Hope springs eternal for unification

Celine Dion’s rendition of “Hymne à l’amour” at the opening ceremony of the Paris 2024 Olympics was truly breathtaking. It reminded me of “Nostalgic Mt. Geumgang” – one of the most beloved Korean songs about Mount Geumgang located in North Korea – which was sung by virtuoso soprano Sumi Jo at Berlin’s Brandenburg Gate in July 2015. Her performance was the culmination of the 14,400-km. journey of the Eurasia Friendship Express from Vladivostok to Berlin.

The Eurasia Friendship Express, an initiative to foster peace and prosperity of Eurasia through exchanges and cooperation among countries in Eurasia, also reflected Korea’s national aspiration for a unified Korea. During the trip, I accompanied then Foreign Minister Yun Byung-se as his policy advisor. I had relished the song “Nostalgic Mt. Geumgang” many times before, but Ms. Sumi Jo’s version at the finale concert in Berlin was by far the most memorable. I still vividly remember what she said on that day: “I sincerely wish that this song would be no more ‘nostalgic’ Mt. Geumgang. I hope that the day will come soon so that anyone in the world could visit this beautiful mountain anytime, without any difficulty.” Upon returning to Seoul, Foreign Minister Yun shared a ‘unification wine’ he brought from Germany, which was specially blended with the best grapes from 13 regions in Germany to commemorate the 25th anniversary of German unification.

The year I entered the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in 1991 was the time both Koreas simultaneously became members of the United Nations. At UN forums, I felt envious seeing the German delegation sitting behind a single nameplate, “Germany,” instead of East and West Germany separately. More than three decades since then, prospects for Korean unification remain grim. Recently, North Korea has even described inter-Korean relations as “the relations of two hostile and belligerent countries, not those of fellow countrymen.” The widening gap between North and South Korea is poignantly captured by Elon Musk’s X post in December 2023 of a satellite image contrasting the bright lights in the south against the darkness in the north. It is emblematic of the dire situation in North Korea, where people live in abject poverty under a regime that propagates lies and false hopes.

Read more: https://qa.philstar.com/opinion/2024/08/18/2378607/hope-springs-eternal-unification