What Role Does Rev. Moon Play in Korea's Reunification?

Seeds of change planted by Rev. Sun Myung Moon decades ago are coming to fruition on the Korean peninsula despite occasional setbacks. South Korea recently accepted North Korea’s suggestion for new negotiations on humanitarian issues. Tensions on the peninsula are easing after the North aggressively bombed an island in the South and destroyed a Southern warship with a missile, both in 2010.

Although Rev. Moon was a strong anti-communist, he moved the North to consider anew many things which it previously rejected. Seeds of this 1991 visit still reverberate across the peninsula and around the world. Former Secretary of State Alexander Haig, before his death in 2010, said Rev. Moon has emerged as a great peacemaker and unifier on the world stage.

Kim Jong Il Announces Plan to Invite Rev. Moon to Return

Visiting North Korea in 1991, Rev. Moon boldly declared the North should allow families divided between North and South to be reunited, that tourism should be welcomed in the North, and industrial development be allowed there. President Kim Il Sung, in a face-to-face dialogue, agreed to all three of these proposals, as well as the denuclearization of the peninsula.

Former President of the Soviet Union, Mikhail Gorbachev, inspired by Rev. Moon’s comments on his role in the peaceful transition from communism, promised in 1994 that he would devote the rest of his life to projects that are for the sake of peace.

North Korea, grateful for the role Rev. Moon is playing, sent him 3 dozen roses on his recent 91 birthday, wishing him a healthy life for 120 years.

Currently observers note that the new North South negotiation topics will center on reunification of families divided between North and South and joint industrial and tourism projects. The International Committee of the Red Cross will be relied upon to broker efforts to reunite the divided families. It will also oversee tourism at Mount Kumgang and an industrial project in Kaesong. Although the sites are in North Korea, management will be by the South, while staffed by the North. All these ideas were introduced by talks between Kim Il Sung and Rev. Moon several decades ago.

Marcus Noland, co-author of the new book "Witness to Transformation" now believes dissent is increasing in North Korea. The population is skeptical of their leaders as access to vital information improves due to marketplace reforms and foreign media broadening their worldview. North Koreans defectors were surveyed in the South and it was found that virtually none believed that Kim Jong-Il's regime was improving, while a vast majority backed Korea's reunification on the terms of the US-allied South.

"Building a world of peace on the Korean peninsula is not as difficult as we may think. When South Korea lives fully for the sake of North Korea, North Korea will not try to fight the South, and peace will come naturally to the peninsula. The power that can move a rebellious child is not the fist or brute power. It is the power of love..." wrote Rev. Moon in his autobiography As A Peace Loving Global Citizen.


See Also:
In Memoriam: Gen. Alexander M. Haig., Jr., USA (1924-2010)