“We stand at a watershed moment. There is a confluence of issues and circumstances that are moving the world and this peninsula in the direction of peaceful unification. All of you here who are gathered here who are owners of the Korean Dream, we seek to allow the Korean people to build their ideal nation that can be the inspiration for the global community. We live at that moment.”
– Dr. Hyun Jin Preston Moon

August 15, 2025, marks the 80th anniversary of Korea’s liberation from colonial rule at the end of World War II. However, Korea is not free.

To the north, 25 million Koreans live without basic human rights under an oppressive regime that threatens regional and global security.

In the South, hyper-partisan divides have left the republic without a head of state while the economy plunges and the nation faces a negative population crisis of its own making as a super-aged society coupled with an average of less than one child born per household.

Yet, Dr. Hyun Jin Moon remains optimistic. For decades, he has called for the Korean people to own the Korean Dream, a vision for a unified Korea rooted in the ancient ethos of Hongik Ingan, what Dr. Moon calls their “providential destiny” to live for the benefit of all humanity.

Based on this vision, Dr. Moon has been instrumental in spearheading the largest civil society coalition for Korean reunification, Action for Korea United (AKU).

He believes now is the time for the Korean Dream to become a reality.

In the current climate of the peninsula, the call rings true.

In South Korea there is an urgency to put aside superficial political, regional, clan differences, to dream together, rise up as a people and nation based on their shared heritage and their spiritual calling to bring hope and new insights for this age in a way that will benefit all humanity.  They would fulfill their mandate to be, in the words of Indian Nobel Lauriat, Rabindranath Tagore, “lamp bearers” to the world.  The Korean Dream goes beyond the peninsula. It has global resonance as a dream to live as a free people who can bring peace and prosperity to the homeland, the region, and the world.

However, the Korean Dream requires the participation of every Korean; people who can own the vision and are willing to put their lives on the line to pursue this noble aspiration, to push back on the dark clouds of the current challenges to assert, “We will make a new and better way.”

Mansei demonstration on March 1, 1919 (Author: 한국사진사연구소 Source : 공유마당)

It is something the Korean ancestors attempted to do over a hundred years ago. In many painful but instructive ways, Korea has been prepared for this moment.

Hongik Ingan is engrained in their ethos, etched in the veins of their history, and preserved in their family traditions.

An adage repeated in the corner Taekwondo dojangs, the neighborhood classrooms, churches and households are phrases like “필승! (Pilsung!)” roughly translated as “We will absolutely bring victory”; “하면된다! (Hamyeun dwenda!) ”roughly translated as “Just do it! You can find a way”; and “불굴의 정신 (bulgul eh chongshin)” translated as “Indomitable Spirit.” The Koreans know how to dream and the people know how to fight for that dream. We saw it throughout their history, especially during the Korean Independence Movement.

In the aftermath of World War I, despite the overwhelming lack of support from the international community and severe oppression at the hands of their colonizers, Koreans found a way to launch the first, non-violent, people-powered mass movement for independence in the world.

The 33 signers of the Korean Declaration of independence were resigned to be the martyrs of the nation. Leading the charge on March 1, 1919, to assert their God-given right to independence:

 “Having back of us 5,000 years of history and 20,000,000 of a united loyal people, we take this step to ensure to our children, for all time to come, personal liberty in accord with the awakening consciousness of this new era. This is the clear leading of God, the moving principle of the present age, the whole human race’s just claim.”

The Declaration launched a nationwide chain of protests that would be remembered as the “Mansei Movement.” Around 2 million Koreans, ten percent of the estimated population of Korea — men, women, girls, boys, from all classes and religions — participated in the non-violent protests. Koreans from the diaspora, especially in the United States, also joined to support from abroad and played a major role in fueling and even funding the independence efforts. TheKoreans put their lives on the line to declare their right to self-determination.

It was a collective cry of the Korean people. They envisioned a new Korea, a model nation rooted in universal principles that married the best of the West and East, the Western style democracy rooted in self-governance of a moral people paired with the rich heritage of Korea built on the Hongik Ingan spirit and the Korean traditional extended family and community foundation. Sparked by the promise for self-determination for all nations presented in U.S. President Woodrow Wilson’s infamous Fourteen Points, echoing the promise forged in words centuries ago in similar circumstances in 1776, “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights…” This promise found resonance in the spiritual heritage and tradition of the Korean people.

Their ethos of Hongik Ingan urged them to rise up to assert a truth whose time has come. Their Declaration didn’t seek reparation from their colonizers but reconciliation and cooperation for mutual prosperity. The Korean people were resolved to live out their destiny and create a noble nation that fulfilled the Korean people’s mandate from heaven to become a people who would benefit all humanity.

The March 1, 1919 Mansei Movement (Samil Movement) was in a way a march to freedom, not just for the Koreans, but for all the people of the world. 

The reprimand that followed was harsh and the fight for independence wore on for nearly three more decades. Many perished with the cry of “Mansei” and a whisper of hope for freedom.

Finally, in 1945, Korea was liberated from Japan. However, as they emerged liberated on the heels of WWII, they met an even larger global conflict that had started. The peninsula was engulfed into the Cold War and torn apart between the larger global powers, without being able to create a new nation of Korea. Instead two Koreas formed and in 1950, North Korea attacked South Korea and a civil war ensued.

Families were torn apart, left separated for decades. Many have died without reconnecting with their lost loved ones. The armistice has frozen the conflict along the 38^th parallel, an open wound left bare for the world to witness.

From the tears and ashes of the Korean War, the Korean people in the Republic of Korea created the Miracle on the Han.

The Korean people can even take devastation and suffering and make it a source of strength. They are positioned to intimately understand the struggle of colonization, independence, totalitarianism, and materialism. And their experience drives them to seek something better.

The Korean Dream casts a framework for a nation that builds on the jewel of the Korean civilization: The Korean extended family. The extended Korean family has a specific honor and responsibility granted with their position in the family from the grandfather on father’s side, to the sister of the child of the great-grandchild on the mother’s side. This has cultivated within the Korean people a profound understanding of the unique and precious value of every life.

Korean Dreamers are rising in the South, amongst the diaspora, and even from the North Koreans.

The slow trickle of Koreans escaping from North Korea are offered freedom of conscience, movement and thought and a chance to have hope, love, life and dignity to live a meaningful life. Their plight and their flight bring to light a self-evident truth: the true source of inalienable rights and freedoms, is God, the Creator, and His sovereignty supersedes all human institutions.

The human soul cannot be held back once it comes in touch with this truth and captures a glimpse of what is possible: true freedom unbound from any human or human institution and that the human spirit will fight to live free, to flourish under the sovereignty of God.

This is a deliverance moment of providential proportions.

The fate of the Korean people, rests in their hands, in their choices: the choice to walk free from division, despotism, or even the unfettered rush for profit at the expense of our humanity and to dream together and build a promise land where all can live free.

Dr. Moon is daring Koreans to dream again, to call “Mansei,” for the Korean Dream and to leave behind the vestiges of aCold War era already closed, to have a vision to pull the people of the South out of the hyper-partisan divide to work together towards a new nation for all its people, and to dream big, dream together of a land of freedom, prosperity, andfulfill the enduring promise to live together as one family and benefit all humanity.

Won’t you come along?

When confronting the challenges that impact our everyday lives, from global issues of peace and development, to local work of community development and social cohesion, all too often the approach is framed in an “us” vs “them” framework.

Yet, it is this very mentality where the problem lies. The idea is grounded in the perspective that we don’t belong to one another, and the idea that once “they,” whether it is racial, political, national, religious or ideological group, are vanquished, the problem will be resolved.

This perspective keeps us hopeful but looking elsewhere. Anywhere but at ourselves, anywhere but here.

It is the endemic hope that something else will rescue us and conquer “them”. That public opinion will save us. Public pressure, organized boycotts, newspaper articles, condemnation from top political or celebrity figures, op-ed articles, open letters, petitions and more will get us “there”.

But the problem is that none of this can resolve the challenges we face, because the problem is never, ever just with “them” because them is us. The problem will not be fixed out there, when “they” have been snuffed out – the problem is a shared problem, and its resolution is a shared task.

Faith leaders, politicians from conservative and liberal parties, civil society activists, and international scholars convened in Seoul in late September 2014 to discuss a “vision for a unified Korea.”

This kind of leadership perspective pushes us to take responsibility, make a positive impact and to share in the work of peacebuilding. It is this perspective of interwoven destinies that has undergirded the models of national transformation that the Global Peace Foundation and its partners are developing.

Through years of engagement with community leaders around the world, GPF has developed a process of building a consensus around shared values and formulating practical plans of action.

The process involves asking questions like:

1. What is the big picture? Ideally, how would we approach this situation/sector/problem in an inclusive, solution-oriented way with results for the greater good?
2. What is my specific role in relation to making #1 happen? What role can I play in bringing this about?
3. What are the things that must be done in order to make #2 happen so that it can contribute to #1?
4. How might I work with others in order to bring about the best results? How can I work with others to create mutually beneficially, synergistic partnerships that deliver substantial, practical results?
5. How can I achieve a standard of excellence worth sharing for others to learn from? – this is the leadership mentality that goes even beyond ownership.

These questions focus in on personal responsibilities but in a context that works towards the greater (collective) good, with the assumption that this will further growth and create opportunities for each individual in a valuable way. Ultimately we want to work for the good of the individual and the collective by aligning the individual to the collective good but allowing for personal will, duty and responsibility to be the way through which they achieve this good.

Rise Nepal volunteer delivering aid to remote villages in need.

This process can be used as a training exercise to discuss and dissect situations, problems and to find simpler, practical solutions.

It is a framework that focuses in on what I can do, not what others need to do. It is an approach that is meant to empower people to, in a paraphrase of the famous Gandhi quote, become the change he or she might wish to see in the world.

As a framework, it can be used on any solution, past or present. Case studies have been used as examples of how to use the framework in situations in order to develop the mindset of the moral, innovative leader we need so desperately in our world today.

Once we realize this, we can begin to work – as partners, allies, brothers and sisters – to solve the world’s most intractable problems.

The following speech was delivered at the Global Peace Leadership Conference in Kampala, Uganda under the theme, “Moral and Innovative Leadership: New Models for Peace and Development,” held at the Munyonyo Resort on August 1-2, 2018.

Your Excellencies, Distinguished guests, Ladies and Gentleman:

It is my honor to address this Global Peace Leadership Conference on the timely theme of “Moral and Innovative Leadership: New Models for Sustainable Peace and Development.” I want to sincerely thank His Excellency President Museveni for his leadership in hosting this convening, and guiding the important initiatives that will follow from it.

We greatly appreciate the National Organizing Committee with the Government of Uganda, along with co-conveners who worked tirelessly with Global Peace Foundation to make this all possible. Please recognize the Interreligious Council of Uganda and East Africa, the Intergovernmental Authority on Development, the Private Sector Foundation Uganda, and other partners.  Special thanks are also due to former President Amani Karume of Zanzibar, Chairman of the GPF Africa Leadership Mission, for his wise guidance.

Finally, I want to especially thank the Minister of Public Service, Hon. Muruli Mukasa, who chaired the National Organizing Committee, the Deputy Speaker of Parliament Jacob Oulanyah, and our dedicated GPF Uganda Chapter leader, Milton Kambula.

Africa is a continent vibrant with possibilities. There is vast potential in your great resources, a noble, spiritual and cultural heritage, and a large youth population yearning for a future of peace and prosperity. How can their hopes, and the enormous promise of this continent, be fulfilled?

Many serious obstacles must be overcome to create truly just, equitable and flourishing societies. If these obstacles are not addressed in a comprehensive way, we are all too well aware that many of those young people, their hopes frustrated, could swell the ranks of the violent extremists and the criminal gangs that are undermining stability and prosperity in so many African countries.

You are all too familiar with this here in Uganda and throughout East Africa, where religious and ethnic conflicts and extremism spread across borders and threaten peace throughout the region.

To unlock the potential of the African continent, its people, its families and its youth, and to address the challenges that at times appear insurmountable, calls for a comprehensive vision and broad, long-term strategy. The core mission of the Global Peace Foundation is to advance such a vision and to engage multi-sectoral alliances in developing the strategies and practical grassroots applications that give it substance. We can see this purpose reflected in the great diversity of backgrounds represented in the participants here. You represent government and politics, business and education, and faith and community leaders.

To tackle the obstacles before us that undermine peace and development we need, at every level – from the highest echelons of government to the smallest village community – leadership that is both moral and innovative.

Moral leadership is guided by fundamental universal principles and values that are found at the heart of every great faith and wisdom tradition. At its core, moral leadership acknowledges that every human being is “endowed by our Creator” with eternal value, dignity, rights and responsibilities.

This principle is the foundation of good governance, which is key to establishing peace and prosperity. A moral leader lives for the benefit of his people, all his people – not just one class, one faith, or one interest group. This may seem quite idealistic but it is practical politics as well. The more people in a nation are educated and empowered to be creative, responsible, and productive citizen owners, the more prosperous that nation will become. The moral leader aspires to unleash the potential of all citizens to the greater benefit of the whole.

Within a moral framework of principles and values, the leader can then address practical problems in creative and innovative ways. All over the world societies are facing unprecedented challenges, and the East Africa region is no exception. Old ways of thinking are no longer adequate. Our time requires fresh, creative ideas, and thinking outside of the box. New technologies and in-depth analytics on many issues can be tapped to reveal new possibilities in this effort. Multi-nationals in the digital information field can increase their level of partnership with countries in the emerging world in this area.

It is in the interest of cultivating moral, innovative leaders to take on these challenges that the Global Peace Foundation has worked with educators and officials across East Africa to establish the Character and Creativity Initiative in schools and launch Entrepreneurship Leap Hubs in Kenya, Uganda and other parts of the region.

In educating youth in both character and creativity, we can equip them with a moral and innovative mindset, better preparing them to be good citizens and good neighbors. The goal is also to better prepare young people for life after school in the present environment. Recognizing that not enough traditional jobs may be created for all the booming youth population, character and creativity programs develop initiative and flexibility of thought with an emphasis on personal responsibility and the creation of new opportunities.

Offering the young hope and opportunities in a time of uncertain future is also one of the keys for addressing the pressing problem of identity-based conflict, driven by the violent extremism of religious and ethnic hatred. On this issue more than nearly any other, we need more than policies and programs. We need an overarching vision, a vision based on our common humanity, a vision that inspires meaning and purpose that can transcend the divisive ideologies of the extremists.

Such a vision emerges from the principle that we human beings are all created by God and endowed with equal value and dignity. We are all, essentially, “One Family under God.” This is our core identity, more fundamental than any worldview built on narrow identities that set one group of people against others.

This vision is being translated into practice and applied at the grassroots level by GPF with our many African partners even as we speak. In the wake of Kenya’s 2007-2008 post-election violence, GPF was at the forefront of conflict resolution efforts at both the government and local levels. At the 2010 Global Peace Convention, held in Nairobi, President Kibaki and Prime Minister Raila Odinga participated together in a tangible demonstration that even bitter rivals can resolve differences for the greater good of the nation. Meanwhile in hot spots like the Rift Valley town of Eldoret, GPF gave support to community groups formed to prevent future violence.

In Nigeria’s Kaduna State which stands between the predominantly Muslim and predominantly Christian areas of the country, our GPF team there developed the One Family under God Peacebuilding Campaign that engages local faith and community leaders, working together to immunize their villages against sectarian violence. Two of the most active leaders of that program are here with us today. Let’s recognize Rev. John Hayab and Sheikh Maraya for their noble efforts.

GPF is also highly committed to its ongoing collaboration with Interreligious Councils in East Africa, here in Uganda as well as in Tanzania, Kenya and throughout the region. By marshalling the power of faith communities in collaborative action to solve problems and counter the appeal of extremist groups like Al Shabbab, these Interreligious Councils can provide essential leadership throughout the region that also provides a model of global significance.

All these initiatives are being driven by Africans themselves. They are examples of African people stepping forward to solve local and regional problems. President Museveni has called for an African-led Renaissance, for Africans to take up responsibility for Africa’s future. I fully support this approach. Through it you can expect to see the emergence of more and more effective moral and innovative leaders in every sector and at every level of society, from the village to the Government House.

For my home country of Korea, I have articulated a vision, the Korean Dream, and a movement to re-unify the divided Korean people. It is a Korean-led movement where Koreans take up responsibility for their own destiny. Based on my own experience, I know that positive change for Africa must be driven by African leadership.

The Korean Dream is not primarily about politics or process. It draws on the deep values that underlie Korea’s culture and have guided its history. To build a new future free of division and conflict, we must learn from our past. At the heart of these values is the Korean ideal of Hongik Ingan or living for the greater benefit of all mankind. It is a fitting motto for moral leadership and good governance. I believe that an African-led Renaissance must likewise draw upon the wisdom, heritage, and traditional values of the African village and extended families and apply them in creative ways to building a bright future.

In fact, I see many parallels between Korea and Uganda, as well as other African countries. We both experienced colonial rule in the 20^th century and even after independence were caught up in the geopolitics of the Cold War, squeezed by great powers and their ideologies. Korea, after the Korean war was at a similar level of economic development as many African countries today. It has shown a way forward that offers important lessons for the countries of the emerging world as a nation that was both poor and a colony not so long ago. This is important in a world in which the economic leadership of Western nations can no longer be taken for granted.

Furthermore, the dominant values of the secular West often present a direct challenge to the traditional, time-tested values of Africa and Korea, particularly in fomenting forms of irresponsible individualism at the expense of the family and community. Families are the foundations of a stable and prosperous society. They shape the character and outlook of future generations of citizens. It is hard to imagine a successful future for any society in which individual whims are allowed to dominate. Resisting this tide by drawing on our traditions is another significant area where Africa and Korea can cooperate.

March 1 next year is the centenary of the Korean Independence movement against Japanese colonial rule. It was launched in 1919 with peaceful mass demonstrations where the Korean Declaration of Independence was proclaimed. The centenary will be a moment for rededication to the ideals and aspirations of those independence champions, and to galvanize all Korean people in common cause toward a shared future that realizes the historic aspiration for a unified Korea that benefits all its citizens and indeed the entire world.

The Global Peace Convention will be held in Seoul next March focused on achieving the original goals of the Independence movement and promoting the One Korea Global campaign. I invite you all to join us in Seoul next year and to support this global campaign. With all we share in common, I believe such mutual support will provide inspiration for an African-led movement of renewal.

To close, I’d like to share with you a thought – relevant then as it is now at this inflection point in history. It was in the midst of the American Civil War, that President Abraham Lincoln declared “The dogmas of the quiet past are inadequate to the stormy present. The occasion is piled high with difficulty, and we must rise with the occasion. As our case is new, so we must think anew and act anew. We must disenthrall ourselves, and then we shall save our country.”

And so, this is true in our own time, in our own nations and in our global community – we need a new paradigm and a new, normative framework for peace and development to bring with it peace and development opportunities for our families, communities, nation and world. I believe that now is the time for the framework of One Family Under God, and that Uganda and other African nations can be the leaders that demonstrate the efficacy of such a vision and approach.

It is my hope that our discussions during this Global Peace Leadership Conference have been stimulating good ideas, and will forge new partnerships, that yield coordinated plans of action for ongoing positive impact. Our time together will conclude with the signing of the Kampala Peace Declaration that will lay out proposals for action to implement the action agenda agreed to here. The responsibility then lies with each of you to make it happen. I am confident that you, as proud Africans and moral and innovative leaders will take up the challenge to launch a transformation – an African renaissance – that will bring hope and prosperity to future generations.

Thank you and may God bless each of you and your precious families.