Representatives from a South Korean civic
group traveled to Kaesong on July 23rd to meet with North Korean delegates to discuss the joint hosting of an event on August 15th for the 70th
anniversary of the Korean Peninsula’s liberation from Japan’s 1910-45 colonial
rule.
To commemorate the anniversary, North Korea is scheduled to host unilateral
competitions from the 13th to 15th in the Baekdu Mountain region, Pyongyang,
and the truce village of Panmunjeom. North Korea requested that the South participate in these events.
If the joint inter-Korean event for August
15th comes to fruition, it will be the first joint independence anniversary
since 2005.
In May, delegates from the two Koreas met
in Shenyang, China to discuss events related to both the June 15th
North-South Joint Declaration and the August independence anniversary; however, the two sides failed to reach an agreement on specifics, particularly regarding the venue, and the June event never took off.
As a result, the
location of the August 15th event is speculated to have been at the forefront of
yesterday’s negotiations; however, no consensus was met and an additional bilateral meeting has been set for July 31st in the hopes of reaching an agreement.
