from February 2003. The Korean
people selected businessman-turnedpolitician
Lee Myung-bak, an advocate
of pragmatism, as their new president
in December 2007. ■
Yonhap
SEPTEMBER 2008 KOREA 9