‘Bull of peace’ laid to rest in South Korea after drifting from North Korea in 1996 flood
Gimpo (South Korea): A bull that drifted south from North Korea during a major flood in 1996 and became a symbol of inter-Korean peace has been laid to rest on a border hill overlooking its homeland nearly 20 years after its death.
The animal’s remains were moved to an exhibition hall in Aegibong Peace Ecopark on Aegibong hill, just 1.4 kilometres from North Korea’s border county of Kaepung, on Saturday, according to the Gimpo Cultural Foundation.
Dubbed the “bull of peace,” South Korean authorities first discovered the animal on the uninhabited island of Yudo, off the western city of Gimpo, in July 1996 after it drifted from the North and survived a deadly flood that swept through central parts of the Korean Peninsula.
Due to the island’s location inside neutral waters between the Koreas, South Korean Marines were deployed to rescue it in January the next year after authorization by the UN Command overseeing the armistice of the 1950-53 Korean War.
The bull had a broken ankle after stepping on a mine among those strewn across the heavily fortified border but later recovered after treatment.
In 1998, it was married off to a cow from the southern island of Jeju in a wedding ceremony, and the couple went on to have seven offspring before the bull died of natural causes in 2006 at the presumed age of 16.
After its death, the bull’s descendants over eight generations have been raised in farms across South Korea, including Jeju and the western city of Incheon.
The bull’s remains had been stored in a culture centre in Gimpo before their relocation to the border hill, where fierce fighting took place during the Korean War.
The island where the animal was discovered can be seen from the exhibition hall containing the remains, which is now open to the public.
Ahead of the relocation, a memorial ritual also took place near Aegibong on Thursday, wishing for peace on the peninsula, Yonhap news agency reported.
“Although the bull of peace, considered a symbol of the pain of division as well as peace, did not see the unification (of the Koreas), I hope it becomes a big star above Aegibong and a messenger of peace,” Kang Kyung-ku, a former mayor of Gimpo, said.