<Young People from South and North Korea sing in unison at Myeongdong Cathedral on the 71st anniversary of national liberation in yearning for unification>
Unification Minister Hong participates in the concert of the Hana Unification Expedition Team
Unification Minister Hong Yong-pyo will participate in the choral event by the Unification Expedition Team for One Korea (Hana Unification Expedition Team) hosted by With-U, a group of young North Korean defectors, at Myeongdong Cathedral on August 11.
With-U organized the Hana Unification Expedition Team, a choir of young people from South and North Korea. It gave choral performances to wish for unification of the Korean Peninsula in Berlin from July 23 to 28. Now back in Korea, the choir will hold a concert in celebration of the 71st anniversary of national liberation and to wish for unification at Myeongdong Cathedral at 8 p.m. on August 11.
The Unification Minister will deliver words of encouragement to the young people. In his speech, Minister Hong will praise the expedition team who has done the hard work in stressing the importance of Korean unification in Germany, the very site of national division and unification, and ask the youth from South and North Korea to consider each other and take the lead in building consensus on unification at home and abroad.
The choir members, under the direction of conductor Lee Kang-min of the Catholic choir of Myeongdong Cathedral, will sing Spring in My Hometown, Arirang Alone, and Fleecy Clouds. Soprano Jung Seung-won, guitarist Kim Sung-mi, who is from Pyongyang, and a vocal ensemble of Capella Musica Seoul will be on stage. The performances will be open to the public for free.
The singing event in Berlin, “In Berlin Today, We See Pyongyang’s Tomorrow,” was hosted by the Ministry of Unification, the Korea Hana Foundation, and the Grace & Mercy Foundation Korea, and it was entirely funded by KEB Hana Bank (President Ham Young-joo).
The Hana Unification Expedition Team sang Spring in My Hometown in front of the Berlin Wall and the Brandenburg Gate, the symbol of Germany’s unification, on July 24 (local time), appealing to people all around the world as well as in Germany to support the unification of the Korean Peninsula. The expedition team put on a performance for Korean-Germans, including nurses dispatched to Germany in the 1960s and 1970s, and other German citizens at Highland Church in Berlin on July 26 (local time).
Sponsor Hana Financial Group, in preparation for unification, hired three North Korean defectors as full-time workers at KEB Hana Bank late last year, the first in the financial industry, and plans to employ more North Korean defectors this year.
Park Young-chul, secretary general of With-U, said, “Young people from South and North Korea will sing in unison wishing for unification at Myeongdong Cathedral. The chorus will make a big impression on the Korean people. I hope that this singing event will improve the image of North Korean defectors and help South Koreans understand that North Korean defectors are not the underprivileged or strangers in our society but partners with whom we should go together in order to achieve unification.”
※ Order of Program (8 p.m. ? 9:30 p.m. on August 11, in the Cathedral)
1. Soprano Jung Seung-won (from Seoul) + Guitarist Kim Sung-mi (from Pyongyang): Thinking of My Friend
2. Soprano Jung Seung-won: To Jiknyeo
3. Hana Unification Expedition Team: Spring in My Hometown, Fleecy Clouds
4. Vocal ensemble of Capella Musica Seoul: Prayer for Peace, Bread and Wine (Brot und Wein)
5. Hana Unification Expedition Team: Arirang Alone
6. Singing in unison wishing for unification (everyone including performers and audience): Our Wish is Unification
※ For more information about the concert, please contact the office of Myeongdong Cathedral (82-2-774-1784).
※ For more information about With-U, please contact President Ji Sung-rim (82-10-3052-2855) or Secretary General Park Young-chul (82-10-9192-4717).
