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Originally posted on October 2, 2013. Updated on October 1, 2019.

Reverently referred to as Mahatma Gandhi, used non-violent protest as a means to gain Indian independence in the mid 1900’s.

International Day of Non-Violence, is commemorated on the birthday of Mahatma Gandhi, October 2, celebrating his contribution to uplifting human dignity and promoting non-violent social action. Individuals like Gandhi have led movements that have transformed the global consciousness to fundamental principles and shared values that have brought humanity closer to a world of peace and prosperity.

Gandhi believed and fought for the preservation of human rights and dignities. Throughout his life, Gandhi’s search for truth would lead him to discover that, “There are innumerable definitions of God, because His manifestations are innumerable. They overwhelm me with wonder and awe and for a moment stun me. But I worship God as Truth Only.”

Dr. Moon often points to Gandhi as a “spiritual leader” who stepped out of his “religious box” to lead a movement that had significant social impact.

And indeed, his spiritual convictions were the basis for his seminal philosophy of Satyagraha (non-violence). Gandhi explains in his paper “Satyagraha in South Africa” that:

“Truth (Satya) implies love, and firmness (Agraha) engenders and therefore serve as a synonym for force. I thus began to call the Indian movement “Satyagraha”, that is to say, the Force which is born of Truth and Love or non-violence.”

Gandhi placed a simple philosophy in the hands of every person, from every cast, race and religion; the power of love and truth and personal will choose to live by universal truths and principles and shared values. In doing so, he birthed a movement that broke traditional divisions, and created monumental societal transformation that also left an indelible imprint on the rest of human history from Dr. King in the United States to Rev. Führer in East Germany.

As a form of non-violent protest against the British textile industry, Gandhi spun his own cloth and encouraged other Indians to do the same.

His principle of non-violence opened up something that could not be defined by economic of political power, something that Dr. King would later call “soul force.” It was this power that rested in the nobility of the human spirit that believed if one did not retaliate to violence, but respond with truth, service and love, one could stir the perpetrator’s conscience and soul. It was a power of unity and a larger vision that drew the “others” into a family, rather than ostracize and isolate.

Gandhi’s journey began in India, and within each stage of his life he would deepen his understanding and strengthen his values and beliefs. Each experience helped form the underpinning of his conviction that every human being possess a divine dignity, and the right to self-govern.

As a child he watched his parents stand up against injustice, even when it proved to be inconvenient. He would then study law in England, where he discovered an intrinsic value granted by God, present in every person and every religion.

He lived in South Africa where fierce prejudice would deepen his love for justice and righteousness, sparking his initial work with non-violence as a form of protest, and his conviction in the fundamental rights of all people.

Eventually he would return to India where he would begin a groundbreaking non-violent revolution to secure independence for India from the British Empire.

As a form of non-violent protest against the British textile industry, Gandhi spun his own cloth and encouraged other Indians to do the same.

These principles and beliefs in human rights and dignity are derived from a common creator and opened the way for India to become an independent nation, setting the stage for global decolonization after WWII.

But, as Gandhi humbly said at the close of his autobiography, “So long as a man does not of his own free will put himself last among his fellow creatures, there is no salvation for him.” To him, justice and happiness did not come from one best religion, or one best person, or even one best philosophy; it was grounded on the universal truth of living for others, of love. It was his humble search to embody that truth that was the heart of the awakening that he instigated.

As we celebrate his legacy, this would be the central point, to recognize the divinity and dignity of each person, and put love and truth into action for the benefit of each of them.

The post International Day of Nonviolence Honors Gandhi’s Legacy appeared first on Hyun Jin Preston Moon.

Originally posted on February 5, 2015. Updated on January 27, 2019.

The following story is shared by a student from the United States who traveled to South Korea for a leadership exchange program. In it, she discloses an intimate look at the division of Korean families in the North and South, bringing to light the tragic reality of a divided homeland and a Korean Dream, shared by people everywhere, to reunite the peninsula.

As most Koreans born after 1953, I grew up as the child of a divided homeland. I was born in Seoul but my ancestral home remains north of the 38th Parallel. I still have relatives there, as do 10 million other Koreans in the South and the diaspora. This is the shared reality of our people.

Dr. Hyun Jin P. Moon, Korean Dream: A Vision for a Unified Korea

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Her tears flowed over her papery cheeks and down her chin, dripping onto the linoleum floor. Her silver curls swayed as she rocked back and forth.

She grasped his hand tightly with one hand and stroked his cheeks with the other. It was as if she hoped the physical proximity would make her phantom real – but it seemed to make her pain deeper.

This was the heartbreaking scene I witnessed when I was visiting a housing project for North Korean defectors during a summer leadership training program in 2014. I was just one of many from around the world, including the United States, Korea, Japan, and the Philippines, all learning first-hand about the division of Korea.

As an American, I was paired with a Korean high school student who served as my unofficial translator and guide. We communicated through single English and Korean words and filled in the rest with facial expressions and hand gestures.

Together we visited someone I would fondly call Halmonim, Grandma in Korean. I still don’t know her name or how she got to that sanctuary after her harrowing journey crossing the 38th parallel. Before silence overtook her, she told us that she had a grandson who still lived in the North. She observed my Korean partner, touching his face gently and told us that he looked exactly like her grandson.

As she watched his face, two endless rivers began to form in her eyes and silent, shuddering sobs ran through her entire body. The sweets we brought for her remained untouched. We didn’t know what else to do but to sit still so she could keep his hand in hers.

As I looked on helplessly next to Halmonim, my Korean companion and I searched for appropriate words to comfort her, but found nothing, so we chose silence. We sat there the entire time in silence interrupted only by her cries.

Reunions for families divided North and South are few and always too short.

Reunions for families divided by North and South are few and always too short. The latest of the very rare reunions took place in August 2018.

Back home, I sat next to my mother on our couch and I wondered about Halmonim’s pain. How would it feel to long for someone so badly, but not be able to see, touch or hear them? Maybe it would feel like a part of me: my arm or my leg was amputated and thrown over a high fence that I could not climb.

Halmonim, is that how you feel when you think about your grandson? The ideological divide runs deeper than the 38th parallel, it cuts through the very heart and body of the Korean people. Halmonim’s tears speak of the pain of being separated from a part of herself.

I think it is time to say, “Enough.” Let’s not shed more tears of division and separation, let’s let tears of reunion and joy begin to flow.

You can be a part of the Korean Dream to reunited the divided homeland. Learn about the One Korea Global Campaign, the 100th Commemoration of the March 1 Movement to be held in Seoul, South Korea, and the 2019 One K Concert.

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Originally posted on January 30, 2014. Updated on January 25, 2019.

GPF-Korean volunteers visit the elderly. A large percentage of elderly in Korea live in poverty.

In 2014, The Guardian published an article on the rising number of elderly in Korea who are living in poverty. The writer visited Lee Yeong-sun, an 82-year-old Korean War veteran and his wife, who suffers from dementia.  The two live in a condemned apartment in Seoul with cracked windows and boarded doors. Elderly like Lee born before the Korean War, do not qualify for current pension programs. Lee struggles to live off of what he gets from a veteran’s group and a government welfare fund.

Lee told the Guardian that his only wish was to stay alive longer than his wife so he can take care of her. According to Lee, his children offer no help; one doesn’t even answer his calls. He and his wife are one of thousands of Korea’s elderly population who find themselves struggling to survive on an outdated pension system and a social structure that is crumbling as its foundation of extended family ties rapidly frays apart.

Over the last half-century, the education and economic growth in Korea has been astronomical. The silvering generation had much to do with this success. They built the infrastructure for Korea’s miraculous rise into the developed world and poured their life savings into their children’s education. However, the increased fixation on educational achievement and financial prosperity has eroded traditional values. The Guardian quotes a retiree living in Seoul, “The family has crumbled, that is why we are dying alone.”

This has resulted in a myriad of social problems. According to official statistics in December 2018, there was a shocking 45% increase in the past five years in crimes committed by senior citizens age 65 and over in Korea. Serious crimes including murder, arson, rape and robbery rose 70%, from about a thousand cases in 2013 to more than 1,800 in 2017.

The Guardian showed that a poll reported the percent of children who feel they are responsible to take care of their parents has dropped from 90% to 37% in the last 15 years. The rate of suicide in the elderly of Korea has, according to the Guardian, “trebled since 2000.” This is despite awareness campaigns, counseling services and support. Such statistics illustrate what Lee Sun-young, a senior center administrator interviewed by the Guardian observed, “People don’t have the psychological space to care for other people.”

The extended family model is the foundation of traditional Korean values.  Folk stories like ShimChung, a daughter who gives her life up to give sight to her blind father, taught filial piety as a central value of traditional Korean society. But, the wave of younger Koreans moving into the cities, have weakened family ties. Nuclear families have become standard. The phenomenon of the growing poverty in the silver generation is but one outcome.

Dr. Hyun Jin P. Moon decries this trend. “The extended family model is a model that takes care of our basic human needs with love, with heart,” he said. In casting aside Korea’s traditional extended family system, Korea as a whole loses its greatest asset.

GPF-Korea programs like Global Poomashi are cultivating global awareness and volunteerism in young Koreans.

Global Peace Foundation (GPF) is working to renew the culture of modern Korean society by emphasizing how the extended family had always been a Korean treasure throughout centuries. In Korea, GPF engages citizens in providing meals and essential services to sustain the growing silver population. Their efforts are more than an offering of necessities, but a way to challenge the current trends of Korean society. With One Family Under God as the vision, GPF Korea is inculcating volunteerism and global consciousness through local and overseas service. Young and old, are leading a movement to move Korea away from its “cut-throat” and “ruthless competition” for the best test scores, schools, jobs, and back to its ancient calling to live for humanity.

From February 26 to March 1, GPF will host the 2019 Global Peace Convention under the theme “One Dream, One Korea, One World: Korean Dream: Vision for a Unified Korea.” March 1, 2019 will mark 100 years since the 1919 March First Movement for Korean independence, remembering a time when citizens peacefully ignited the dream to become a free and united Korea.

Today, this vision lives on in the Korean Dream, a civil society-led effort to revitalize the founding ideals of the Korean nation, expressed as Hongik Ingan, the dream to bring benefit to all humankind. This vision can not only heal the social breakdown crushing modern society, but bring hope to all the world, starting with a renewal of the Korean extended family model. In this, Korea can lead the way.

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The Korean term uri (“우리”) is indicative of a sense of oneness or family with others. Koreans in the North and South probably use the word uri millions of times throughout their lives. Uri (“우리”) is found left and right, in nearly every circumstance in Korean society— uri Nara, uri jeep, uri omma (Our Nation, our home, our mother). Each time the word uri is used, it expresses a shared connectedness as part of the Korean extended family.

Korea is referred to as “our nation” by Koreans.

A closer look at the meaning of “uri” serves as a powerful reminder that Koreans are meant to live together, as one family.

In the grammatical sense, uri is the informal first person plural pronoun in the Korean language. It is dominantly used for possessives and literally translated as “us”, “our” or “we”. However, uri is also commonly used in place of the possessive “my”. Uri is a ubiquitous Korean concept signifying community and unity.

What is particularly interesting about this Korean word is that even when talking to someone who is clearly not part of your immediate family, Koreans still use this linguistic terminology as if you are.

In the western world, it would be regarded as somewhat odd if a stranger referred to her mom as “our mother.” There is something here that goes much deeper into the mindset of the Korean culture.

It’s interesting to contrast this concept of the Korean uri with the Western understanding of the relationship between the self and a larger whole. According to Maday and Szalay (cited in Kim & Choi, 1994), it was found that the first associations with the word “me” were “family” and “love” for Koreans. In contrast, the first word associated with the word “me” was “I, person individual” for Americans.

Volunteers taking their “grandmother” out for a walk on the town.

The differences that emerge out of these first cultural concepts are striking. Koreans view themselves as blending into their family, whereas people in the United States or other Western countries fundamentally view themselves as separate from others, including that of their family. Here we see the influence of individualism of the Western world underlying the all-important “self” above all else.

This concept of boundaries also seems to relate directly to the Korean sense of personal space. Whether it is an elder Korean women rushing to cut in line in a crowded supermarket or when you squished together on public transportation, the sense of personal space in Korea seems virtually non-existent. Where this offends or discomfits most Westerners in Korea, Koreans themselves have no concept of invading another’s space, because it is understood that space belongs to everyone.

In the book, The Conceptual Self in Context: Culture Experience Self Understanding, the authors explore how one’s sense of self is rooted in the larger society’s values and principles.

The Korean way of relating to others includes an assumption that “what is good for the group is also good for the self, which by definition is ‘a part’ of the group” (Koenig, 2010). There is specific research from the 1990s supporting the notion that Koreans have a strong emphasis on others and family, suggesting that “rather than being conceived and experienced as separate entities, selves are lived as relational parts of a greater whole”. This would explain why there is such a strong sense of a common group in Korean society.

An abstract depiction of “uri jeep“, our home, in downtown Seoul, and the logo for “Woori Bank”, our bank, in the background.

This consciousness of the collective self that is embodied in the word “uri” is most aptly expressed in the Korean extended family. In traditions such as the annual autumn celebration of “Chuseok,” where families gather together to honor their ancestors, family members are reminded that their lives benefit not just the current generation, but of generations past, present and future, and not just their immediate family, but their extended family, spanning to their clans, nation and even the world.

It is this collective consciousness that has enabled the Korean people to weather some of the hardest times in their history, including the Korean War. In tough times, the Korean people stuck together, relying on each other because life literally depended upon it.

As the Korean people stand at another crossroads in their history, the word “uri” serves as a reminder we possess a common destiny, and that each one of us, and every family, has a part to play in building a nation that would benefit not only our immediate family, but our world family.

Last updated 2018/09/25

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Originally posted on April 23, 2012. Updated on April 19, 2018.

Today, we are looking for ways to protect our planet and build a sustainable future. But the solution lies deeper than at the bottom of a recycling bin.

We are facing the question of stewardship. To become better stewards of our environment, we need to cultivate our relationship with the natural world.

Without first-hand experiences with creation we become detached from the value of the natural world. A fisherman knows the footprint he leaves when he catches a fish. If you’ve planted a seed and nurtured it to fruition, helped a sow give birth to her calf, or caught and cleaned a trout for dinner, you have experienced the delicate relationship we have with the natural world.

Dr. Hyun Jin Moon admires the majesty of creation during a trek through the mountains.

The first step to becoming better stewards of this earth is to go out and get to know the life on this earth. Those experiences will help us gain a deeper understanding of who we are and the role we play in learning how to live in harmony with our earth.

American environmental lawyer, Gus Speth, once said, “I used to think the top environmental problems were biodiversity loss, ecosystem collapse, and climate change. I thought that with 30 years of good science we could address those problems. But I was wrong. The top environmental problems are selfishness, greed and apathy… to deal with those we need a spiritual and cultural transformation.”

When we understand the beauty of the world we live in, we expand our gratitude for it, providing the fuel and passion that is combined with the knowledge to come up with creative solutions and innovations.

We become better stewards of this earth when we become aware of our mark on the ecosystem. The natural world gives us and teaches us so much. If we knew how intimately we are related to the local plants, animals and waterways, we would better preserve and serve those ecosystems.

What are ways you can become a better steward for the environment this International Mother Earth Day?

MORE: 4 Lessons on Leadership from Mother Nature

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The Role of Family in Peace

Original post from March 12, 2015. Updated on April 5, 2018.

Family metaphors are frequently used to express a remarkable closeness or intimacy between people. Sayings such as, “he’s like a brother to me” or, “they’re like family” signifies a unique bond that people often feel no need to explain. Familial relationships are undoubtedly important – to individuals, to families themselves and then to their respective communities. We might then infer that as the core units that make up society, each and every family is equally important to the health of nations and, subsequently, the whole world.

Dr. Jun Sook Moon reads to children at a family shelter in Korea.

Families have been the “default” mode of human organization throughout history. The reason for this is both simple and self-evident. It is because life begins in the family. When we are born into this world, what constitutes our world is the family – in infancy, childhood and into adulthood. It is not too much to say that the people we become is largely due to the relationships we experience in our family. Who each of us is, where we come from, starts in the family.

Moreover, life continues because families do. We would do best to remember the inimitable role that the family plays in the health of individuals, the strength of our communities and happiness of society. Many or most countries measure progress and prosperity in terms of GDP and recently there have been attempts to objectively measure happiness. Yet, these indices fail to connect the health and prosperity of individuals and society with its roots in the family.

Perhaps one of the reasons for this is the same reason thinkers from Plato to Max Weber have lamented the strength of familial and kinship ties. In their view, societies notable for strong familial and kinship ties also tend towards things like cronyism, corruption and nepotism, where families act for the good of only their own.

In fact, it is rare to see people treat others as one would treat one’s own family. Many even debate the possibility of true altruism. Skeptics view altruism as simply another way to benefit one’s group since service is usually based on some sense of shared identity – a common religion, a sense of ethnic, national, political or economic ties. It is what makes charity to those who are completely different from oneself so exceptional.

Whatever the case, as humans we base our relationships on some notion of identity. While the concept of “identity-based conflict” is still fairly new, it is in fact the age-old drama of the human family. We fight for our family against other families, tribes and nations. We fight against the other. We try to protect the businesses and interests of some against others. We even die to protect some against others.

For this and so many other reasons, we must be forced to re-examine our very identity and nature.

And it is for this reason that the Global Peace Foundation starts first with an all-encompassing vision of “One Family Under God.” It is this kind of inclusive framework that starts from what we already instinctively know – a sense of what family should or could be – and work to extend out that instinctive, emotional bond outwards towards others. It is in this space of imagining ourselves as part of a greater human family that we can begin to imagine a world of peace and shared prosperity. From there, we work to “activate” our highest shared values and aspirations – love, kindness, service, benevolence, integrity, etc. as the ultimate expressions of a global human family.

By focusing on people rather than interventions – our solutions become holistic because people are able to account for the dynamic interactions of everyday life in a way that interventions never could. Instead of a focus on tasks, we encourage and empower people to “own” the vision and make it a reality in his or her own unique way. Through the years, we have developed a process framework to do this on the local level and then to connect and share lessons and best practices with a wide, multi-sectoral network of moral, innovative leaders.

Why Korea?

On the Korean peninsula, we see a fascinating case in which one people, or family, has been divided – by time, space, ideology, economic and social systems – for now over 70 years. In fact, today, there are debates as to whether Koreans in the North and the South can be considered one people because of all of their differences.

We believe that this becomes as a microcosm of the global family in that, as some view North and South Koreans as completely separate, we see differences between peoples – in terms of language, culture, custom, religion, traditions – to assume that we are too different to be together. And yet, time and time again, there will always be interaction after interaction that tells us, as in the prophetic words of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., “Together we must learn to live as brothers or together we will be forced to perish as fools.”

Even apart from the human rights issues and nuclear crisis in the North and social, economic and political crises in the South, Koreans and their friends have an opportunity to demonstrate a process of civil-society led nation-building in such a way that provides lessons for the entire global community. The process has already essentially started with the over 900 civil society organizations currently working as part of the Action for Korea United initiative in Korea.

We turn next to the global community to engage in this process to support and learn the lessons of building peace and social cohesion and with it, inspirations for global development and shared prosperity.

The post The Role of Family in Peace appeared first on Hyun Jin Preston Moon.

Since its annexation by the Japanese government in 1910, the Korean people have longed to build a free, united, and independent homeland. Today, the continued division of the peninsula has also obscured Korea’s founding vision of Hongik Ingan, which was to establish a nation that can “benefit all humanity.”

Throughout that dark period of colonization to liberation, and then, tragically, the division of the Korean peninsula in 1945, patriots from Ahn Chang Ho to Kim Gu and many others have worked to harken back to this ideal.

Today, Action for Korea United (AKU), the largest civil society-based coalition of groups across the Korean peninsula takes up the vision and the spirit of the Korean Independence movement to fulfill the Korean Dream of Hongik Ingan. The following is a timeline of critical dates related to the occupation and division of the Korean peninsula. 

The Unification flag was created to represent North and South Korean representation in international sporting events.

Timeline of the Division of North and South Korea

Annexation

1905 Japan wins the Russo-Japanese War

1910 Japan formally annexes Korea

End of World War I and Independence Movements

1919 March 1 Declaration of Korean Independence begins a peninsula-wide movement for independence, engaging 2 million Koreans (10% of the population). The movement died down without attaining Korean independence but resulted in sustained independence efforts by Koreans abroad. During this time, small ideological differences would become apparent, deepening as time passed.

1919 April 13 the Korean Provisional Government was established in China by Koreans who had moved to China, nominally supported by the Chinese National Government. It tried unsuccessfully to attend the Paris Peace Conference at the end of World War I to bring up the issue of Korean independence.

1919 April the First Korean Congress was held in Philadelphia with Koreans in the U.S. like Syngman Rhee and Philip Jaisohn. This would be the beginning of ongoing efforts of Koreans in the United States to seek support for Korean independence from the United States.

End of World War II and Independence Efforts

1943 December Cairo Conference – the U.S., China, and Great Britain recognize the “enslavement of the people of Korea,” and “determine that in due course Korea shall become free and independent.” Many nations, including the U.S., did not deem Koreans ready for self-governance. A trusteeship was proposed.

1945 August 17 Japan surrenders in WWII.

1945 September 6 After months of organizing people’s committees under the Committee for the Preparation of Korean Independence. The People’s Republic of Korea was recognized by a congress of local representatives.

Trusteeship

1945 December At the Moscow Conference, Allies agreed to a U.S. proposal for a 5-year trusteeship over Korea dividing the peninsula along the 38th parallel. The Soviet Union would monitor a transition of the territory in the north, and the U.S. would monitor the south.

1946-1947 A Soviet-U.S. Joint Commission meets to work towards a unified administration, but Cold War tensions, as well as Korean sentiments against a trusteeship, which was thought to hinder progress towards self-governance.

1947 November 14 The UN passes a resolution for free elections to be held in Korea and a withdrawal of all foreign troops. The UN established the United Nations Temporary Commission on Korea (UNTCOK). The Soviet Union boycotted the vote.

1948 April conference for North and South meet in Pyongyang to discuss how to mitigate rising tensions. Southern representatives Kim Koo and Kim Hyu-sik attend, pushing for unity. The conference does not produce results.

Establishment of the Republic of Korea (South) and the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (North)

1948 May 10 South Korea holds general elections.

1948 August 15  South Korea establishes the “Republic of Korea,” formally taking over power from the U.S. military, and electing Syngman Rhee as its first president.

1948 August 20 North Korea holds elections.

1948 September 9 North Korea declares the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, with Kim Il-sung as its premier.

1948 December 12 the United Nations General Assembly recognized the Republic of Korea as the only lawful government of Korea.

Korean War

1948-1950 Armed forces, South and North engage in border conflicts.

1950 June 25 North Korean forces invade South Korea, starting the Korean War. China and the Soviet Union supported the DPRK in their efforts to unify the peninsula by force.

1950 June 27 the UN Security Council passed Resolution 83 recommending member states to provide military assistance to South Korea. UN Forces would include 28 nations, the largest forces from the United States.

Armistice

1953 July 27 After 2 years of negotiations, an armistice agreement was finally reached, dividing Korea along the 38th parallel, yet again. Although the armistice agreement included a provision for continued peace talks, there has not yet been a final peace accord that would officially end the war. 2.5 million deaths are recorded in the Korean War. North and South Korea remain divided for over 70 years.

Revised March 8, 2018

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Dr. Hyun Jin Preston Moon addressed the over 900 civil society organizations of Action for Korea United on December 7th 2017, urging for a Korea-led effort to bring about the peaceful reunification of the Korean peninsula.

He called for leaders who would inspire humanity, just as Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. did in the fight for civil rights in the United States, Nelson Mandela did in the fight to end apartheid, and Mahatma Ghandi did in the fight for Indian independence. Each called upon universal principles that transcended current divisions and inspired people to stand together for the greater good of humanity.

The  issue of Korean reunification he said, “is the civil rights issue of the 21st century,” citing the near poverty and human rights abuses endured by 25 million North Koreans, the painful division of the Korean family, and the significance of reunification, indicating an end of colonialism and the Cold War to usher in an age represented by the Korean Dream, the building of a nation that benefits all humanity.

Below is the full transcript:

Action for Korea United 5th Anniversary Assembly, December 7th, 2017, Seoul Dragon City, Grand Ballroom

Remarks by Dr. Hyun Jin Preston Moon, Chairman of Global Peace Foundation

I want to encourage everyone today for the groundbreaking, historic work that we began in 2012. As the founding members of AKU, you were believers in a dream that could ignite the hearts and minds of a people, in a dream so compelling that it could inspire not just one people, but the entire global community. We believed in a Korean Dream even before that phrase was coined. That is why I applaud you. Give yourselves a big round of applause.

Now that Korean Dream has been given a voice and that vision has been given a framework. Only five short years after its launch, not only is it inspiring the people of South Korea, but it is inspiring the entire world. As I explained in the opening session of the International Forum on One Korea that engaged many of the top thinkers on the Korean issue from around the world, the reunification of the Korean peninsula is the only viable option given the changing geopolitical context in which we are living today.

With American interest in the peninsula at a historically unprecedented level, leading the entire global community on the issue of denuclearizing the Korean peninsula, global attention on Korea is the greatest it has ever been in my lifetime. We as Koreans, especially here in South Korea, need to understand that the status quo solutions of the past are no longer relevant given the changing geopolitical context. This is very important for you to understand because it will give you a sense of how important the work of AKU has been and will be at this crucial juncture in the history of the Korean people.

Yet, through the failures of the Sunshine policy, I realized that the first problem in creating One Korea did not lie with the North. The problem lay in the South, with the failure of Southern leadership to articulate a clear end-game strategy laying out what engagement should lead to. Moreover, not only did the government lack an endgame, but all the institutions and businesses within South Korea that engaged with the North failed to establish an overarching plan of cooperation in terms of how they dealt with the North.

As a result, during the Sunshine Policy, as the South engaged with the North, Pyongyang played off the various South Korean players against each other, and the rest is history. That is how the North Korean regime received the financing to sustain itself and develop its nuclear program. Engagement without an endgame, without a clear conclusion in view, was the problem.

Therefore, if engagement is to begin again with the North, the South must be clear on what the endgame strategy, the final goal, should be. That endgame strategy should be the peaceful reunification of the Korean Peninsula.

What is more important is that civic organizations, corporations, NGO’s, faith groups, and all the many forms of civil society need to cooperate and build consensus, not only on the endgame strategy but also on how they should engage the North. This is the significance of AKU. In this room we have the breadth and diversity of South Korean society from religious leaders, to civic leaders, to NGO’s, to humanitarian aid groups, and so forth —all the sectors of South Korean society— gathered here today. And unlike in the 1990’s, we are united around one vision: the Korean Dream.

The One Korea Global Campaign, which will galvanize international support for Korean reunification, is planning a Korean Dream movie that will educate the international community about the plight of the Korean people. Through the Korean Dream I framed the issue of the separation of the Korean people as a civil rights issue that is an aberration in the long course of our Korean history. This is significant because, with all the civil society movements that brought about change in the 20th century, such as India’s campaign for national independence, breaking the colonial yoke of Great Britain, or the efforts to end apartheid in South Africa, or the civil rights movement in the United States, it was the civil rights issue that captured the imagination of the international global audience.

The civil rights issue of the 21st century is the reunification of the Korean peninsula. It will bring to an end the terrible chapter of colonialism that the Korean people had to endure during the first half of the 20th century.  It will close the book on the subsequent tragic episode of a Korea divided because of Cold War realities. And it will bring to the fore, among both the Korean people and the global community as a whole, the Korean Dream which encapsulates our ancient founding ideals that have defined us as a people and shaped our sense of national purpose to create an ideal nation whose goal is to serve all of humanity.

In 2015 we launched the One K Concert series here in Seoul with many top K-Pop artists. It turned out to be a spectacular success. At that time, one of Korea’s famous composers wrote a reunification theme song that we played widely. It created an entire genre of Korean popular music on the theme of reunification. I was told that the ringtone of the Ministry of Unification in Korea actually uses that song. Let’s give them a round of applause.

Now, we have created a Korean Dream song for the global audience as we reach out beyond Korea. We are planning to hold a major concert, gathering top artists from all around the world, as well as the top artists of Korea, for a mega rally in 2019 celebrating the vision of the Korean Dream to mark the 100th anniversary of the March 1 (Sam Il) Independence movement.

When I was a young boy growing up in Korea, I was inspired by stories of how Mahatma Gandhi transformed his country, India, and eventually realized its dream of independence, even though I am not an Indian. I also admired the work of Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. in his fight for civil rights, although, at that time, I was not an American. I also empathized with the plight and admired the fight of Nelson Mandela to end apartheid in South Africa, even though I am not a South African. In the same way, in this 21st century, we will make the Korean Dream the inspiration not only for Koreans, but also for a new generation of aspirational young people who look to the precedents of peace set by their predecessors. Today gathered in this room, we have such men and women, willing to dream big dreams, and willing to take on the big fight, the fight to bring an end to the tragedy of the Korean peninsula and allow the Korean people to fulfill their national destiny and dream at last by creating one, unified nation.

There are many international participants gathered here today. To you I say this. As I explained, although I was not an American, I admired Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.; although I am not a South African, I admire Nelson Mandela; although I am not an Indian, I admire Mahatma Gandhi. So for the 21st century, wherever we may be from, let us stand together with Koreans and share the dream of one Korea.

Thank you very much.

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