"One Korea" appeared at the first August 6th Hiroshima City Peace Memorial Ceremony of the 21st century. For the first time, four representatives of the Korean Residents Union in Japan (Mindan) Hiroshima Local Main Office and the General Association of Korean Residents in Japan (Chongryon) Local Headquarters of Hiroshima Prefecture jointly presented flowers to the Cenotaph for the A-bomb Victims.

In a horizontal line with the two women wearing ethnic dress in the middle, the four walked toward the Cenotaph with solemn expressions. They bowed in a single motion, each offering the flowers held in his or her arms.

After the ceremony, Heo, a third-generation resident Korean, said, "I hope our generation can build the momentum for unification of our fatherland." Lee, who is also a second-generation A-bomb survivor, said, "The members of the first generation created peace." He said he had renewed his conviction that "our generation must work to become bridges from that history to the present."

To symbolize the reconciliation that was the theme of Mayor Tadatoshi Akiba's Peace Declaration of 2000, Hiroshima City had called on Mindan and Chongryon to offer flowers jointly, and the two groups agreed.

As part of the climate favoring the reunification of South Korea and the People's Democratic Republic of Korea, a team representing both sides had paraded in the Hiroshima Flower Festival in May of this year.