Pyeong Hwa Gyeong: Episode 323
Pyeong Hwa Gyeong: A Selection of True Parents’ Speeches
Book 8: The Reunification of Korea and World Peace
Speech 07: True Peace in Our Time, the Reunification of Korea, and East-West Cooperation, pg 1197-1200
True Peace in Our Time, the Reunification of Korea, and East-West Cooperation
February 2, 1990
Lotte Hotel, Seoul, Korea
Second Summit Council for World Peace and the Eighth Association for the Unity of Latin America Conference
Mr. Chairman, distinguished former heads of state, prime ministers, honorable legislators and ambassadors, ladies and gentlemen: I am pleased and honored to welcome you to Korea for this important conference.
I am very glad that we are gathered together for the second Summit Council for World Peace with the theme of the reunification of Korea and East-West cooperation. Furthermore, I am very happy that, together with this summit conference, we are convening the eighth conference of the Association for the Unity of Latin America, commonly known as AULA, which has a tremendous record of achievement in bringing about harmony and unity in Latin America during the past seven years.
I truly feel that the timing of this conference is very significant. This is the beginning of 1990 and the new decade of the nineties. In ten years, we are going to usher in the year 2000. In our lifetime we will witness the beginning of the new millennium. We must feel the tremendous importance of living in this time, of not only witnessing dramatic changes in human life, but also actually shaping those events.
It is a hope shared by all of us that the new millennium will be characterized by true peace. For that to be so, the next ten years will be challenging and demanding. These organizations gathered here today, the Summit Council for World Peace and AULA, have a very important part to play for the next ten years. I extend my heartfelt congratulations to you for the work you have already done for the achievement of peace. At the same time, I would like to challenge you to become champions of peace in the new decade.
The transition from confrontation to constructive engagement
The period between the close of the Second World War and the present, roughly forty years, can be viewed as the age of confrontation between two camps with diametrically opposing ideologies. We have witnessed numerous conflicts between peoples and between nations, accompanied by an escalating arms race. There really was not a moment when people could have a feeling of peace in their hearts.
Then, in 1985, Mr. Gorbachev came to power in the Soviet Union and began to initiate a series of changes. He encouraged greater freedom of expression within the Soviet Union, undertook a restructuring of the Soviet economy, and perhaps most significantly, repudiated the Brezhnev Doctrine. Within a short time, dramatic political changes within the Soviet bloc became a daily occurrence. In the past few months we have seen the democratization of Poland, followed by Hungary, East Germany, Czechoslovakia, Bulgaria and finally Romania. These events culminated in the crumbling of the Berlin Wall, the symbol of confrontation between East and West. With that, a new era of reconciliation has dawned.
I would like to extend my heart-felt appreciation to President Gorbachev for his courage and leadership in bringing about these constructive changes, which have enabled us to enter this new era of cooperation. I am committed to support the Soviet Union in its genuine desire to uphold individual human dignity, to bring about economic reform and, most importantly, to establish religious freedom.
As you may already know, I am also committed to working with the People’s Republic of China. This giant nation comprises one fourth of the world’s population. Certainly we cannot talk about world peace without taking into account the well-being of the 1.3 billion Chinese people. To help in providing needed jobs, technology and income, I am now building in China one of the world’s largest automobile assembly plants. This is another aspect of our effort to bring world peace.
Furthermore, as you may know, in 1981 I launched an International Peace Highway project. When completed, this highway will allow a family to drive from Tokyo to London. I am seriously discussing the project with the governments of Japan, Korea and China, and I hope that the Soviet Union will also welcome this project. Of course, this is a lofty dream. Every great undertaking begins as a dream. Not so long ago, no one could have even dreamt of people walking on the moon, yet with vision and hard work, it became a reality. So it will be with the International Peace Highway.
Overcoming the confusion of values between East and West
At this point, having shared with you my feelings of tremendous hope and optimism for the future, I feel that I must also address what I consider a dangerous tendency by some people to celebrate the advent of peace prematurely. Although the Berlin Wall has fallen, significant difficulties remain in both camps. The leading nations of the free world, along with their vast material wealth, are beset with moral decay. They have fallen victim to pervasive materialism, and the abuse of freedom is commonplace. The rise to near dominance of atheistic secularism in the West has brought with it the collapse of moral standards. As a result, western society is afflicted with serious social ills, among them the breakup of families, an epidemic of drug abuse, an increase in sexual immorality and disease, and widespread political corruption.
To put the matter simply, the current problems of both East and West ultimately come from the same cause, a confusion of values. The falsity of the Marxist value system has finally borne its fruit in the failure of the communist system. It is no secret that I have been ardently opposed to communism throughout my life. It is because I know that its militant denial of God and its belief that progress occurs through conflict can never lead to success in building a good society.
Through my own life experience I have come to know with certainty that God is real, and that the most important thing in life is true love. Human progress can come about only when we cherish God and give love the highest value. Lacking these, neither communism nor the free world is presently equipped to lead humankind toward a peaceful twenty-first century.
What we urgently need at the outset of this new decade is a true value system, one that can fill the vacuum created by the collapse of values in both the free and communist worlds. We must base that new value system on a worldview centered on God, namely, the ideology of Godism.
Throughout my entire life, I have worked with members of all religions and denominations to spread the understanding of this God-centered worldview. This has made it possible to create numerous broad-based academic and interfaith organizations dedicated to the search for absolute values and the establishment of true peace. I have also established news media organizations, as well as institutions of art and education. I have prepared this entire global foundation to assist people like yourselves in your efforts to attain true world peace.
True world peace cannot be achieved unless the people share a clear value system. When values are clarified, humankind will no longer be in darkness. Godism allows each individual to clearly see the meaning and value of his or her life. Each person is then motivated to seek his or her spiritual well-being by living responsibly and serving others. This is the ultimate solution, the way to alleviate world suffering.
In other words, what our world needs today to save itself is a spectacular spiritual awakening. The world must be awakened into the reality of God and equipped with a worldview based on God-affirming principles. This worldview will enable us to eliminate the confusion in the value systems of both camps.
Awakening our awareness of higher values will transform the nature of the relationships between nations. The desire for personal profit has played too large a role as a driving force for economic development. It has unleashed a great amount of human potential, and we have witnessed remarkable development on a global scale. Nonetheless, we have to balance the desire for profit with the fundamental understanding that all people are the children of God.
FFWPU, USA