By Yun Suh-young
Thirty years ago the world faced an arms race as the United States and the Soviet Union fiercely competed to build nuclear weapons amid the escalating Cold War.
It was then that Dr. Choue Young-seek, founder of Kyung Hee University, initiated an international movement for global peace. He suggested the establishment of the International Day of Peace at the 6th International Association of University Presidents (IAUP) in 1981.
Dr. Choue’s suggestion was unanimously accepted and brought to the United Nations’ agenda. In November 1981, the U.N. General Assembly unanimously passed the resolution and designated the third Tuesday of every September as the International Day of Peace.
In 1982, the Assembly designated 1986 as the International Year of Peace and urged all U.N. member states to celebrate Peace Day from then on. The United Nations calls it a “global ceasefire day” every year. In 2002 the General Assembly officially declared September 21 as the permanent date for Peace Day.
It marks its 30th anniversary this year and celebrations will take place today at the War Memorial of Korea located in Yongsan, Seoul.
“We held the Peace Day ceremony at Kyung Hee University every year but then it seemed like a festival unique only to the school. So for the first time last year, we held it separately at the National Gugak Center,” said Choue Chung-won, president of GCS International and the World Taekwondo Federation.
GCS (goodwill, cooperation, and service) International has led a movement to create a common global society, ultimately aiming to construct a more peaceful world where conflicts cease to exist.
“This year, we’re holding the event at the War Memorial’s Peace Plaza. The name of the place we’re holding it fits the purpose perfectly. The Peace Plaza was also where the 60th anniversary of the Korean War was celebrated last year, which makes it even more significant.”
Choue Chung-won is the son of Dr. Choue Young-seek, the founder of GCS International and the GCS Movement.
The predecessor to the GCS Movement was the Better Living Movement which became the predecessor to the Saemaeul Movement that the late President Park Jung-hee pushed while in power, said Choue.
“Apparently President Park was inspired by the book Dr. Choue Young-seek wrote about enlightening the rural community for better living and started the Saemaeul Movement.”
Park initiated the Saemaeul Movement in the 1970s to develop and modernize the rural community.
“The GCS Movement came afterwards in the late 1970s. After the success of the Saemaeul Movement, people tended to focus too much on fulfilling their materialistic needs. Dr. Choue thought this would be harmful to society and decided to create a movement that promotes the balancing of physical and spiritual needs,” the GCS president said.
“Our goal at GCS International is to create and promote an abundant and happy society. That is when wars will end and peace will come. Of course, in order to talk about spiritual happiness, the basic materialistic needs must be satisfied first.”
At this point, one might wonder if this is a religious organization.
“Absolutely not,” says Choue. “The movement or the organization is non-religious, non-political, non-profit and non-governmental.”
The GCS movement was first proposed at the 4th International Association of University Presidents (IAUP) conference in Boston in 1975. The 600 participants at the conference unanimously adopted the Boston Declaration proposed by Dr. Choue and 77 notable figures participated as joint initiators of the movement.
Now the GCS club has expanded to 42 nations and its headquarters is in Seoul.
GCS President Choue also heads the World Taekwondo Federation (WTF).
“I was always interested in taekwondo. I was the one who suggested creating a taekwondo department at Kyung Hee University,” said Choue. “People thought I was crazy. They said, ‘Why not make a department for soccer and basketball as well?’ But that is a different matter because those aren’t Korean sports.”
Kyung Hee was the first university in the world to create a taekwondo department. Now about 70 universities have taekwondo departments and the sport is being taught in 200 countries.
“I think taekwondo is the best Korean culture item that we can present to the world. The WTF’s motto this year is ‘World peace through taekwondo,’” he said.
“People think I’m holding presidencies in two entirely different organizations, but in fact, they’re not that different. Taekwondo makes people healthy both mentally and physically. It’s a peaceful and peace-promoting sport. It is exactly in line with what we’re doing at GCS International.”