Dr. Hyun Jin P. Moon’s vision-driven approach to the peaceful unification of the Korean peninsula has inspired a cross-sectoral, global movement to advance human rights, economic growth, and a model of national transformation. The newly inaugurated Alliance for Korea United (AKU) Washington has joined the growing number of coalitions inspired by Dr. Moon. The alliance is comprised of Korean and Korean diaspora organizations and individuals advancing the cause for a united Korea that fulfills the historic ideals and aspirations of the Korean people.

AKU partners closely with the Global Peace Foundation as a sponsor and partner for international forums and conferences that advance a comprehensive approach to Korean reunification. Through forums, education programs, policy initiatives, and community engagement projects, AKU Washington and GPF work to build consensus and momentum in support of a unified Korea, to strengthen the long-standing partnership between ROK and USA, and to deepen the bonds of friendship connecting the Korean and American peoples.

Most recently, AKU-Washington organized a special commemoration for the newly established “North Korean Defectors’ Day” on July 14, 2024. More than 100 delegates were joined by ten North Korean defectors in Washington D.C. to kick off a fundraising campaign to build a memorial facility for North Korean residents. Organizers said that the memorial would be a space for remembrance, prayer, and meditation… a record of the North Korean regime’s atrocities and an opportunity for education for the next generation.

One North Korean defector shared his experience visiting the Holocaust Museum in the U.S. capitol, comparing it with the horror he experienced in North Korea. He said that the establishment of a memorial space would serve as an opportunity to record the North Korean regime’s anti-human rights atrocities and educate the next generation. The cost of land purchase and construction is expected to be 1 million dollars (1.38 billion won).

An ambassador of the U.S. State Department special envoy for North Korean human rights attended the event. She said that the project would create an opportunity to commemorate the North Korean people and publicize the reality of the peninsula as an important part of the process of responsibility, truth, and reconciliation. She encouraged the Korean diaspora and North Korean defector community to work together. She fortified the U.S. government’s support for the North Korean defector community and the importance of shedding light on the extreme human rights violations and abuses of the Kim Jong-un regime.

A respected researcher at the Woodrow Wilson Center also presented at the forum, criticizing the claims by the North Korean regime that the country’s chronic famine was due to bad weather, climate change, and international sanctions against North Korea. He called out the regime’s frivolous spending of billions of dollars on nuclear and ballistic missile programs and imports of more than 600 million dollars in luxury goods. The researcher pointed out that this is due to a deliberate mass starvation policy that does not use the 200-400 million dollars needed to resolve the annual food shortage of 1.36 million tons.

Speakers praised the establishment of the first North Korean Defectors’ Day, calling it a “fatal blow” to the Kim regime. A former high-ranking official of the North Korean Workers’ Party who attended the event said that the number of North Korean residents who view South Korea as an object of envy is increasing, making it more difficult for the Kim regime to maintain its long-term system. He elaborated saying that Kim Jong-un would suffer a fatal blow, and hope would arise for the people who yearn for freedom.

The president of AKU Washington called the newly established day far greater than a simple memorial day saying that it would send a valuable message and be described as a historic event for future generations.

The original post appears on Global Peace Foundation. Global Peace Foundation is an international non-sectarian, non-partisan, nonprofit organization, which promotes an innovative, values-based approach to peacebuilding, guided by the vision of One Family under God. GPF engages and organizes a global network of public and private-sector partners who develop community, national, and regional peacebuilding models as the foundation for ethical and cohesive societies. Dr. Hyun Jin Preston Moon is the founder and chairman of the Global Peace Foundation.

On October 2, 2023, the International Forum on One Korea took place in Seoul, South Korea, followed by the Korea United Festa at Yeouido Park on October 3, marking Korea’s Foundation Day. This pivotal event brought together global leaders, scholars, and advocates to discuss the vision of a unified Korea and the aspirations driving the Korean Dream.

Keynote speaker Dr. Hyun Jin P. Moon discussed the Korean Dream, a vision rooted in 5,000 years of Korean history, and emphasized the critical moment for Korean reunification based on the ideal of Hongik Ingan, meaning a country that will benefit all humankind.

Watch highlights from the October 2-3, 2023 events below:

Great social transformation requires the active engagement of a broad public united in pursuit of a common cause. That cause should be unification and is not the work of governments alone. Koreans from the North, South, as well as the diaspora, must engage with one another on many different levels. Civic organizations and NGOs are the perfect means for such engagement.

 

Dr. Hyun Jin Preston Moon
International Forum on One Korea
December 12, 2018

In order for reunification and reconciliation to successfully occur, Koreans from the North, South, as well as diaspora, will need to engage with one another on many different levels. This understanding is what drives the work already being undertaken by Action for Korea United (AKU), a coalition of over 1,000 civil society organizations working to develop grassroots efforts to apply the vision and principles of Hongik Ingan, to “bring broad benefit to all humanity.”

Dr. Hyun Jin P. Moon was instrumental in the founding of AKU, changing the global conversation from the process itself to a vision-focused approach in his award-winning book Korean Dream, serving as a roadmap for the conglomerate of organizations under AKU.

Global Peace Leadership Conference in Mongolia 2011

All of this began in 2011, with a dream of what was possible at a Global Peace Leadership Conference held in Mongolia. At that time, there was waning interest and even apathy on the topic of reunification by the Korean people in general. Nevertheless, this conference lay the groundwork for what would become AKU, launched in 2012, followed by the first Unification concert.

In 2013 and 2014, there were a series of forums and conferences addressing the social and economic reforms needed to facilitate reunification by convening national and international academics, policy experts, public officials and civil society leaders in significant locations around the world. This then led to a Unification and Civil Society Forum and the beginnings of the One K Campaign in 2015, which leveraged the power of the immensely popular K-pop stars and social media to engage youth on the issue of reunification.

This work culminated in the first-ever One K Concert held at the World Cup Stadium in Seoul. In 2016, we saw the first AKU Leaders Assembly. That was also the year that the One K Campaign went global with a One K Global Concert held in the Philippines, taking the Korean Dream to the Korean Diaspora and the world.

Community driven fundraisers for programs supporting North Korean children.

Alongside all these high-level forums, national and international conferences and programs, AKU also focused on grassroots, community-driven programs that drew on the budding popular interest in reunification and translated it into cultural arts programs. These programs worked to promote awareness and study of the vision, principles and values of the Korean Dream. A few of these include: the Unification Pledge Campaign; sharing circles and tournaments to support resettlement and develop rapport with North Korean refugees; local study circles for Koreans of all ages to study their past and present and develop creative ways to support the vision of a unified Korea; and economic-capacity building programs that connect North Korean defectors with South Korean entrepreneurs. Through local and overseas volunteer opportunities, Koreans are putting into practice the ethic of Hongik Ingan, “to live for the benefit of all humanity.”

Other cultural programs that first began with the Unification Song Campaign in 2015 have since developed into many different artistic and cultural expressions of the ideals of the Korean Dream. These include arts festivals, film screenings, a dynamic public art project that integrates social media and contemporary art in honor of the March 1 centenary, and, notably, a Korean Dream documentary, currently in production by the top Korean documentary director, Lee Chang-soo, and award-winning London-based documentary filmmaker, Stu McCardle.

K-pop stars gathered for a Korean unification song campaign in 2015

Through all of this we, are changing the attitude of speculation on the feasibility and desirability of unification into substantial actions, plans and projects that will bring this vision into reality.

Changing the Conversation

To do all this, we have to move the Korea conversation to a whole new level. Koreans in the South, in the diaspora, and ultimately in the North, should come to understand this vision of a shared Korean identity and its foundations, and mobilize to advance it. What we do now will determine the course of global history, and now is the time to realize the hopes of the 1919 Korean Independence movement; to finish the work that they began.