By Seo Dong-shin & Joint Press Corps.
Staff Reporter

South and North Korean delegates celebrated the 60th anniversary of Liberation Day together in Seoul Monday, calling for unity and peace on the Korean Peninsula while stressing the need to ``fend off unjustified foreign intervention.’’

Officials from both governments and civic delegations from the South and North, as well as overseas Koreans, gathered in the morning at Changchung Gymnasium for the official ceremony to mark the anniversary.

Lead civic representatives _ Paik Nak-chung from the South, Ahn Kyong-ho from the North and Kwang Dong-eui from the overseas group _ each read messages. While commemorating Liberation Day, together they lamented the 60 years of national division and called for more independent cooperation as ``one Korean people’’ on unification issues.

In a joint declaration entitled ``Statement of Appeal to 70 million Compatriots,’’ members of the delegations said true liberation will be complete only when the division of the Korean Peninsula is overcome.

``Let us tear down the barrier of division and achieve the unification of an independent country by joining hands with our own people,’’ the statement said. ``Let us clear away the old relics of confrontation and distrust.’’

Some 400 South, North and overseas Korean delegates paid a visit to the History Hall of Sodaemun Prison, where Korean independence fighters served jail terms and endured torture during Japan’s colonial rule over the nation (1910-1945). There they issued a special statement urging Japan to stop whitewashing its colonial history and expanding its military.

``I think Japan is truly a cruel enemy of our people and we cannot live together under one sky,’’ said Jung Chi-gun, a history professor from Kim Il-sung University in Pyongyang, looking around the prison. ``All Korean people should do their utmost to condemn Japan’s aggression so that this history won’t be repeated.’’

While celebrations continued throughout the day at Changchung Gymnasium, government delegations of the South and North gathered at Kim Koo Museum in the afternoon and held a brief ceremony. Kim, a late independence fighter assassinated in 1949, is regarded as one of the founding fathers of South Korea.

``Let’s end the confrontation and replace the ceasefire on the Korean Peninsula with a permanent peace system by pursuing peace and prosperity in turn,’’ Unification Minister Chung Dong-young, head of the South’s government delegation, said. ``The South and North, the owners of this land, should take the lead in establishing peace on this land.’’

Kim Ki-nam, head of the North’s delegation, said the ``dramatic changes in North-South relations today are the valuable results of belief in the cooperation of one Korean people.’’

Wrapping up the Liberation Day celebrations for all the delegates was a performance by a South Korean dance troupe and dinner gala held at the Sheraton Grande Walkerhill hotel, where the North Korean delegates will stay until Thursday.

saltwall@koreatimes.co.kr