[INTERVIEW] Moon rallies int'l support for unification of two Koreas

Hyun Jin Preston Moon speaks during an interview with The Korea Times on Aug. 13 at Fairmont Ambassador hotel in Seoul. Korea Times photo by Shim Hyun-chul

Rev. Moon Sun-myung's third son puts forth 'Korean Dream' peace framework, says progress will be made in unification movement only when it is driven by the people

By Kang Hyun-kyung

North Korea found itself at the center of international attention in March 1994, when one of its officials threatened South Korea with inflammatory remarks during working-level talks to dissuade the North from its then-planned withdrawal from the Non-Proliferation Treaty.

"Seoul is near here and if there is war, it will become a sea of fire," that official was quoted as saying by South Korean media outlets.

Since then, numerous diplomatic efforts have been launched, both at the bilateral and multilateral levels, to stop North Korea from moving forward with its nuclear ambitions and get it back to the negotiating table to solve the problem peacefully.

There have been some noteworthy agreements, which were initially seen as diplomatic milestones ― if not triumphs ― but North Korea's provocations, which have happened since, have overshadowed that legacy.

Hyun Jin Preston Moon, founder and chairman of the Global Peace Foundation, based in Washington, D.C., is a skeptic of such government-led, top-down approaches.

He said government-level efforts to keep North Korea in check are bound to fail, and to those who are familiar with the very different systems of the two Koreas, this statement is not surprising.

"You have democratic South Korea: one-term, five-year presidents. You have the hyper-partisan left and right. There is no consistency between the left or right administrations. They engage with North Korea completely differently," he said in an interview with The Korea Times at the Fairmont Ambassador Hotel in Seoul, Saturday. "That's one of the reasons why talks got nowhere."

Moon said that democratic South Korea is vulnerable in talks with the dictator-led North.

"The reality is that North Korea is an inter-generational dictatorship. Kim Jong-un has time," he said. "If South Korea think they can negotiate something with the North, what will happen is that South Korea will give up more."

Rev. Moon Sun-myung, left, the founder of the Unification Church, toasts with then North Korean leader Kim Il-sung at Kim's residence in Hamgyong Province in North Korea in this 1991 file photo. Hyun Jin Preston Moon is the late Rev. Moon's third son. Korea Times file

Like father, like son

He is the third son of the late Rev. Moon Sun-myung (1920-2012), the founder of the Holy Spirit Association for the Unification of World Christianity, better known as the Unification Church.

When asked what it was like to be the son of such an internationally known man, the younger Moon said he learned how to live with both the expectations and what he called persecution when he was young. The senior Moon moved his family to the United States in 1971.

When he was growing up in New York in the 1970s, the younger Moon said, there were few Asians, let alone Koreans. "On top of that, I am the son of a controversial man called Rev. Moon. At a very young age, I realized how to deal with persecution, prejudice, things like that," he said, mentioning that his father had dealt with such persecution from the late 1970s and the early 1980s in the U.S.

His father was a staunch anti-communist and had campaigned for the unification of the two Koreas. He met former North Korean leader Kim Il-sung in 1991 in Kim's residence in North Hamgyong Province during a weeklong trip to the North, starting Nov. 30.

In his memoir published in 2009, the late Moon described his first face-to-face meeting with the North Korean leader in detail. "I was a staunch anti-communist, he was the leader of the communist country. But our ideologies or religion didn't matter. We're like brothers who were reunited after having been separated for many years," he recalled in his memoir.

The older Moon's North Korea trip came months after he met the former leader of the Soviet Union, Mikhail Gorbachev.

In carrying forward his father's work, the younger Moon sees his distinct role as creating a vision for the unification of the two Koreas and peace.

With his own mission, the younger Moon has come out from behind the shadow of his father to initiate his own campaign to rally international support for the unification of the two Koreas. The establishment of the non-profit group, Global Peace Foundation, in 2009 signaled his pursuit to lead his movement to unify the two Koreas.

The non-profit group has hosted the annual peace forum, called the International Forum on One Korea. Politicians, think tank experts and activists gather there to present their views and promote a positive public opinion for unification and move the agenda forward.

Moon said his enthusiasm for peace and the unification of the two Koreas is a natural thing ― so natural that he considers it a part of him, to the bone.

"It's part of my family's legacy," he said, stressing that his father and great granduncle, who fought for Korea's independence during the Japanese colonial occupation, influenced him. "It goes all the way to my father's work but also my great granduncle's work. He was one of the key architects of Korea's independence movement. He was very central, in terms of the independence movement. When he was a student in Japan, he was imprisoned for that," he said.

Hyun Jin Preston Moon, founder and chairman of the Global Peace Foundation, gives a keynote speech to the opening ceremony of the Parc 1 facility on Yeoido, Seoul, on Aug. 12. Korea Times photo by Shim Hyun-chul

The Korean Dream

Moon argued that real progress will be made in the unification movement only when it is driven by the people.

He added that major movements that have changed society have come from the bottom up, noting that South Korea transformed successfully from a dictatorship to a democracy thanks to grassroots pro-democracy protests.

Moon reflected on the reunification of East and West Germany and the fall of the Berlin Wall to support his claim. "The difference between the German style is that there was no vision. It just happened," he said. "In terms of Korean unification, I am creating the vision and I am also moving the entire international community to make that happen."

Moon arrived in Seoul earlier this month for the opening ceremony of the Parc 1, a commercial complex consisting of the Parc 1 Tower skyscraper, a shopping mall and a five-star hotel on Yeouido, Seoul. He gave a keynote speech at the opening ceremony held on Aug. 12.

He also gave speeches at a series of forums and in collaboration with South Korean civil society groups to promote peace and the unification of the two Koreas.

Moon puts forth what he calls the "Korean Dream" framework as a tool to achieve the unification of the two Koreas and create a common national identity. He calls it a new approach with a broad vision and a movement to advance it. "That vision is the Korean Dream," he said.

Identifying with unification and discovering a common Korean identity are two key challenges Korea is facing, the Korean Dream is the guiding vision for them. He believes it can bring not only sustainable peace to the peninsula but also the prosperity of a free, unified Korea.

To achieve the unification of the two Koreas, Moon called for massive economic assistance to be given to North Korea.

"If you look at the Korean Dream platform, it actually talks about a Marshall-like plan the U.S. can initiate," he said. "This idea is very appealing to many top scholars that are involved in Korean policy because the costs are insignificant compared to the gains, in terms of peace and stability for a free world and prosperity. Western democracies will support it, so the Korean people would not bear the cost of the unification alone."

For Moon, the next three years hold the key. He plans to work to expand his Korean Dream framework both in Korea and abroad. "This initiative already has significant momentum through Action for Korea United, an unprecedented coalition of nearly 1,000 civil society organizations working collaboratively to promote a free and unified Korea," he said.