Epoch-Making Inter-Korean Ties and Peace - A Path to Korean Reunification

I am a co-regional president of heavenly Korea; I head subregion two of FFWPU. Our district embraces Gangwon Province and Gyeonggi Province, where the DMZ crosses the waist of the Korean Peninsula, connecting the east to the west. The DMZ is emerging as a critical point in the era of a heavenly unified Korea. It is no longer a region of conflict and struggle but is being transformed into an area of peace and reconciliation. In other words, the concept is changing.

The DMZ is a belt two-kilometers, north to south, centered on the Military Demarcation Line (MDL) and 248 kilometers west to east (155 miles). Under the provisions of the Korean Armistice Agreement signed on July 27, 1953, it was to be a buffer zone between North Korea and South Korea; however, the DMZ was intended to be free of arms. It is not a demilitarized zone as the name implies. It remains a heavily armed area, an HMZ, a Heavily Militarized Zone, a high-tech area with the highest military tensions on the planet.

The international community plans to create and operate a peace park in this high-tech security area. The goal is to improve inter-Korean relations and achieve South Korea’s policy goals of epoch-making inter- Korean ties and peace. Based on these dynamics, the DMZ World Peace Park will become a Northeast Asian world peace landmark. The DMZ World Peace Park will open the door for peace between the two Koreas and secure peace within the DMZ by hosting the UN Fifth Secretariat, a UN office building. It will also attract international organizations such as the Organization of World Religions and the World Family Organization, creating peace and harmony between the two Koreas after reunification.

In order for the DMZ Peace Park to go beyond its purpose as a peace zone for our people and to develop into a symbol of peace for the world, the understanding of the DMZ as a demilitarized zone formed between the south and north military demarcation lines needs to become one focused on establishing a future-oriented identity. By doing this, we will achieve great national unity and the Republic of Korea will take another leap forward, thereby providing a foothold for our descendants, who will live as responsible leaders in the international community and contribute to world peace and the co-prosperity of humankind. The modern development of the Republic of Korea, which had been poor after the Korean War, provides hope and challenges to economically underdeveloped countries. The people of the Republic of Korea have the mission of providing a vision for the future to the people of these countries who are looking at us, watching our progress.

The Republic of Korea, which should now contribute to world peace and the co-prosperity of humankind, has to start by remembering and giving thanks to the more than sixty countries that provided aid to Korea and the sixteen UN member states that took part in the Korean War. Although we might need practical cooperation and coordination, we will require North Korea’s forward- looking attitude and the international community’s engagement and support for the Korean Peninsula.

In subregion two, together with the UN and related countries, we will work toward realizing the vision of turning the DMZ into a landmark of world peace, which is the main purpose of creating a World Peace Park within the DMZ and hosting the fifth United Nations’ Secretariat there. As a national agenda for creating the world peace park, we want to design a world peace ecological park and a world peace memorial park and create a space in which people from all over the world can heal wounds caused by war and dream of a peaceful world. Meanwhile, I propose creating an intelligent farm eco-city centered on the agriculture and livestock industries, centered on Pyongyang County and Sepho County, located in North Korea.

It is now necessary to go beyond the ideological level and promote concrete projects to create a culture in which the two Koreas cooperate and communicate. I sincerely hope that this year, which marks the thirtieth anniversary of True Parents’ visit to North Korea, we can quickly bring to a close the providential tasks needed to reunify the two Koreas.