Past Fades to Give Way to Tourism
By Lee Jae-moon
Contributing Writer
Under the bright and warm autumn sky, a family enjoys the peace, taking pictures and talking and laughing among themselves. A divided country ― Imjin Pavillion and Cheorlwon stand at this point of division. For the young, these places are like playgrounds. A young girl’s mind is more focused on the amusement rides nearby. Other youngsters who did not experience the Korean War (1950-1953), drop in a 500 won coin into the telescope to peer through to North Korea. The North Korea they see through the lens, is less a home of our brethren than a mysterious country that remains closed and inaccessible. Many know that this is where their grandparents come to get a glimpse of the homeland they left behind and where an old locomotive is placed with yearning to run the rails of a unified Korea once again. It’s time to ask whether we have not exercised benign negligence in letting our divided land turn into a tourist zone, as we became engulfed in the grandstanding rhetoric of the “last remnant of the Korean War.” There is another reminder of pain in the southernmost island of ours; the prisoner of war camp on Koje Island. The camp no longer exists but its outward facilities, the barbed wire and other models remind us of what happened then and there. To us nowadays, it is merely but a tourist area. Surely, many would rethink the meaning of true freedom when they cross the Bridge of Freedom. But like the prisoner of war camps and the bridge, these places come across as a points of interest, where photos should be taken. That is the reality, whether we like it or not, after some 50 years of division. Let us salute that day when these places of a painful past become a symbol of true reconciliation.