Unification Could Bring Health Crisis to Korea

I hear so little talk of reunification so when I saw this article posted in the Korea University Hospital, I was a little taken aback. Wow, proof that there is some preparation for a united North and South Korea again. Preparation on a medical level ... very interesting.

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Unification Could Bring Health Crisis to Korea

(THE KOREA TIMEs, Apr 4, 2017)

by Jung Min-ho, Kim Eil-chul 

Imagine hundreds of thousands of North Korean refugees are crossing the border into South Korea after their regime suddenly collapses. What would be the most urgent issue for the unified Korea?

Surveys show that most South Koreans believe the cost of unification is the biggest concern. However, according to Kim Young-hoon, former president of Korea University Anam Hospital, money may just be a secondary issue.

"President Park Geun-hye said unification would bring a bonanza, but it could instead bring a health crisis, if we are unprepared," Kim said. "Unification could bring along many lethal, infectious diseases that we are not ready to cope with. The worst part is that we know very little about such risks."

Some health risks are obvious, he said. For example, North Korea has about 110,000 tuberculosis (TB) patients, 5,000 of whom died in 2014 alone, according to the World Health Organization (WHO).

"More worryingly, many of TB cases in North Korea are multi-drug resistant. This means we don't have any way to cure the highly contagious infection," Kim said.

Even today, South Korea, the fourth-largest economy in Asia, is struggling with its own fight against TB. According to the WHO, the country has the highest TB incidence rate among members of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development.

"So if you think that South Korea is capable of coping effectively with a huge influx of TB patients from the North, you may be mistaken," Kim said. "Look at how one patient infected with the Middle East Respiratory Syndrome last year shook the entire nation."

"And TB is just one of the many health risk factors of unification."

The health risks of unification may be even bigger for North Koreans, who have lived behind the walls of the world's most isolated state for more than 60 years. Most of them may not be immune to the diseases that would not affect people in the rest of the world. "For now, we just don't know much," he said.

/Courtesy of Korea University Anam Hospital

The poor overall health status of North Koreans may also bring down that of South Koreans altogether after unification. According to a report published in 2014 by the state-run Korea Institute for Health and Social Affairs, the average lifespan of North Koreans is 69.5 years, much shorter than the 81 years for South Koreans. In terms of medical standards, experts believe the rich South is 30 to 50 years ahead of the impoverished North.

During his 2014-2015 term at Korea University Anam Hospital, Kim thought the health risks of unification are a serious issue to be addressed. Thus, he created a graduate program to study the health and medical implications of Korean unification, making Korea University the first college to have such a program in Korea. The program will launch in September.

"Some of the program lectures will be open to the public, and I also plan to financially support students in the program as much as possible," he said.

He also created the Inter-Korea Foundation for Health and Medical Education last year under the Ministry of Unification, which will support professors and students in the program.

The foundation has already begun to review medical journals and data from North Korea in an attempt to understand the diagnosis and treatment of different kinds of diseases there in comparison with South Korea. "We are trying to find out, for example, what types of cardiac disorders are common in the state and how they are treated with very limited resources," Kim said.

The foundation will also collaborate with experts to study the health of North Korean refugees in South Korea.

"The foundation and experts are documenting the health status and determinants of North Korean refugees. By doing so, they can try to understand how their health status changes as they adapt to the Westernized lifestyle of South Korea," he said.

Through a cohort study involving about 1,000 North Koreans, researchers at the foundation have already produced some meaningful results. For instance, he noted, the researchers found that North Koreans have a higher risk of developing diabetes, as they will take in much more nutrition when they settle in the South.

One of the courses of the program aims to unify the medical terms of the two states. Many terms used in the North are Korean and Russian, while those used in the South are mainly English.

"Many South Korean organizations have tried to improve the health of North Koreans by giving them medical devices and drugs, but there has been no solid system that can be helpful in the long term," Kim said.

"Not just as preparation for unification. I also hope that our effort can contribute to bringing the two sides closer on their way to the ultimate unification."

Kim Young-hoon, who served as the president of Korea University Anam Hospital, now leads the Arrhythmia Center at the hospital. He is one of the most renowned arrhythmia experts in the country.
/Courtesy of Korea University Anam Hospital

Fixing hearts that have lost their rhythm

Arrhythmia is a condition in which the heart beats either too fast, too slow, too early or irregularly. It occurs when the electrical impulses to the heart that coordinate heartbeats are not working properly.

Arrhythmia is the cause of most sudden cardiac deaths. Atrial fibrillation, which can lead to blood clots, stroke, heart failure and other heart-related complications, is the most common type of arrhythmia.

Arrhythmia affects millions of people worldwide, including about 2 to 3 percent of the total population of Europe and North America, and according to the Korean Society of Cardiology, 800,000 to 1 million in Korea as well.

Kim, who now leads the Arrhythmia Center at Korea University Anam Hospital, is one of the most renowned arrhythmia experts in the country.

In 1998, when atrial fibrillation was largely considered impossible to treat, Kim implemented radio frequency catheter ablation, a minimally invasive procedure, in which thin wires called catheters are inserted into a vein to destroy the heart tissues that signal abnormal electrical impulses.

Since then, he has successfully performed the procedure on more than 2,500 patients, dispelling initial concerns about the method's efficacy and safety. Kim said none of his patients has died as a result of the procedure.

"About 95 percent of atrial fibrillation cases can be cured completely with the procedure," he said. "After that, patients just have to take medications."

Having published more than 140 articles about arrhythmia in reputable journals in Korea and abroad, Kim has become well-respected among many experts in the field.

Dailian University in China is one of the many institutions that have asked him to share his know-how about arrhythmia treatment, especially about radio frequency catheter ablation. In 2012, he agreed to do so at the school for five years. Some doctors from Japan, Hong Kong and Indonesia have also visited his hospital in Korea to learn from him.

His research team is now working to develop better ways to treat arrhythmia, in cooperation with experts at world-renowned medical institutions, including Harvard Medical School.

Remembering Rosetta Sherwood Hall

The alumnus of Korea University College of Medicine expressed his affection for his school during the interview, saying his last goal is to revive the spirit of Rosetta Sherwood Hall, an American medical missionary who established the Joseon Women's Medical Training Institute, the predecessor of the medical college, in 1928.

"About a hundred years ago, she risked her life to come here to deliver one message: the importance of helping those in need. I think everyone here needs to take that message seriously and act accordingly. When we do, I have no doubt that the school will change in remarkable ways," Kim said.

Protesting the Sewol: 3 Years Later

Today, Sunday, 3 years after the sinking of the Sewol, protestors still live in tents at Kwanghwamun Square, and passersby are still requested to sign a petition for a fair and unbiased investigation on why the Sewol sank and why no one in authority initiated a more timely rescue. And to my surprise today, a female monk followed by a representative high school student -- both humbly barefoot -- walked perpetually in sadness in the fountain area, the monk carrying a chair draped in the white cloths of mourning (very shamanic symbols), the student representing the living among peers who untimely died.

Central Kwanghwamun Square was dedicated to mourning the loss of almost an entire class of high schoolers on their class trip to Jeju. Passerby freely and eagerly accepted yellow ribbons made in the thousands by volunteers, and long lines of passersby lined up to take a white chrysanthemum and dedicate it to the students who died, and most particularly to the 11 who have yet to be recovered. In Korea, there is no closure for the families until the body is properly buried and ancestral and religious rites conducted over it to send it on its way to heaven/paradise. Therefore, for the families of the 11 unrecovered bodies, there is no closure as the 11 spirits are wandering and undirected as to where they should go; wandering spirits can become harmful to the families; they must be properly propitiated in order for the spirits to continue blessing the families in the future. The past and the future are still strongly linked in the Korean afterlife belief system.

White chyrsanthemums, the symbol of death and mourning.

The memorial tent where bows are made to the deceased and special wishes-prayers
for the recovery of the 11 missing bodies are made.

Pictures of the students (taken one year prior to the sinking); upper right - demonstrators trying to get near the Blue House to petition President Park Guen Hye to take proper investigative action ... petitions felt perpetually rebuffed which created great anger in family members of Sewol children-victims.

Volunteers making thousand upon thousands of yellow ribbons to give to passersby and awaken interest in mourning in harmony regarding the national loss of future leaders but also credibility of the government. (Bottom picture) A young reader's book on the sinking of the Sewol, so the history will never be forgotten.

Fight of a lifetime: The Sewol struggle for a safe world

by Dae-Han Song (Chief Editor, The [su:p])

Mar. 10, the president is brought down. Two weeks later, the Sewol ferry is brought up. Thus the stage is set for the final scene of a struggle started on Apr. 16 of 2014 when the extraordinary was inflicted upon the ordinary, live on television. As the Sewol sank into the ocean, 304 people died. 250 of them were second year high school students going to Jeju on a trip as universal to Koreans 1 as senior prom is to people in the United States. The Sewol ferry rolled, completely capsized, then sank into the ocean taking with it 304 lives. In Korea and around the world, millions of tears were shed over the Sewol; thousands of miles were marched on its behalf; and millions of ribbons assembled and distributed to become a symbol of solidarity and dissent. The desperate attempts to rescue the passengers became a fight for truth and justice, then transformed into a quest to create a safe society turned right side up.

At the core of the fight are the families and their relentless spirit against government cover-ups, media smear campaign, repression, public backlash, frustrated investigations, and even timid politicians. What turned the fight into a social movement were the millions that made and wore ribbons and collected signatures, marched and clashed with the police alongside the families. Candlelight protests have brought down a president and brought up the ship. All polls indicate a change in government in the Blue House on May 9, thus finally making possible an investigation to find truth and justice for the victims of the Sewol. This is their story.

Worse than a failed rescue

On April 16 of 2014 at 8:50 AM, the Sewol ferry begins to capsize into the ocean. Within 40 minutes, the Coast Guard’s helicopter arrives at the scene, soon followed by a Coast Guard boat. Yet, the Coast Guard does not enter the ferry nor attempt an evacuation of the passengers. Instead, it saves the crew while the Coast Guard captain transmits video to the Blue House on his cell phone. Fishermen at the site of the accident rescue passengers, but are ordered to evacuate the crash site. Inside the ferry, hearing news that the Coast Guard has arrived, 304 passengers regain hope and wait for rescue. By 10:15, the ferry is completely capsized. The last passenger is saved at 10:21. At the “control tower,” President Park is told about the accident but only makes her first official appearance seven hours later at 5:15 PM at the disaster control center. The families that have come down to Paengmok Harbor to search for their loved ones are confronted with misinformation about the number and names of the survivors. As the golden hour of rescue slips by, the boat is completely overturned. Families’ only hope for survival are air pockets inside the ferry. The Coast Guard notifies the parents that there are hundreds of ships and tens of helicopters at the crash site. The families charter a private boat to the crash site and find out no rescue is happening. In the coming days, the reality cements that all of the 304 passengers have drowned awaiting rescue and that worse than a failed rescue was no rescue at all.

A little until after 10 AM, the students awaiting rescue from the Coast Guard outside are still sending messages and texts to their parents with one common theme: “We are going to get rescued.” Above, a student transmits a video call telling his parents, “If only I can live. Mom, dad, I love you.”

Legislating truth and justice

In order to confront the government’s contradictions about the rescue operations and to investigate and punish those responsible, on May 6, the 4.16 Sewol Victims/Missing/Survivor’s Family Task Force Committee (4.16 Family Task Force) is formed and begins collecting signatures for a bill to create a special body to investigate and punish the responsible. They ask the special body be given such legal authority to overcome the government’s inertia and growing resistance to the families’ pursuit of the truth. While publicly apologizing and taking responsibility, behind the scenes, President Park through the Ministry of Maritime Affairs and Fisheries (MMAF) and the ruling party works to impede the investigation. The 4.16 Family Task Force collects 3.5 million signatures in 70 days. On July 14, two days before passage of the bill, the 4.16 Family Task Force escalates pressure on the National Assembly by starting an indefinite fast and occupying its front steps and Korea’s main square in Gwanghwamun. A week later, they start another occupation near the Blue House requesting a meeting with the president as she had promised. The ruling and opposition party are unable to reach agreement on a bill with full investigative and prosecutorial authority. The families continue to gather signatures around the country, collecting over 6 million. One of the parents, Kim Young-oh continues fasting for 46 days. As part of their efforts to garner public support, the families and supporters succeed in getting a personal meeting with Pope Francis during his visit to Korea. On Nov. 7, after 119 days of occupation and a total of 6 million signatures, a bill finally passes the National Assembly. While it doesn’t contain prosecutorial and investigative authority, it guarantees family involvement in the process.

Sewol families collecting signatures (Source: m.newsq.kr)

The first round of petitions presented at the victims’ altar on July 14.

(Source: ohmynews.com)

Sewol family members sleeping during their 119 day occupation in front of the National Assembly.

(Source: worknworld.kctu.org)

The families flag down the Pope, and Kim Young-oh manages a personal encounter handing the Pope his plea for help in finding truth and justice. [Source (top) http://m.news1.kr (bottom) ohmynews.com]

Impeded investigations

As part of the new law, a preparatory committee for the Special Investigation Committee (Special Committee) is launched on Dec. 17. 2014. The composition 2 of the Special Committee allows the ruling party to appoint five (out of the 17) committee members. The ruling party and Park administration continue undermining and impeding the investigation to the truth. The ruling party with the help of its appointees fabricates a media smear campaign. 3 The Park Administration ignores the implementation plan proposed by the Special Committee, and through the MMAF unilaterally introduces a counterplan that undermines and weakens the Special Committee: The support staff for the Special Committee would be made up of the Coast Guard and the MMAF, the two main government bodies targeted for investigation; the investigation’s scope would be limited to the government’s investigation; the Special Committee would be limited to proposing a response plan for just maritime accidents. Furthermore, the number of support staff would be reduced from the originally proposed 125 to 90, with the majority working for the government. 4 In response, the families escalate their struggle and call for the abolishment of the government’s implementation plan. They shave their heads in resolution, march from their hometown in Ansan 5 to the National Assembly and then to Gwanghwamun. On May 1st, they attempt their first march (of many) to the legally permitted 100 meters from the Blue House but are stopped by police cannons with pepper laced water. From Feb. 23 to Jun. 13, to express frustration with the investigation, a bereaved father and daughter walk across the country alternating between taking three steps and bowing and hauling a replica of the Sewol hundreds of kilometers from Paengmok Harbor up north to Seoul. Despite the attacks and sabotage, the Special Committee collects evidence (much of it from family members) and holds three public hearings.

Feb. 23 – Jun. 13. A bereaved father and daughter walk from Paengmok Harbor to Seoul. They haul a replica out of the sea and take turns hauling it and doing three steps and a bow

[Source (top) ohmynews.com (bottom) blog.hani.co.kr/nomusa/] 

Apr. 2. Parents express their resolution against the government issued implementation bill. 

(Source: huffingtonpost.kr )

Apr. 4 – 5. The families march from Ansan to the 

National Assembly to Gwanghwamun.

(Source: poweroftruth.net)

May 1. Families attempt to march to 100 meters of the Blue House but are stopped 

by police hose and pepper infused water. (Source: ohmynews.com)

May 2. A family member exhausted after an all-night struggle passed out on the street.

(Source: ohmynews.com)

More questions than answers

The Special Committee’s limited authority has little success countering the Park government’s cover up through the MMAF. 6 The families push for an amendment to the Sewol Special Law allowing full investigative authority, a special prosecutor and recovery of the Sewol ferry. Rather than answering questions, the investigation raises many more: Why is there missing information about the position of the Sewol? Why is there missing audio communication with the Sewol? How/why did the Sewol captain get permission to depart Incheon Port despite inadequate documentation? Why was the National Intelligence Service so involved with the Sewol before the crash even being the body responsible for the Sewol?

The families continue protesting and taking to the streets and carrying out occupations to pass amendments to the Sewol Special Law. Despite winning the majority of the National Assembly, the opposition parties are unable to pass such amendments. At the end of September 2016, the Special Committee’s mandate comes to an end. Its members continue unofficially processing the information gathered during the investigation and serving as a transition to a future Special Committee under the next administration.

Raised by a sea of candlesWhile the heart and soul of the Sewol struggle are the families, its strength is the people. From those close to the families such as “Crying Uncle” – a taxi driver that drives the families hundreds of miles to and from Jindo when bodies are recovered – the dozens that every day assemble ribbons in Gwanghwamun while remembering the Sewol to the hundreds of thousands that collected signatures and marched alongside them, to the millions that cried when the Sewol sank. As Executive Director of the 416 Sewol Families for Truth and a Safer Society Yoo Gyoung-geun explains, “They [the people] stuck it out with us from beginning to end. They were around us. When we were having a hard time, they cheered us on…Even when we are having too hard of a time to come out, they came out instead. So we get the strength to continue. We can’t quit.” As the Choi Soon-sil scandal rocked the Park presidency. The families renewed their efforts for a new government. Even as others were calling for her resignation, the families were the first to call for her impeachment, incarceration and investigation to her missing seven hours. On December 3 of 2016, 963 days after their first attempt, floating on a sea of candles, the families finally march to 100 meters of the Blue House. On March 10, the Constitutional Court rules to remove President Park from office. On March 23, the Sewol finally emerges from the bottom of the ocean. On May 9, a presidential election will take place with all polls indicating a change in government and the victory of a candidate that promised a second Special Investigative Committee. 7

The struggle for a safe society

As the families met, cried, hugged, and struggled together with the public, their struggle transformed from an individual to a social struggle. Yoo recounts a transformative moment while fasting and occupying the front steps of the National Assembly in 2014:

“I was sitting in front of the National Assembly on my tenth day of fasting, some people came and sought us out. It was my first time meeting them, but they came up to me, grabbed my hand and started crying. ‘We are so sorry, we are so sorry.’ Who are these people to be apologizing to me? They introduced themselves as the parents of children that had died at the Taean Marine Camp Accident. The children drowned at sea while partaking in this experiential camp because of a mistake by an assistant instructor. These were those families. ‘But why are you apologizing to me?’ I asked. ‘If we hadn’t given up, and if we had fought to pass a special law and revealed the truth? If we had fought until the very end, then the Sewol would not have happened. But we didn’t fight until the end, we just settled and we stopped fighting. We should have kept fighting.’ He’s saying all this while sobbing. So then, I started recollecting all those instances where I just simply ignored or did nothing.”

On Jan. 25 of 2015, the 416 Sewol Victims/Missing/Survivor’s Family Task Force Committee becomes the 416 Sewol Families for Truth and a Safer Society fighting not just simply for the truth and justice of the Sewol, but to make a society that values people’s lives and safety over money. Once they build that safe society, maybe they can find peace that their children’s death was not senseless. Yoo recounts conversations between the parents, “As fathers and mothers that could not safeguard them at that last moment, we want to simply go to them [the children]. But we can’t go, until we finish. Once we finish, I think we will really want to go then. Amongst ourselves we say this. We want to go right now, but if we went now, would they take us in? They wouldn’t even look at us. We have to do all of this, then might they not receive us? So let’s do this, so we can go to our children.”

Nov. 15, police block the march from entering. The families of the Sewol are at the front of the march. (Source: m.focus.kr)

Dec. 3, the tide shifts. The families of the Sewol leading the march, the protests finally make it to the legally allowed 100 meters in front of the Blue House. It was 963 days after their first attempt. 

(Source: hani.co.kr)

Families cry at hearing the verdict removing President Park from office (Source: ohmynews.com)

The Sewol emerges  (Source: christian.nocutnews.co.kr/)

A volunteer at the Yellow Ribbon Factory in Gwanghwamun gluing ribbons.

The author (right) “Crying Uncle” (left) going through the calendar in one of the Sewol classrooms at the Classroom of Remembrance. December 31 is marked “3rd year for real now” along with tear marks for the year ahead cramming for the college entrance exam.

On the side of Crying Uncle’s taxi

References

A complete timeline of the Sewol struggle can be found (in Korean) at: http://www.tiki-toki.com/timeline/entry/749089/416-/

Notes: 

1. Before starting their third and most difficult year in high school when they have to cram for the college entrance examination, second year high school students embark on a three day two night trip many of them to Jeju Island. 
2. Three of the members are appointed by the families, five by the opposition parties, five by the ruling party, and two each by the Supreme Court and the President of the Korean Bar. 
3. The President of the Saenuri Party (Park’s party) accuses the Special Committee of over budgeting and wasting tax money. All the major media pick up the story. He bases his charge on a budget proposal leaked by the vice-Chair of the Committee (a ruling party appointee). The document later turns out to have been produced by the appointed committee members without consultation or approval from the rest of the committee. 
4. 42 out of the 90 would be government employees. 
5. 250 of the 304 of the victims were 2nd year students from Danwon High School in Ansan. Thus, Ansan has become one of the epicenters of the Sewol struggle as well as the site of their altar. 
6. It’s revealed that the Blue House mandated the MMAF to impede the investigation on Nov. 19, 2015. 
7. Presidential candidate Moon Jae-in of the Together Democratic party has consistently maintained his 40 percentage lead, with the next runner-up trailing over 20 percent. He has promised to immediately starting a second Special Committee to investigate the truth as soon as his administration takes office. 

Gopanhwa Museum, Year of the Rooster

Even though I visited the Gopanhwa Museum just six months ago, this time I was surprised to find that the museum was totally different. Three times a year, every four months, the museum is totally overhauled and the displays completely changed. And because 2017 is Year of the Rooster, the first display for this year are select woodblocks and prints featuring roosters.

Japanese 19th century woodblock print

Surprisingly many woodblocks and prints contain chickens and roosters in them - a very common background or theme, so every woodblock and woodblock print featured poultry, revealing many uses for those two-legged ground-scratchers. Chickens and roosters were raised for their meat and eggs; they were symbols of fertility, and as such played a part in wedding ceremonies and were embroidered or painted on screens and paintings. And of course they are one of the Chinese zodiac animals. While featured in many backgrounds to create a picture that would tell a story, they were also the focal point of the woodblock art. Director Han arranged his poultry blocks and prints to tell a story as he progressed through the museum -- the story of various countries that imprinted with the birds, the styles of carving and/or usage of colors while printing, the dates and influences of the era had on the rendition. A historical journey. A particularly humorous display in the museum (at least to us) was a 10-screen folding screen panel. However, Director Han only had six screens on display -- the others were folded behind because they didn't feature any chickens or roosters. 

The highlight of the tour culminated in the glass-encased room housing a large portion of the director's glorious woodblocks -- each woodblock representing some time in history; some of them dating back five or six centuries. Director Han was in a huge story-telling mood and he proceeded to pull woodblocks out of his room and tell the stories about their usage or maybe some tell-tale detail about their symbolism.

This is a tiny portion of one wall within the glass-encased woodblock room.
In total Director Han has about 4,300 woodblocks and woodblock prints!

woodblocks from five countries: China, Korea, Japan, Mongolia and Tibet

Director Han enthusiastically tell us about a few of his amazing woodblocks!

This woodblock wasn't intended for printing at all but was created to be a cover of a book.
I'm not sure which country this book cover represents, but it's amazingly intricate and has been stained to give it more aesthetic appeal.

My friend had commissioned me to ask for a woodblock with a dragon in it. I told the director and he immediately picked up this one and pointed to the dragon(s) around the Buddha, or is it the bodhisattva? Not so clear to see or take a picture so he quickly produced some more woodblocks featuring dragons.

This is a multiple woodblock set (red, yellow, green, black and seems there were a couple more woodblocks in the set). The woodblocks are all carved individually for stamping with a specific color. The stamping of one picture could take a couple of hours ... as the ink must set before stamping with the next color. Aligning is done with great care; if one woodblock is incorrectly aligned, the whole picture would be ruined. Absolute precision work. The Japanese were marvels at multi-colored printing with woodblocks!

A roller woodblock for printing letter paper. I thought the smaller roller might be used for inking the larger roller for a more sustained use, but since both rollers are carved, I'm clueless to the smaller one's use.

A very large Korean carved woodblock with double dragons carved in circles among the infinite knots featured in many Confucian (and Buddhist) patterns. 

Director Han explained a unique feature about dragons in iconography: if a dragon has:
5 toes - it represents the emperor
4 toes - it represents the king (here)
3 toes - it represents the royal family

A print made by Director Han of a 4-toed dragon.
(from a 17th century Korean-carved woodblock)

This woodblock features a very common idiom - 개천에서 용난다, which translates as 'a dragon comes out of a stream', implying that someone of low social status/birth rises from his humble origin to that of a powerful dragon. Until recently this idiom implied that it WAS possible to rise about one's lowly birth/status circumstances, but now the idiom is used to state that it is NOT possible to rise above one's station in life. An example of this used in its original sense is the attorney Woo Byung-woo who was taken in with impeached President Park Geun Hye. He was a 개천에서 용난 case who came from a poor family but made it high in the government.
The idiom is still widely in use today, but nowadays is used to mean the opposite of its former meaning.

Before we left the museum, Director Han brought out one of his cherished woodblocks, a woodblock from Mongolia that was unbelievably smooth and silky. We were instructed to touch its cool perfect surface and by doing so, we would be imbued with its transmitted luck.

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The Now-contested "Comfort Woman" Statue

Since Park Guen-hye says she accepted the apology of Japanese Prime Minister Abe, a political apology that is said to have been made to ease tensions in Asia, there are certain terms of giving and accepting the apology which are to be met. One of terms is the removal of the symbolic girl in front of the Japanese embassy in Seoul. The girl is a symbol of the "comfort women" who were forcibly made to sexually serve the Japanese military during the late occupation years (early 1940s) of the Korean peninsula. The girl sits facing the Japanese embassy, a symbol of youth ripped away and who sits there to confront the Japanese every day for their war crimes, which still have yet to be apologized for to the people who were aggressed against. 

The young girls, now called as "grandmothers" due to their age-group, have demonstrated in front of the Japanese embassy in the past 24 years more than 1,200 times. They have demanded an apology, but never has a Japanese ambassador come to watch, to talk, to listen, or to apologize. Only 42 or 43 of the former 286 "comfort women" who publicly "came out" remain alive, and they are in their late 80s and 90s. Time is definitely running out, and yet no apology to them seems forthcoming. However, the terms of the phone apology to Park Guen-hye requires the removal of the "comfort woman" statue, symbolic evidence of aggression, exploitation and abuse of power on women and a colonial society on a grand scale. 

Many of the "grandmothers" are bedridden, unable to protest. Volunteer activists stand in proxy of the grandmothers and defend the removal of the statue. Since the end of December 2015, they have stayed by the statue 24/7 preventing its removal. In the winter when temperatures dropped well below freezing, they huddled under piles of blankets. In rain it's the same, huddled under plastic sheets. They say the statue will not be removed until a real apology is forth-coming. 

And to symbolize the discomfort that the weather brings the nation, the volunteer protestors, and the Koreans as a whole, the statue is appropriately attired for the weather conditions it must "suffer" through in its endless wait.

SYMBOLOGY of the Statue of Peace / 평화나비 (Peace to her):

"Yeongjong Kim who is head of Jongno-gu has provided design ideas and works of art in the form of a girl instead of a memorial stone. Statue of Peace was built by Unseong Kim and Seogyeong Kim couple. The statue is about 130 cm and is dressed in a skirt and blouse, and an appearance in the girl with small hands and short hair sitting and staring at the Embassy of Japan." Statue of Peace

The design of the statue is imbued with symbols to communicate meaning to the viewers:

• round face - the typical face shape of the 1920s 

• hanbok - the proper and modest attire of a young girl or a Korean citizen at the time when the girls were forcibly taken

• roughly shorn hair - severed relationship between the girl and her home country and her family

• bird on her shoulder - middle object connecting the past experiences with the present life

• clenched fists - an expression of the girl's outrage at the Japanese government for their silence and disregard of the girl's loss of innocence, family, home and a chance of a normal life

(not pictured)

• slightly raised heel of the girl - though a return of the girl to her homeland, she is still not firmly transplanted back in the Korean society

• empty chair beside the girl - a seat for the girls who never returned, a seat also for people to come and sit with the girl and share time and companionship with the girl

• shadow under the girl - the shape of a girl who never returned but is metaphysically hovering; also the shape of a grandmother as she passes on but her "presence" is still felt by the presence of the girl who continues to sit and stare at the Japanese embassy, waiting for an apology

• butterfly - (nestled in the heart of the shadow) a symbol of fluttering hope

For more symbology surrounding the 'comfort woman" statue watch 

"Copper plates laid next to 'comfort woman' statue in memory of sex slave victims".

The House of Sharing 

According to a placard inside of the House of Sharing Museum, more appropriately known as the Museum of Sexual Slavery by the Japanese Military, a museum dedicated to shedding history on the "comfort woman" issue, there are many "comfort woman" statues and memorials throughout Korea. I am unclear on whether these statues and memorials are also part of the demands for removal according to the terms of Japanese Prime Minister Abe's "apology", but they probably are. I was surprised, but the House of Sharing Museum also has a map of "comfort woman" memorials in the US. For more information, visit the online House of Sharing.

The red dots show where monuments and shrines for the victims of Japanese military sexual slavery are (as of 2015). So the 'comfort woman' statue in front of the Japanese embassy is just an example of the sentiment throughout the entire South Korean peninsula about the need for recognition to the problem and the need for a formal apology from Japan for their heinous war crime(s).This picture was taken at the House of Sharing, a home dedicated to care for the grandmothers euphemistically called former 'comfort women'.

Information about the location of the 'comfort woman' shrines and memorials in South Korea.

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The following was taken from the House of Sharing on the 14 June 2016 entry, Facebook. "The House of Sharing International Outreach team would like to share some saddening, extremely disappointing and disturbing news. The Peace Statue in Seoul was attacked today. (June 3rd) A woman hit the head of the statue with a hammer three times and left scars. She was arrested and confessed that she was paid to do so. Why? We know why and can guess who asked her to do that. We are so saddened by so called grown-ups' childish and animalistic behavior." 

The Peace Statue struck and scarred by a woman hired to do so. (June 3, 2016)