Cham Bumo Gyeong: Episode 209

Cham Bumo Gyeong
Book 8: North-South Unification and World Peace
Chapter 1: Initiatives for North-South Unification and the Visit to North Korea
Section 3: Dialogue with Kim Il-sung, Father visits his birthplace
Section 3: Dialogue with Kim Il-sung, paragraph 11

Section 3. Dialogue with Kim Il-sung

Father visits his birthplace

After receiving an official invitation from the North Korean government, True Parents arrived in North Korea on November 30, 1991. This was True Fathers first visit to North Korea after an absence of 40 years and 11 months. He met his surviving relatives at his hometown of Jeongju on December 5. Father said that his birthplace will be a holy ground to which people of the world will make pilgrimages. His visit to North Korea greatly interested both local and foreign mass media. At the farewell ceremony held at the guesthouse in Seojaegol, Pyongyang, on December 6, Father emphasized that true love is the driving force behind unification, as he explained that "love is thicker than blood."

1  We flew to my hometown in North Korea in two helicopters. The 70-mile trip took only 40 minutes. We landed at a schoolyard and drove to my old house. The road was paved so nicely that cars could travel on it. I was told that it took them ten days to pave the road for my visit. The level of preparation they made for me was on a par with the level they would have made for Kim Il-sung. They took meticulous care and put much effort into covering my parents' graves with good sod and placing gravestones with words carved in red. When we went to the house where I had once lived, I discovered they had also repainted it entirely, probably upon orders from Kim Il-sung. The interior had an earthen floor, as do most traditional Korean houses, buttressed with rocks stacked strongly around it, finished up with cement. The yard was covered with sand. They had done a wonderful job. They were like Esau trying to serve his younger brother Jacob as a king.

2  I asked Kim Il-sung to open up my hometown so that Jeongju can welcome people from around the world to visit and participate in workshops. This is the heart with which I visited Kim Il-sung. No amount of opposition could suppress this. When heaven casts its net of righteousness, it catches everything that is not in accordance with the heavenly principle. That is why they placed gravestones on my parents' graves and covered them with good sod. It was none other than Kim Il-sung himself who ordered that this be done. He told his people to pave the two-lane road leading to my hometown, and they even paved an asphalt road to my parents' graves. His hospitality was greater than that of Esau when he was welcoming Jacob. Why is the Esau of Korea greater than the Esau of Israel? It is because the Israelites were the first chosen people, the formation stage. Christianity was the Second Israel, at the growth stage; however, America never even dreamed of developing my hometown as a holy ground. Because Kim Il-sung did this, North Korea possesses the authority as the people of the Third Israel.

3  During my meeting with Kim Il-sung, he asked me, "Reverend Moon, you went to your birthplace, right?" When I answered, "Yes" and thanked him for it, he told me, "That place will one day be a famous site. I'll take care of everything." When he said that, the people next to him responded, "Yes, we understand, Mr. President!" The words of Kim Il-sung carry a lot of weight, as weighty as the words of God. I added a rider to his promise, though. I told him to turn it into the hometown that I used to live in when I was a boy. I gave them directions as to what to put where and how to make it in such and such a way. If they do this, it will become a pilgrimage site for Unification Church members across the world, who will vividly see and feel the things of the past that I have talked about.

4  When I visited North Korea, my family and even distant relatives came to greet me. I did not say a word. They wanted to greet me and hold me, and did not want to let me go, but I kept silent because I knew how the communist world works. Why would I not say how thrilled I was to see my older and younger sisters again? It is because everything I said would have to be reported to the superior authorities. If the words of my younger sister and the words of my older sister were different, they would both be in trouble. But how could they give the exact same report? My nephews and everyone who was present had to give a report. Should any of their reports be different from the others, they would find themselves in serious trouble. They would be accused of lying and, as a result, I would be banned from North Korea and they would lose their lives. 

In North Korea, the entire family must report. Husbands, wives, everyone from kindergartners to grandparents report to different offices. Having said that, if people in the same family write identical reports, that poses a problem, too. They can be accused of collaborating on the reports, and be bound hand and foot. Theirs is a world where you cannot speak freely even though you have a mouth, and where a slip of the tongue can spell trouble.

5  I lost my hometown; I lost all there was in North Korea. Even though I know that my father and mother met a tragic end, I have to love Kim Il-sung, thanking him for protecting my parents. I am not oblivious as to how their lives ended. How miserable it was! Standing in front of my mother's grave, do you not think I would weep bitterly? Though bearing inexpressible grief, I was in pain, using all my energy to keep myself from bursting into tears, because I did not want my enemies to see me wailing. I still remember I had to bite my tongue and fight back tears, because I did not want people to report that Reverend Moon came to North Korea just to visit the graves of his mother and father. Until all the problems are resolved naturally, I will devote myself to the reunification of Korea.

6  My older and younger sisters completely broke down in tears when I went to my parents' graves in North Korea. "Father! Mother! The son that you've been waiting for so long has finally returned. He is here," they cried. Anyone who was there listening to their cries, amid such tragedy, could not help but weep too. However, I did not go there as a son with the family name of Moon, but rather as the leader who can bring about the unification of Korea. Look at the countless graves! There are many who have died unimaginably tragic deaths. So I could not shed tears just for my own suffering parents. 

As I saw my sisters burst out crying, I prayed, "Honored father and mother, I am sorry. I cannot cry, because I came here as a public person. When I come here after unifying Korea, I will fulfill my duty as a filial son and take responsibility for your graves. I will attend you after I build the unified kingdom where I can attend God and convey His blessing to all people."

7  My mother loved me dearly. Everyone in my family knew that my mother loved me more than she loved anyone else. My older sister knew that I, her younger brother, was the most beloved, and my younger sister knew that I, her older brother, was  the most beloved. Such a mother met her end while yearning to see her beloved son one last time. I believe that the North Korean government did wicked and terrible things to her. And I went to save North Korea, the country which did such things.

8  My mother was truly pitiable. Out of the 13 children she bore, five passed away, and she raised eight of us. Among her children, she loved me the most. She would do anything for me, but I was never able to buy her a pair of socks or even a handkerchief. She did not perform any noteworthy deeds in her lifetime, but at the end of the providence of restoration, I will make known how much merit she deserves because of the way she lived for me. That is why, even though it is truly heartbreaking, I continue this work until that day comes. I can still remember how she cried at the top of her lungs, shedding a waterfall of tears, her nose running, because she felt terrible about something I had done. As I stood in front of my honored parents' graves in North Korea, I felt I was truly an undutiful son. From a secular viewpoint, I would be considered unfilial.

9  All of you want to go to my hometown. I was very disappointed when I visited there in 1991. There were trees in the mountains 50 years ago, and I used to be able to hear the howling of wolves. But there is not even one tree left. I was stricken to look at the barren scenery. I thought to myself, "Maybe it would have been better if I had not come at all." Looking at my town that has gone through such a change, my impressions of the past suddenly left me. In general, people can erase memories of the past when they have more beautiful environments in the present. But the fact is, because my images of the past were more beautiful than the present, the more I tried to erase them, the more vividly those images came back. So when I go back to my hometown, I have a plan to gather the young Unification Church soldiers and elite troops from around the world and rebuild my hometown to its original state, the way I remember it.

A historic dialogue

On December 6, 1991 at the president's official residence in Majeon, Hungnam City, in South Hamgyeong Province, True Parents and President Kim Il-sung held an official talk regarding issues pending between North and South Korea. The two of them signed agreements on the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula, North-South summit talks, meetings of separated families, and the Mt. Geumgang development project, among others. The agreements reached between True Father and President Kim Il-sung loosened the deadlocked inter-Korean relations. At the meeting, they also discussed the possibility of organizing an international marriage Blessing ceremony of 30,000 couples in North Korea. True Father embraced President Kim with love, not as an enemy, but as a brother, before returning to the South.

10  I was very well aware of the ongoing trial regarding the Kikumura incident, which resulted from a 1987 conspiracy between Kim Il-sung and Mikhail Gorbachev of the Soviet Union to send 25 Red Army operatives to the South to assassinate me. As I was about to meet this enemy, how could I overlook that and replace it with a heart of meeting one's long-lost brother for the first time in thousands of years? I was struggling with that within myself. If I could come up with a solution, I knew I would be able to bring any villain to naturally surrender.

I needed to possess the heart of loving my enemy more than I love my own sons and daughters, my wife, my disciples, and my members. That is why miracles in the history of re-creation took place after our meeting. The world changed after I met with Gorbachev, and the inter-Korean summit was finally realized after I met with Kim Il-sung. All kinds of issues were resolved at once. These facts prove that heaven is working. A new world is being created.

11  So long as I am alive, Korea cannot perish. To forge North-South reunification, both parties must collaborate. Their relationship is one of Cain and Abel. One stands on God's side and the other on Satan's side. Now, the realm of Cain has disappeared; the communist regimes of China and the Soviet Union are gone. The remaining such regime is that of North Korea's Kim Il-sung. Abel is the younger brother and Cain is the older brother. Abel has to save Cain, and Kim Il-sung is a type of Cain. South Korea was trying to assassinate Kim Il-sung, but that was ill conceived. By hosting Kim Il-sung around the world in a posh car and a good aircraft, I can let him realize his past blunders on his own. I stand in the position of loving my enemy and loving my country. I will proclaim that Korea is a nation in which the king of kings will appear and that the Koreans are a good-hearted people among all good-hearted people.