In the Media: Global Peace Foundation presents vision for unified Korea through campaign – The Korea Times

Oct 5, 2023 | In The Media, Korean Dream

For Koreans, October 3 marks “Gaecheon Jeol,” the founding day of the Korean nation nearly 5,000 years ago. As part of commemorations of Foundation Day in 2023, the Global Peace Foundation hosted an International Forum on One Korea on October 2, 2023 in Seoul, Korea. This was followed by a Korea United Festa at Yeouido Park in Seoul, Korea on October 3.

The program is part of a three-year campaign to build a Korean-led, internationally supported civil society movement to fulfill the Korean Dream of building a peaceful and free unified Korean nation that can “be of benefit to all humanity.” The campaign will culminate on August 15, 2025, in a 10 million people March across the peninsula. 

You can read the The Korea Times coverage of the Korean Dream 10 Million Campaign below or find the original here.

By Sah Dong-seok

Established in 2009 and led by Chairman Hyun Jin Preston Moon, the Global Peace Foundation (GPF) is a nonprofit organization aimed at realizing world peace and seeking concrete action plans based on universal principles and values.

As an organization with special consultative status accreditation from the U.N. Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) and affiliated with the U.N. Department of Public Information (DPI), GPF, headquartered in Washington, D.C., is active in 23 countries around the world.

The GPF’s main focus is the “interfaith movement.” Its goal is to help each religious leader break away from the framework of religion and become a true leader who fulfills the objective of global peace. In the “National Faith Leaders Summit” held in Washington in 2011, religious leaders were urged to resolve conflicts and strengthen cooperation to realize a nation based on the founding spirit of the United States.

The Global Peace Leadership Conference (GPLC) was held in Nigeria in 2013 seeking to “resolve religious and tribal conflicts with leadership based on moral principles and universal values” in the presence of Christian and Muslim leaders.

Domestically, Moon presented the “Korean Dream” as a vision for a unified Korean Peninsula, driven by a grassroots movement.

In August 2012, Action for Korea United (AKU) was launched in conjunction with 370 civic groups and announced the “Unification Declaration.”

Last year, the 10 million Korean Dream campaign organizing committee was inaugurated through “2022 Action for Korea United Festival” in the presence of unification experts, universities and citizens. During the festival, the Citizens’ Organizing Committee for the Action for Korea United March was launched to carry out a step-by-step unification movement through 2025.

‘Korean Dream 10 Million’ campaign

Amid today’s circumstances on the Korean Peninsula where nobody knows what may happen tomorrow owing to global division and conflict, the only solution that can bring peace and prosperity to the Korean Peninsula and Northeast Asia is a reunified Korea. Now, unification is no longer a matter of choice but a top priority on which the survival of all Koreans are dependent.

The March 1 Independence Movement in 1919 was not a mere anti-Japanese movement, but a movement designed to build a new nation. Koreans dreamed of a new nation where the ideology of “Hongik Ingan” was realized through a nationwide civil revolution called the March 1 Movement, but the dream remains as an unfinished task. Eight civic organizations will join hands to lead the unified Korea through this campaign.

To realize the dream of building a new nation, ensure world peace and create a new civilization by inheriting the March 1st Movement, the biggest civil revolution of the Korean people, 2 million people participated in a drive to launch the second March 1 Movement, focusing on the “Korean Dream 10 Million campaign.”

The Korean Dream 10 Million campaign, a grassroots unification movement to create an environment for the peaceful unification of the Korean Peninsula, envisions a plan to hold a large-scale unification movement rally in 2025.

The campaign aims to generate decisive momentum by 2025 to build a united nation where the Korean Dream is realized based on the ideology of Hongik Ingan, which seeks to broadly benefit the world, with the participation of the Parliamentarian’s Society of the Republic of Korea, the Korean National Police Veterans Association, the Federation of Artistic and Cultural Organizations of Korea and the Leaders’ Alliance for Korea Unification.

The goal is to hold the largest unification movement rally of 10 million citizens in 2025, and as part of this effort, other programs are planned around the world.

  1. Campaigns have been continuously underway to that effect since 2022 on a four-year schedule, and in 2022, a 20,000-member citizen organizing committee was launched. Also, there will be a rally of 100,000 citizens this year to boost domestic support and a rally of 1 million citizens in 2024 to organize a global boom.