Solidarity 'source of hope' for divided Korea

President Bronislaw Komorowski giving a special address for South Korean students at the Hankuk University of Foreign Studies in Seoul, South Korea, 23 October 2013. Photo: EPA

Speaking with students at Seoul's Hankuk University of Foreign Studies, Komorowski stressed that the Polish revolution that culminated in 1989 occurred “without the shedding of a single drop of blood.

“I believe that the history of Polish Solidarity contains a universal message that is particularly relevant and important in Korea due to the ongoing pain of division,” Komorowski said.

“The victory of the Polish revolution was not easy,” he reflected, adding he was “convinced that the Polish example can be a source of hope in other places around the world, including Korea.”

During the 1980s, some 10,000 million Polish citizens joined Solidarity, the first independent trade union in the communist states of the Eastern bloc.

Following the allied defeat of Japan in World War II, the Korean peninsula was occupied by the Soviet Red Army in the south and United States forces in the south. A communist state was declared in the north, while the West backed the Republic of Korea in the south.

Komorowski is in Seoul as part of two-leg trip to Mongolia and South Korea, with the president aiming to strengthening trade ties in the region.

In talks with South Korea’s president Park Geun-hye, Komorowski said Poland is “the leader in attracting South Korean investment in our part of Europe.” (nh/pg)

Source: PAP