"A Life Dedicated to Peace and Unification – Sun Myung Moon" on Korean TV

Dr. Rev. Sun Myung Moon met with Kim Il Sung in North Korea in an unprecedented meeting on Dec. 6, 1991.

On the one year anniversary of the passing of the Rev. Dr. Sun Myung Moon, MBC, Korea’s second- largest cable TV network, broadcast a one-hour documentary on the life-long legacy of Dr. Moon’s peace-building efforts.

Titled A Life Dedicated to Peace and Unification – Sun Myung Moon, the documentary aired on August 22, 2013 begins with the story of Dr. Moon’s extraordinary visit with North Korea’s “Dear Leader”, Kim Il Sung, on Dec. 6, 1991. The film features rarely seen footage and insider interviews that illuminate Dr. Moon’s unique efforts not only to help the Western democracies win the Cold War, but also to win the ensuing peace by offering friendship and economic help to leaders of communist regimes. (A version of the documentary with English narration is expected to be produced by the Tongil website in the near future.)

Dr. Moon and his wife, Dr. Hak Ja Han Moon, met with Mikhail Gorbachev in 1990 at the Kremlin.

For the first time, we learn of the complicated political machinations attending Dr. Bo Hi Pak’s 1994 trip to Pyongyang to offer condolences on the occasion of the passing of Kim Il Sung. Following his historic trip to the North with a delegation of VIP officials he was punished by the Korean government and criticized widely in media.

Dr. Moon’s own visit to Pyongyang in December 1991 was a dramatic venture into the stronghold of a regime that had nearly killed him in 1948 and which had launched several assassination attempts against him during the 70’s and 80’s. The film shows Dr. Moon speaking at a meeting of top North Korean officials and pointing out errors in the North Korean state ideology.

According to Bo Hi Pak’s narration of this section of the film, Dr. Moon argued that “Juche ideology is an incorrect ideology. It is an inadequate ideology. However, according to Dr. Pak, even though Dr. Moon had spoken bluntly, criticizing Juche ideology, Kim Il Sung welcomed him warmly.

The MBC documentary reports that Dr. Moon began his efforts to expose the ideological errors and gross injustices of communist regimes when he was living in Japan in the mid-1960’s, at a time when

communist students were battling Japanese police in dozens of cities. At that time, and to promote peaceful relations, Dr. Moon initiated a program to bring North Korean students and scholars living in Japan to Korea for trust-building visits. In 1974 he brought many of these same student groups to the United States. His message and his methods won many over. The film states: “When Rev. Moon met them in Japan, he gave them lectures on topics such as ‘Why Democracy is a Superior Ideology,’ ‘What is the problem with Communism?’ and other related topics, encouraging them to be awakened to the dangers of totalitarianism.

Newspapers around the world ran articles reporting the sudden passing of Dr. Moon on Sept. 3, 2012.

The film documents that Rev. Moon was also politically astute. He predicted Reagan’s victory against Carter in the 1980 election, and his newspaper, The Newsworld was the only American paper that ran the headline “Reagan Landslide” on the eve of the election. In 1985, he predicted the downfall of the Soviet Union, and in late 1989 the Berlin Wall came down.

Yet, though he was undeniably an anti-communist, he was also the first to lead the fight to “win the peace” too. He first met with Mikhail Gorbachev and his cabinet in 1990 and then with Kim Il Sung late in 1991. In both visits he offered economic joint ventures.

MBC gives substantial information on the peace-building initiatives of the Professors World Peace Academy, the Assembly of World Religions, the Women’s Federation for World Peace and the Universal Peace Federation, which sponsors the interfaith Middle East Peace Initiative.

Dr. Bo Hi Pak, president of The Korea Cultural Foundation, was interviewed in the documentary and recounted Dr. Moon’s life work.

A year after Dr. Moon’s passing, MBC characterizes Dr. Moon’s place in history this way:

“Measured against the efforts of other private citizens in the history of the world the influence of Rev. Moon’s work is remarkable. Now Rev. Moon has departed from us. How will people remember him?”

The narrator concludes: “From his youth Rev. Sun Myung Moon walked the path of a pioneer tearing down the walls of division for the sake of reconciliation and unity. Whether recognized or not, his private engagement with North Korea has contributed to the process of reuniting the Korean peninsula.”

This documentary offers insights into the under-appreciated accomplishments of this remarkable man who dedicated his life to peace, grounded in a spiritual vision that includes the whole human family.