'Unification is 2nd Miracle on Han River': Global Peace Foundation head

Global Peace Foundation founder and Chairman Hyun Jin Preston Moon speaks during an interview with The Korea Times at Fairmont Ambassador Seoul, Feb. 25. Courtesy of Global Peace Foundation

Global Peace Foundation (GPF) founder and Chairman Hyun Jin Preston Moon said the two Koreas’ unification would not be an economic disaster but could instead create a “second Miracle on the Han River” by expanding Korea’s domestic market.

During an interview with The Korea Times, Moon strongly disagreed with mounting concerns, especially among the younger generation, that unification with the North would induce overwhelming economic costs.

“I cannot emphasize enough how the influx of 25 million North Koreans would drive the domestic market,” Moon said during the interview at Fairmont Ambassador Seoul on Feb. 25. “This will fuel the domestic economy. You will have more balance between the export and domestic markets.”

According to a 2024 survey collected by the Korea Institute for National Unification, only 52.9 percent of respondents said that unification is necessary. It was the lowest figure in 10 years, demonstrating an overall decline in public support for unification.

The government-funded think tank also reported in the survey that people born after 1991 are the least supportive of unification.

Moon said fears and concerns about unification costs are often based on comparisons with the German reunification model in the 1990s, without taking into account modern private capital flows and market structures.

“Unification should be approached not as a cost but as an investment,” he added.

Moon also urged the Lee Jae Myung administration to more seriously recognize that Pyongyang has abandoned its long-standing unification policy, maintained since liberation, while implementing a “hostile two-state” approach and treating Seoul as its principal enemy.

“The abandonment is completely changing the dynamics on the Korean Peninsula. The liberal government is, however, carrying out the same ‘Sunshine Policy’ under this,” Moon said.

“They don’t realize how significantly this change, in terms of policy, can reconstruct the geopolitics of not only the peninsula but also the region. That basically puts the competence of the current government into doubt among major partners such as Japan and the U.S.”

For this reason, he said, the current government should consider his three suggestions.

“First, it should accept the ‘Korean Dream’ vision, a citizen-led unification movement,” Moon said. The Korean Dream refers to the GPF’s vision for peaceful unification. Unlike past efforts focusing mostly on methodology, the vision aims to draw a picture of how a unified Korean Peninsula can bring hope for all humanity.

“Second, it should get rid of the Ministry of Unification and replace it with an advisory committee that I can help develop. Third, you need to have the Korean Dream taught in every primary and secondary school as mandatory curriculum so that young people really understand their history and the implications (of unification) for their generation.”

'Unification Church should be dissolved'

The son of Unification Church founder Moon Sun-myung said the church, formally known as the Family Federation for World Peace and Unification, has “lost its founding purpose and degenerated into a criminal group disguised as a religion,” and should be dissolved.

Hyun Jin Preston Moon is the third son born to Moon Sun-myung and Han Hak-ja. After the early deaths of his elder brothers, Moon Hyo-jin and Moon Heung-jin, he was, at one time, seen as a likely successor to his father.

He later distanced himself from the church following internal disputes over its direction and leadership, and has since led the GPF as a separate nonprofit organization.

Moon traced the origins of the split to a fundamental conflict over the church’s institutional future.

“After my father officially designated me as his successor, I moved to dissolve the church organization in accordance with his vision,” he said.

“The backlash from midlevel leaders was fierce. Dissolving the organization meant they would lose the institutional and financial authority they had built their positions upon. Their refusal to accept that dissolution gradually triggered internal division, and ultimately, only those with ambition but no ability were left in leadership.”

He argued that the church’s current crisis was not a deviation from the founder’s vision but its inevitable result.

“My father’s original intent was never to establish a specific denomination or sect,” Moon said.

“He had no intention of founding a new religion. In 1996, he himself proclaimed the ‘end of the church era’ precisely to break free from the framework of institutionalized religion, and ordered the closure of the Unification Church. He then established the Family Federation for World Peace and Unification as an organization for a new era. The total collapse we are witnessing today is the direct consequence of church leaders choosing to entrench that institutionalized structure instead.”

Moon claimed that what he described as the church’s “power faction” had effectively hijacked the organization built by his father. “The faction's attempts to maintain their authority and power, in opposition to my father's move to go beyond the frame of a religion, have created the internal division and current crisis.”

His mother, Han Hak-ja, was arrested on charges including alleged political funding violations and accusations of improper ties with former President Yoon Suk Yeol and his spouse around the 2022 presidential election. Han is currently being held at Seoul Detention Center.

Moon also criticized current Unification Church leaders such as Yoon Young-ho, a former director-general at the church’s world headquarters, and Jeong Won-ju, former chief of staff to the church president, questioning their qualifications while accusing them of consolidating power within the organization.

On the question of his mother’s legal culpability, Moon said current leaders had placed her in a position of formal responsibility while exploiting her role. While his mother may have violated the law, he argued, she did not intentionally direct any wrongdoing.

“I believe my mother is, like my two brothers, another victim created by the church’s midlevel leaders,” he said. “She had been protected within the church structure for decades and was likely unaware of the legal risks she faced.”

He added that he has repeatedly offered to help free her from detention.

“I reached out to the current leadership multiple times with offers to help,” he said. “But they were so afraid of my mother and me meeting that they did not respond at all.”

He said that church leaders view him and the GPF as adversaries and have filed more than 30 lawsuits against him, while he has only responded in defense.

Asked whether he has visited Han in detention, Moon said legal complications made a meeting difficult unless she requested one first.

“I hope my mother, who is well over 80, will be released from prison,” Moon said.

Global Peace Foundation founder and Chairman Hyun Jin Preston Moon speaks during an interview with The Korea Times at Fairmont Ambassador Seoul, Feb. 25. Courtesy of Global Peace Foundation