Inter Korean Farmers Meeting

Inter-Korean Farmers Meeting Held at Mt. Kumgang Resort

Korean Farmers Determine to Take Lead in Reunification Movement

Ri Sang Yong

PK Correspondent in the DPRK

Inter-Korean Farmers Meeting was held at the foot of Mt. Kumgang.

Mt. Kumgang-- North and South Korean farmers held a joint event at the foot of Mt. Kumgang on June 27 to call on all farmers of Korea to play important roles in the movement to achieve Korea’s reunification.

The farmers’ joint event, the second of its kind, named the “North and South Korean Farmers Reunification Rally to Find a Way to National Reunification,” was participated in by 400 farmers from the North and 618 from the South.

Also present there were officials and representatives of farmers’ organization of the North and the South and South Korean National Assembly members, Kang Gi Gap and Hyon Ae Ja from the Democratic Labor Party.

The first inter-Korean farmers joint meeting was held in 2001 at the foot of Mt. Kumgang.

Participants pledged to actively wage joint action and struggle for solidarity between North and South Korean farmers in the movement for national reunification under the banner of the “June 15 North-South Joint Declaration.”

“I am very proud and happy that North and South Korean farmers held their second grand rally for national reunification at the foot of Mt. Kumgang,” said Sung Sang Sop, chairman of the Central Committee of the Union of Agricultural Workers of Korea, in his opening address. Saying that the division of Korea by the foreign forces has brought about unhappiness and agonies to Korean farmers, he stressed that North and South Korean farmers should oppose the U.S., which was the ringleader destroying the peace and stability of the Korean Peninsula, and wage a struggle to achieve national reunification under the banner of joint national struggle.

Jong Jae Don, Permanent Representative of South Korean Peasants Solidarity, said that the rally would be a demonstration of the implementation of the June 15 Joint Declaration and would be an opportunity to organize an “organization for Solidarity of South and North Korean Farmers.”

Chairman Yun Gum Sun of the “General Association of (South Korean) National Woman Farmers” said that now is the critical time to decide whether North and South Korean farmers can defend national sovereignty in food or not, adding that national sovereignty in food supply is the “lifeline of the Korean nation” and the “basis of a reunified Korea.”

In the one-day event, North Korean students showed their art performance to the participants, and North and South Korean farmers enjoyed a sports meeting, performances of North and South Korean artistes and farmers. The participants also enjoyed an exhibition of handcrafts made by North Korean artists.

A joint declaration was issued at the end of the event. “The joint declaration of North and South Korean Farmers Reunification Rally” said that North and South Korean farmers’ organizations should strengthen their solidarity and unity to achieve the independent reunification of the Korean Peninsula by displaying their unified power under the banner of the June 15 Joint Declaration. The declaration also called for the development of Korea’s agriculture and a struggle to support South Korean farmers’ struggle for self-sufficiency in food supply.

Back Home