Tag: Liberation Day

Since Liberation Day fell on Saturday, August 15th this year, the ROK government should have designated August 17th a national holiday a long time ago:

The South Korean government on Tuesday designated Aug. 17 as a temporary national holiday, allowing workers in the nation to have three consecutive days off during the summer season that’s feared to be dampened by the drawn-out fight against the novel coronavirus.

The Cabinet approved the plan to add the post-weekend holiday on the August calendar during a weekly meeting chaired by President Moon Jae-in at Cheong Wa Dae in Seoul.

Moon said the designation is intended to give a “short but precious rest time” to people tired from battling the virus.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.

President Moon Jae-in delivers a speech commemorating the 73rd Liberation Day in Seoul on Aug. 15, 2018. (Yonhap)

Here is what President Moon had to say during his Liberation Day speech:

President Moon Jae-in on Wednesday used his Liberation Day address to pitch his Korea peace drive, calling for railway, energy and economic cooperation with the North as a cornerstone for Northeast Asian peace and prosperity.

Speaking at a ceremony marking Korea’s independence from the 1910-45 Japanese colonial rule 73 years ago on the day, he renewed his commitment to end the division of the Koreas, saying “true liberation” can only be achieved when the two countries establish a lasting peace and economic community.

“We must overcome such a division for our survival and development. Even though a political unification may be a long way from here, establishing peace between the South and the North and freely visiting each other, and forming a joint economic community is true liberation to us,” Moon added in a nationally televised speech that also marked the foundation of the South Korean government 70 years ago on Wednesday.

Moon insisted the two Koreas were already moving toward peace, noting the countries have halted their hostile acts under an agreement reached at his first-ever summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un held April 27.  (………)

To this end, South Korea will seek to physically connect its roads and railways with those of North Korea before the year’s end, the president said.

Noting the European Union began with a simple bloc for coal and steel, the South Korean president proposed the two Koreas, together with the United States and four other Asian countries, form what he called a “Northeast Asian railroad community.”

The presidential office Cheong Wa Dae later explained the four Asian countries were China, Japan, Russia and Mongolia.  [Yonhap]

You can read more at the link.

Pinwheels designed after South Korea’s national flag are installed at a ward office in Incheon, west of Seoul, on Aug. 8, 2016, ahead of the 71st anniversary of the country’s Liberation Day. Aug. 15 marks the day Korea was freed from the 1910-45 Japanese colonial rule. (Yonhap)