President Park Geun-hye urged Japan to reflect properly on its history and asked North Korea to regularize family reunions at a ceremony commemorating the 95th anniversary of the March First Independence Movement held at the Sejong Center for the Performing Arts in central Seoul on March 1.

“Ninety five years ago today, our ancestors rose up resolutely to win back the country’s independence and sovereignty... It has become the source of the prosperity and the achievement of miracles in Korean history. With the March First Declaration of Korean Independence, our forefathers proclaimed that their task was to build their own strength, not to destroy others, and that they would build a nation which would contribute to peace in the East and in the world, as well as to the happiness of all mankind,” said the president.



In regard to the 50th anniversary of the normalization of diplomatic ties between Korea and Japan, President Park said that the two nations have fostered a close, cooperative relationship for the sake of peace and common progress in Northeast Asia. “The painful history notwithstanding, our two nations were able to develop such a relationship since we made an effort to promote friendly and good-neighborly relations with surrounding countries, on the basis of Japan’s Peace Constitution. There were also efforts to march toward the future based on Japan’s reflection upon its colonial rule and invasions through the Kono Statement and the Murayama Statement,” she added.

President Park said that, “A nation’s historical consciousness serves as a compass needle pointing to the future direction of the nation.” She went on to say that a country will not be able to open a new era if it fails to look back upon its past wrongdoings.

“It goes without saying that a leader who is not ready to acknowledge past wrongs cannot open up a new era in the future. Courage—in the genuine sense—is not about negating the past, but about facing up to history as it was and teaching undistorted historic facts to future generations. Now is the time for the Japanese government to make the right and courageous decision so that our two nations will be able to overcome our painful history and move forward toward a future of new prosperity,” said the president.



“After having lived all their lives overwhelmed by indescribable resentment and grief, now only 55 of them [the comfort women victims] survive,” said the president, mentioning the victims who had been abducted by Japanese soldiers and forced into sexual slavery during the Second World War. “People who are still alive are witness to the truth of history. Turning a deaf ear to their testimonies and ignoring them just for the sake of political interest will only result in isolation,” said President Park.

“Politics should not stand in the way of the friendship and trust the peoples of our two countries have fostered so far,” said the president. Mentioning post-war Germany as having set a good precedent, she urged the Japanese government, guided by the universal conscience of humanity and that good precedent made by its European counterpart, to break away from its negation of the past and to write a new chapter in history, characterized by truth and reconciliation, in order to build a future of cooperation, peace and shared prosperity.

President Park repeatedly emphasized the importance of peace on the Korean Peninsula and the need to lay the foundation for reunification. She said that the recent reunions of separated families reminded all Koreans the depth of pain and suffering that has been brought by the division. She proposed Pyongyang regularize the family reunions so that those who have lived with the sorrow of division may find comfort and peace. “My hope is that the South and North will build trust by keeping small promises, and continue, one step at a time, on the path toward unification,” said the president.



“A unified Korean Peninsula would also become the heart of peace connecting Eurasia and Northeast Asia. In a peaceful and unified Korea, Northeast Asian countries would be able to find new opportunities for growth,” said President Park.

By Jeon Han, Yoon Sojung
Korea.net Staff Writers
hanjeon@korea.kr