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While the S.K. anti-gov't movement is preparing for tomorrow's 100th Candle-

light Protest Rally/"Culture Festival", KCNA published before y'day following

"news" (*):

Program for August 15 Event Announced in S. Korea

Representatives of civic and public organizations in south Korea including the

Solidarity for Progress and the South Side Committee for Implementing the June

15 Joint Declaration on August 7 inaugurated the Committee for Promoting the

August 15 Meeting for National Reunification and announced its action program.

At the inaugural ceremony held in Seoul that day speakers said that the said

meeting would be focused on the implementation of the June 15 joint declaration

and the October 4 declaration and the realization of peace on the Korean

Peninsula.

They said that during the period of the meeting they would make public the

August 15 declaration on national independence, hold a national rally vowing the

struggle against the distortion of history and for liquidation of the colonial

remnants and defence of Tok Islet and conduct August 15 grand march and

cultural event for independence and sovereignty and thus demonstrate the

Korean nation's will for independent reunification.

August 15 will mark the 100th day since the candlelight actions were launched

against the import of American beef, they noted, stressing that the promotion

committee would vigorously conduct the movement against Japan's shameless

moves for grabbing Tok Islet and the Lee Myung Bak group's confrontation policy

towards the DPRK, holding the slogan "Turn candlelight against mad cow disease

into candlelight for national dignity and independence and sovereignty!"

An appeal read out at the ceremony underlined the need to clearly show the spirit

of national independence to the flunkeyist traitors who are selling off the people's

right to existence, yielding to foreign forces. It called upon all the people to turn

out as one in the work to ensure the successful holding of the August 15 meeting.

* Sorry, but if you have such "friends", then you don't need enemies anymore!

Hankyoreh last Friday published following article:

[100 days of candlelight] Activists say candlelight

protests continuing to develop

Despite feelings of fatigue and disappointment, most feel demonstrations have

been significant

“The changed nature of the candlelight demonstrations is disappointing, but they

still continue.”

Major players in recent candlelight protests who met with The Hankyoreh

expressed their fatigue and disappointment over the last 100 days, over the

course of which they could not produce tangible changes. They stressed,

however, that the demonstrations are not yet over. In in-depth interviews

conducted by The Hankyoreh with 28 people including teenagers, the directors of

online policy cafes and general cafe administrators, the leaders gave their diverse

opinions on the last 100 days.

The thing to note in their answers was their judgment of the current situation, in

which the demonstrations have tailed off. Some 13 respondents, almost half of

the total 28, expressed a sense of defeat and disappointment. This was a very

high number, twice as many as the five who said they felt new possibilities.

In particular, of the 11 teenagers interviewed, eight expressed disappointment, a

very high ratio. The teens generally expressed disappointment about the slide of

the candlelight demonstrations into violence. 18-year-old Kim Eun-jin, a senior at

Yeongdong Girls High School in Bundang, Gyeonggi Province, said she was

most disappointed in this transformation in the candlelight ceremonies, and the

vigils should continue to stick to nonviolence like they did in the beginning.

When asked what they felt was most disappointing in the course of the

demonstrations, the opinions proved most diverse. This showed that with the

demonstrations still in progress, evaluations of the last 100 days could only differ.

Ten of the 28 pointed to insufficient energy to keep the protests going, while six

were disappointed that the protests could not stay peaceful to the end.

Nine gave different answers; one member of an SLR camera club who did not

give his name said that demonstrators needed time to rekindle the cause after the

protests had continued for a bit, but they could not.

“Sijipeu,” an administrator of the “Citizens Alliance Opposed to Policy,” said he

was most disappointed that cracks in the group’s resolve began to appear due to

the group’s inability to communicate opinions as the group began to work with

outside Internet users.

Opinions differed, too, about the People’s Countermeasure Council against Mad

Cow Disease, which led the candlelight protests. “Citizens Alliance Opposed to

Policy” administrator Ahn Nuri, 37, said that the April 19, 1960 Revolution did not

need leadership to work, but the candlelight protests had difficulty setting a

direction due to the large number of Internet users and lack of political power and

organization.

Gang Jeon-ho, the vice-head of an anti-Lee Myung-bak Internet cafe, said the

candlelight demonstrations were produced by the People’s Countermeasure

Council against Mad Cow Disease and Korean Internet users.

As opposed to their evaluation of the last 100 days, the interviewees were united

in their opinions on where the protests should go from here and their significance.

Some 24 of 28 respondents said the candlelight protests must continue. Only

four said the protests should stop to give the government time. There was a split

in opinion, 9 to 10, between those mainly involved in online policy cafes, who

believed a minority should continue to resist to make their voices heard, and the

teenager groups, who thought the demonstrators should organize more explosive

protests after taking a breather. When asked about the significance of the

protests, most said that, in reality, no major changes had taken place, but the

protests are still continuing to develop.

http://english.hani.co.kr/arti/english_edition/e_national/303090.html

Related:

Massive Rally Set for Liberation Day (K. Times)
 

Civic groups plan to hold a large-scale candlelight vigil Friday, the 63rd Liberation Day. The People's Association for Measures against Mad Cow Disease will stage its 100th rally at Seoul City Plaza against the administration and the resumption of American beef imports.