East Timor On the verge of freedom KOREA A unique football fest

Workers of South and North Korea Will Meet on August 10, 1999 for an Historic Reunification Football Gathering, this was decided when on May 2, the KCTU representatives and the representatives of the north Korean General Confederation of Labour (Jik-Maeng) agreed to hold a football gathering of workers in August this year.

The first ever gathering of workers of south and north Korea will be held on August 10 in Pyongyang, the capital of north Korea (Democratic People's Republic of Korea).

The agreement came from a first ever visit to north Korea by a south Korean trade union delegation.

The two-person KCTU delegation, composed of Lee Kyu-Jae, KCTU Vice-President and Chairperson of the KCTU Reunification Committee and Jo Joon-ho, a member of the KCTU Reunification Committee, visited north Korea from April 27 to May 4.

The Preparation

The visit to north Korea by the KCTU delegation followed an initial preliminary consultation between the KCTU and north Korean Jik-Maeng in Beijing in March this year. KCTU obtained government permission to visit north Korea on the basis of invitation from north Korea. In the earlier Beijing meeting, the two delegations tentatively agreed to take up the proposal made by the KCTU to hold a football match between workers of south and
north Korea.

The whole process leading up to the historic agreement began in January this year, when KCTU formally delivered its proposal for a football gathering to the north Korean workers organisation. KCTU proposed the football gathering - termed as "South and North Korean Workers' Football Gathering in Aspiration for Reunification" - as an opportunity for workers from the both sides of the partition to meet for the first time since the national division in 1945. The football gathering is perceived as an effort to generate the energy for mutual understanding among
workers in south and north Korea and as a contribution to the effort for reconciliation and unity as a part of the broader endeavour to realise national reunification.

The KCTU delegation's visit to north Korea was made possible by a strict adherence to all the legal requirements in every step of the process - from the first delivery of the KCTU proposal, the first ever contact in Beijing, the receipt of formal invitation from the north Korean Jik-Maeng, and the permission to visit North Korea. The KCTU will need to remain vigilant to avoid stepping out of the very narrow legal procedures and to steer the course very carefully to bring the historic encounter to fruition.

The Agreement
The agreement was ironed out in two grueling sessions of "negotiations" on April 29 and May 2. The agreement signed by Lee Kyu-jae, KCTU Vice-President and Chairperson of the Reunification Committee, and Lee Jin-soo, Deputy Chairperson of the Jik-Maeng Central Committee, acknowledged that the first ever visit to North Korea by KCTU delegation was a "significant moment in the ongoing endeavour to realise the three principles of national
reunification adopted by south and north Korea and in working towards national reconciliation, unity and reunification."

The agreement declared the two sides "will hold 'South and North Korean Workers' Football Gathering in Aspiration for Reunification' on August 10 in Pyongyang as a first step towards building solidarity and unity between workers of south and north Korea." The agreement also makes a commitment to hold the second football gathering in Seoul in August 2000.

The Significance and Implication
The KCTU delegation explained upon their return that the most difficult consideration in arriving at the agreement were the timing of the first gathering in Pyongyang and the commitment to hold the second gathering in Seoul.

It is expected that the governments of south and north Korea - for legitimate reasons of their own - will remain very sensitive to the whole process of preparation towards the August 10 workers gathering. But a successful completion of the gathering will set a significant precedence for non-governmental exchange between South and North Korea.
KCTU president Lee Kap-yong, in the press conference held to announce the agreement, alluded to the greater significance of the KCTU initiative when he mentioned that "the workers gathering for football match in the context of the ever-present mistrust surrounded by greater uncertainties and volatility in the post-Cold War world can inspire a spirit of peace and empower the joy of being together."

President Lee's comments reflects the growing concern in Korea - long perceived as a key focal point of the U.S. military strategic thinking -- about the arbitrariness and destructiveness of super-power intervention and power politics in regional conflicts as brought to surface in the recent NATO and U.S. bombing of Yugoslavia.

The workers' initiative, the KCTU hopes, will be able to wrench the issue of division and reunification of Korea out of the recent dynamics of nuclear confrontation which could catapult Korea and all her people into a situation where outside forces and logic can emerge as the determining factor.

The Road Ahead
In awareness of the very difficulty and complicated factors expected to be encountered in the preparation process, KCTU president Lee called on the government and media to extent all support necessary to the KCTU initiative to uphold the peace-making role of the workers' gathering.

In preparation for the August football gathering, the KCTU and the north Korean Jik-Maeng agreed to establish a joint preparation committee to be jointly headed by vice-presidents of the two organisations. The joint preparation committee will be entrusted to thrash out all the details - such as the size of the August KCTU visiting team - and logistics of the historic encounter.

KCTU was forced remind itself of the difficulty involved in the whole process when the delegation returned from the Pyongyang visit. The two KCTU representatives were taken by the National Intelligence Agency - the former Agency for National Security Planning and the Korean Central Intelligence Agency - for 'interrogation' on their activities in north Korea. And the Public Prosecutors Office declared that it will investigate why the KCTU delegation "overstayed" in Pyongyang.

The original application for visit to north Korea approved by the south Korean authority stated that the delegation will stay in north Korea from April 26 to 30. But the application approved by the government noted that the schedule could change due to local situation. The awareness that the extended stay by the KCTU delegation to draw out the best possible agreement can - if the government so decides - be turned into a ground for the
government persecution will inform all KCTU actions and efforts in the lead up to the eventual south-north workers gathering.