On August 5, the Memorial Service for the Korean Atomic Bomb Survivors was held in front of the Monument to Korean Victims of the Atomic Bombing in Peace Memorial Park in Naka Ward, Hiroshima City. It was the 32nd such service, and the third since the monument was moved inside the park. The plan to move the monument brought into sharp focus the problem of how North and South Koreans could all be represented by a single monument. In order to solve the problems and erect the monument as soon as possible, the concerned parties on all parties exchanged a document of agreement in April of this year. However, no movement has been seen since the document was exchanged.

Around 150 persons attended the Memorial Service sponsored by the Korean Residents Union in Japan (Mindan) Hiroshima Local Main Office (Chief: Pak So Sung). The Register of the Deceased containing 2,588 names was consecrated to the monument, including three newly identified names added this year. After violinist Jung Chanwoo, a Japan-resident Korean, performed a requiem to honor the deceased, persons in attendance offered flowers.

After the monument was moved in July 1999, serious talks to solve the issue of monument unification moved into full gear among the following three parties: Hiroshima local main office of Mindan, the General Association of Korean Residents in Japan (Chongryon) Local Headquarters of Hiroshima Prefecture and Hiroshima City. Proposals for designs and monument inscriptions were selected this spring.

However, because the city agencies with authority over Peace Memorial Park have not yet reached a conclusion on whether to allow both the present monument and a joint monument in the park or the joint monument only, the process has been bogged down since April, when the three parties signed an agreement to "cooperate to bring about a solution as soon as possible."

Following the North-South Summit of 2000, the Hiroshima Flower Festival of 2001 saw the first unified team composed of members from the North and South sides. Exchanges have continued to deepen since then, as seen in the fact that Li Sil Gun, leader of a pro-Pyongyang Korean atomic bomb survivors' group attended the Memorial Service on the 5th for the first time.

(Caption) Persons attending the third Memorial Service since the monument was moved into Peace Memorial Park offer flowers.