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The historic meeting between sitting U.S. president, Donald Trump and North Korean leader, Kim Jong Un, has run into complications. A few days after the announcement that the meeting would take place on June 12 in Singapore, a North Korean official threatened to withdraw from the planned summit.

Whether or not the Trump-Kim meeting takes place in June or later, one thing is clear: recent events have stirred a longing for peace and reunification.

The Arch of Reunification on the Reunification highway in North Korea. Photo Credit: Kok Leng Yeo, Wikicommons

When Kim Jong Un and Moon Jae In, respective leaders of North and South Korea, met at the Inter-Korea Summit on April 27, they brought the Korean War to an end. At the time, veterans from both sides expressed their hopes for peace. An article in the South China Morning Post captures their shared desire.

Cho Chan-ho, a former infantryman for South Korea, declared his hope to reunite with his “northern brothers”:

“I crossed over the 38th parallel [dividing North and South] five times during the war. If the day comes when we from the South can come and go all the way to the Tumen and Yalu rivers [in the north], and our northern brothers can come to Busan and even Jeju Island, that would be a dream come true. I cannot hope for more.”

Although repeatedly disappointed by failed attempts for peace during previous summits, many veterans from the South maintain a firm optimism for unification. “We all greatly desire unification,” said South Korean veteran Park Myung-ho, “The South and North should stop distrusting and bickering with one another. It’s outdated now to think North Korea can only be our enemy. We must move on from this idea and I hope the 70 million [of the two Koreas] come together as one.”

Li Jianwan, a veteran telegraph operator of the Chinese People’s Volunteer Army, expressed similar sentiments. After the landmark summit in April, Li expressed her expectations for the North and South Korean leaders after the landmark summit in April. Li remarked, “As a … war veteran, I would like to tell Kim Jong-un: I really hope you can lead your people along a prosperous way from now on.”

High-level meetings aside, as Dr. Hyun Jin P. Moon quoted Genghis Khan in the opening chapter of his book, “Korean Dream: A Vision for a Unified Korea”

“If one person has a dream, it is just a dream, but if all people have that dream, it becomes a reality.”

These veterans voice a dream that we all hold dear; the dream of lasting peace and shared prosperity. It is perhaps through this long process of reunification and reconciliation on the Korean peninsula that we may see that dream realized towards the benefit of all humanity.

If every person can own this dream, unification will become a reality.

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“The dream of America’s Founding Fathers not only gave birth to a great nation, unique in world history to that point. It also left substantial footprints throughout the world. It set out the ideal of universal human rights, freedoms, and responsibilities and made substantial sacrifices in pursuit of realizing that ideal. If America no longer takes the lead in this endeavor, who else will?”
-Dr, Hyun Jin Moon, Korean Dream: A Vision for a Unified Korea

A lone U.S. Army bugler plays Taps at the conclusion of the First Annual Remembrance Ceremony in Dedication to Fallen Military Medical Personnel at Arlington National Cemetery. (DoD photo by Mass Communication Specialist 1st Class Chad J. McNeeley/Released)

Nineteen steel statues face an invisible winter wind whipping their ponchos against their weapons and packs. They trek through fields of juniper bushes and granite slabs meant to emulate rice paddies. In the background what seems to be the snow-capped mountains, are actually 2400 faces of GI and support troops.

Etched on black granite at the entrance of the memorial are the words of President Harry S. Truman, “Our Debt to the heroic men and valiant women in the service of our country can never be repaid, they have earned our undying gratitude. America will never forget their sacrifices.”

It was a dark time for Korea as its people were torn by the ideological hegemonies of the Cold War. The United Nations forces made their first international intervention with the support of 22 nations including, 5.8 million Americans, of which more than 36,000 never came home.

It was the middle of winter when these men and women, driven only by the conviction that freedom was a cause worth dying for, stepped onto foreign soil to fight for the freedoms of brethren they’d never met.

Every year the number of Korean War veterans who make their way to the memorial dwindle, but their children and grandchildren, and the children and grandchildren of people who own a debt of gratitude to the faces etched in the black granite continue to visit.

Next to the memorial pool of the Korean War Memorial are four words, “Freedom is not free.” These words express the resolve that has motivated the men and women of the armed forces throughout U.S. History, who have fought to bring to life the principles articulated in the Declaration of Independence.

Korean War Memorial in Washington, D.C.

America’s sacrifice on far shores of lands and people unknown is memorialized, not only with the 19 statues and 2,400 faces at the Korean War Memorial, but in the countless monuments in Washington D.C, and the white tombstones that line the veterans cemeteries across the country.

They are testaments to the United States’ commitment, not only in words but in the blood and sweat of its best and brightest, to the promise of its founding documents, that “all men are created equal and endowed by our creator with certain inalienable rights.”

Each year, on Memorial Day, people across the United States visit these memorials to honor the lives of these men and women and the legacy they gave their lives for, a vision that all people can live in dignity as part of One Family Under God.

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This week the United States is remembering members of its armed forces that  paid the ultimate price. The UN also commemorates its Peacekeeping forces’ commitment “to save succeeding generations from the scourge of war.”

Korean War Memorial in Seoul, Korea. Taking time to remember and honor all those who gave their lives in service.

These brave men and women gave their lives not only for their country, but for the welfare and peace of the global community. Their service for the greater good of humanity sets an example for us.  And it gives us hope for a world that can live in peace and prosperity.

Personally, were it not for the United States’ forces and the other 20 nations of the United Nations  that intervened in the Korean War, I would not be here today. The UN Forces pushed back the invading army and in the process liberated a North Korean prison camp where my father was prisoner. If they had come even a day later, he would have been executed.  I own a debt of gratitude to those soldiers who sacrificed their lives on unknown shores.

To those who have given their lives for country and humanity and to their families, thank you.

They have laid down milestones towards a world without war. A world of peace where humanity will recognize that it is one family.

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