By Youn-Cha Shin Chey

When the leaders of the divided halves of Korea met June 13, they smiled and joined hands. President Kim Dae-jung, leader of the southern half, said to Kim Jong-il leader of the northern half, “Bangap Sumnida. Bogo Sip Ot Sumnida.” (“Very nice to see you. I have long dreamed of meeting you.”) At that moment, tears welled in the eyes of every Korean as a half a century of prayer was answered.
At the airport, ceremonial guards stood at attention and thousands of our brothers and sisters dressed in traditional costume for this solemn occasion. In the streets of Pyongyang, cheering children shouted, ‘Long live Korea and long live the two leaders.” Koreans all over the world, glued to the television and radio, followed the events as the two leaders got into the same limousine for the ride from the airport, where the meeting that perhaps began with small talk ended up having enormous significance.
This incredible scene unfolding before our eyes was an affirmation of the commonalities shared by the two halves of divided Korea. Common language, with no need for cumbersome interpreters, and common Confucian values that shape manners and custom, such as respect for elders and ancestors, must have given the leaders a feeling akin to that of a father and son meeting after a long and forced separation. This was a trip that took only 45 minutes but was 55 years in the making.
How did we end up here? Where did this trip begin?
Korea, once known as the Hermit Kingdom, has a 5,000-year-old history. We enjoyed an undivided and unfettered self-government for some 1,300 years, until 1910, when Japanese occupation forces invaded and made Korea a Japanese colony.
World War II brought an end to the Japanese occupation but did not free Korea from outside interference. To facilitate the disarming of the Japanese military forces, the leaders of the three superpowers — the United States, Great Britain and the Soviet Union — reached a secret agreement at the Yalta Conference in 1945 that arbitrarily divided the Korean Peninsula into two regions along the 38th parallel.
Instead of independence, Korea was sliced in half — with the North under the influence of the Soviet Union and the South inaugurated as the Republic of Korea in 1948 under the aegis of United States led U.N. Commission.
This artificial division, and the resulting war that tore the country apart, has yet to be properly documented. Millions of Koreans were killed and millions of families were separated or otherwise tragically affected by what the United Nations called a “police action.”
The lives of Koreans in post-war Korea were no better than during the Japanese occupation, and many fled. The second wave of Korean immigrants hitting the shores of the United States served as a testimony to a people in flight from misery — they always carried with them frightening echoes of the past.
In the name of warning ideologics, brothers killed each other, students bashed their teachers’ skulls, servants turned against their former employers. Who among Korean or Korean American families was left unscathed by this horror?
It is against this backdrop that Koreans and Korean Americans view the meeting of the two Korean leaders. It offers reason to hope that the wall placed between the North and the South is not immovable. Koreans everywhere are advised to remember the adage, “once begun, half done.” June 13 so-called “summit” was not an ordinary meeting of two foreign states, but a reunion of two leaders of one, long-suffering people.
The joint announcement that the two leaders are seeking to ease border tensions, reunite divided families and foster economic and cultural exchanges is welcome news. But we have only just begun.
We must learn from history, lest we repeat its tragic lessons. We must remind the interfering superpowers that they bear a large measure of responsibility, but we must also muster the courage to forgive.
As the 21st century begins, 70 million Koreans in Korea and 5 million Koreans scattered around the globe are suddenly willing to end an important chapter in the book of Korean history, bury the hatchet and look toward the new millennium. In true Korean tradition, they are giving thanks to those who have gone before, nurturing those following in their wake and loving, in peace and harmony, all our brothers and sisters from all over the world.
Congratulations, President Kim Dae-jung and Chairman Kim Jong-il, and thank you for your wisdom.


Youn-Cha Shin Chey is president of the Intercultural Institute of California, Korean Center Inc., in San Francisco.