Published : Sept. 29, 2013 - 19:40
Uijeongbu, Gyeonggi Province, will display five pieces of the Berlin Wall to mark the 60th anniversary of the armistice agreement which halted the Korean War. The photo shows a fragment of the wall. (Yonhap News)
Several fragments of the Berlin Wall, which divided Germany from Aug. 13, 1961 to Nov. 9, 1989, will be displayed at a unification-themed park to be created in Uijeongbu, Gyeonggi Province.
The government of Uijeongbu, north of Seoul, said Sunday that it would place five fragments of the dismantled wall in a temporary park near Uijeongbu Station and open it to the public in mid-November.
The display of the symbol of German reunification is intended to commemorate the 60th anniversary of the signing of the Korean War armistice agreement that ended the 1950-53 conflict, officials said.
Each piece is 1.2 meters long and 3.5 meters high.
Uijeongbu Mayor Ahn Byung-young was promised the fragments for free by the German authorities last year when he was in the country to attend a unification class opened there by Gyeonggi Province.
The pieces were loaded on a ship in Germany last week and are scheduled to arrive in Korea in mid-October.
Uijeongbu has a plan to develop the temporary park into a peace park by adding new items, such as wartime barbed-wire entanglements, a memorial honoring the U.S. forces who fought for Korea in the war, and unification-themed images.
“The Berlin Wall pieces are a symbol of German unification,” a city official said. “They will help attract tourists as well as raise awareness for the need to unify the Koreas.”
Uijeongbu has many U.S. and Korean military bases for the defense of the Korean capital.
By Chun Sung-woo (swchun@heraldcorp.com)