▲ Mourners light incense at the 4.3 Memorial Service. President Park Geun-hye could attend in 2014. Photo courtesy Jeju Special Self-Governing Province

The ruling New Frontier Party’s Jeju Chapter has decided to officially request that Korean president, Park Geun-hye, attend next year’s 4.3 Memorial Service at Jeju April 3rd Peace Park. The decision was made on Oct. 14 at a committee meeting and announced on Oct. 15.

A 4.3 Committee spokesperson said: “In Korean history, indeed in world history, it is hard to find an equivalent to the 4.3 Incident in which civilians suffered to such an extent. The 4.3 Incident is not just an issue for the Jeju people, but it is a pain at the heart of the nation.” He continued: “We must put aside ideologies and partisan issues and solve the challenges ahead.”

“Although there is some opposition to the designation of the 4.3 National Memorial Day, the President pledged in June last year to establish it and in line with the opinion of the National Assem-bly the designation should be made.” They continued: “On the first anniversary [of Park’s presidency] the President will attend the memorial and I decided to directly make this proposal to deepen that meaning.”

The request to the President to desig-nate 4.3 a National Memorial Day and attend the 4.3 Memorial Service was passed to the New Frontier Party, The Blue House and the Safety Executive.

There was some opposition to the designation and Commissioner Kim Dae-ok said it might be desirable to designate another date rather than April 3rd as the Memorial Day. Also, she suggested that there had been errors during the screen-ing of the victims.

In regard to this, the 4.3 Committee explained that they will again review cases to ensure no errors are present in the data. However, many agreed that amending the memorial date could lead to confusion as the incident has long been known as 4.3 (sasam) across the nation.