By Kim Eun-young and Hahm Hee-eun

The two Koreas are pushing ahead with civilian sport exchanges to implement the Panmunjeom Declaration adopted at the April 27 Inter-Korean Summit.

An inter-Korean workers’ unification football match, the first inter-Korean sporting event since the Panmunjeom Declaration, was held at Sangam World Cup Stadium in Mapo-gu District, Seoul, on Aug. 11. South Korea's two labor groups -- the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions (KCTU) and the Federation of Korean Trade Unions (FKTU) -- and North Korea’s two labor group soccer teams – a construction labor team and a light industry team from the General Federation of Trade Unions of Korea -- participated in the match.

The delegation of labor groups said at a joint press statement that they hope this event would be the basis for inter-Korean reconciliation and unification.

North Korea’s Ju Yong-gil, head of the General Federation of Trade Unions of Korea, said, "It will be a great chance for the workers to show their determination to, first, practice the Panmunjeom Declaration, and, second, to restore vitality of the unification movement across all social classes."

South Korea's Kim Ju-young, head of the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions, said, “The efforts made by both South and North Korean workers have finally come to fruition. For the workers of the two Koreas, the following tasks of the historic Panmunjeom Declaration should be accomplished without any interruption." Kim Myung-hwan, head of the Federation of Korean Trade Unions, also emphasized that, "This soccer match will be the starting point for South and North Korean workers to establish an era of peace, prosperity and unification."

 An inter-Korean workers' unification football match was first held in Pyeongyang in 1999, then in Changwon, Gyeongsangnam-do Province, in 2007, and then in Pyeongyang, again, in 2015. It has taken three years to have a fourth match, this time in Seoul. In addition, 151 South Korean delegates from the International Youth Soccer Tournament entered North Korea using the Gyeongui railway line on Aug. 10. This was the first time for people to enter North Korea overland, since the last visit of former first lady Lee Hee-ho and the chairperson of Hyundai Asan, Hyun Jeong-eun, in December 2011.

The Ari Sports Cup International Youth Soccer Tournament, in which both South and North Korean athletes will participate, was held at the Kim Il Sung Stadium in Pyeongyang on Aug. 13. Members from the Gangwon-do Province Club and Yeoncheon-gun County Club in South Korea, and the April 25 Sports Club and Ryomyong Club in North Korea, attended the match. The final match of the tournament will be held on Aug. 18.


eykim86@korea.kr