Pyeong Hwa Gyeong: Episode 356
Pyeong Hwa Gyeong: A Selection of True Parents’ Speeches
Book 9: The Role of Nations in Realizing World Peace
Speech 7: Let Us Become Leading Figures in the Asia-Pacific Era, pg 1334-1337
Let Us Become Leading Figures in the Asia-Pacific Era
October 12, 1989
Shilla Hotel, Seoul, Korea
Announcement of the Panda Automotive Industrial City in Huizhou, Guangdong, China
Dear honored guests and dignitaries from around the world:
Please accept my deepest gratitude for coming despite your busy schedules. Before we start the session about our project to build a large-scale industrial city in China, I would like to speak to you about my work.
Korea in a period of great transition
As you all know, the Cold War between the United States and the Soviet Union can no longer continue. Phenomena such as glasnost in the Soviet Union, the struggle for democracy in China and reforms in Hungary, Poland, and other Eastern European nations constitute a revolution. These events show that the communist system has reached its limits and that the East-West ideological confrontation is ending.
The economic unification of Western Europe that will take place in 1992 is a further example of the changes that are necessary. How can Korea deal with these changes? What direction does it need to take?
Because of its crucial strategic position, Korea has suffered throughout history as an object of empire building by powerful nations. The division into North and South has brought Korea to experience the global ideological confrontation within its own borders. The interests of four major powers—the United States, Japan, the Soviet Union and China—intersect on the Korean Peninsula. Such relationships and global problems historically have always directly or indirectly crossed paths on this peninsula, and so Korea is a microcosm of the world’s problems. Therefore, there is an inseparable relationship between the solution to the world’s problems and the solution to Korea’s problems. Still, the current movement toward openness and harmony in the world does not solve the problems of the Korean people automatically. I believe that the transformation of the divided Korea into a unified homeland, once it takes place, will have a direct bearing on the realization of world peace.
Special devotions for God’s ideal of peace
Dear honored guests, from an early age I was called by Heaven, and in order to realize God’s Will on earth I offered my life. Knowing well that the Korean people are central to the providence of God, I interpreted differently from others the meaning of the sufferings of this people throughout history. I am certain that transforming a divided Korea into the united homeland directly relates to the realization of world peace.
With the sun setting on the communist system and ideology, can we say that the free world is in a position to offer a philosophical alternative? How will we resolve the contradictions of Western countries that adhere to freedom and democracy? I have personally experienced the terrible fate of a divided people through the aftermath of the Korean War. I pledged before Heaven to devote my life to establish a philosophy that would lay the groundwork for North-South unification, and I pledged to prepare a worldwide foundation for it. For forty years I have worked to fulfill these pledges.
Can it be easy for us to mobilize the support of the nations around the Korean Peninsula—the United States, Japan, the Soviet Union and China— for reunification on the foundation of a strong philosophy of freedom and democracy, and thereby achieve peace on the peninsula? Would it not be fortunate if we could come up with a plan that would help Russia and China reconsider what has been their one-sided support for North Korea?
This presentation to announce the establishment of Panda Automotive is not a simple gathering about a company going into China. The project is not motivated by seeking a profit based upon an investment of capital. For thirty years I have offered special prayers and devotions (jeongseong), for the sake of China and the continent of Asia, placing God’s ideal of peace at the center. The process begins by opening doors through positive relationships. While helping China modernize through technical assistance, we have to create good-neighborly relationships.
The International Peace Highway and Korea-Japan Tunnel
In 1981, during the tenth International Conference on the Unity of the Sciences, I revealed a plan for an international highway. I have made this plan known to leaders of 120 countries. It includes a tunnel designed to run from Japan to Korea, and will connect Seoul, Pyongyang and Beijing. Another branch is to be routed through Moscow and Western Europe, all the way to London. Another will connect to the Middle East and Africa.
In Japan, fifteen hundred members of the academic and business communities organized a tunnel research association in 1982. They are conducting political, economic, technological and geographical research and have already carried out exploratory excavations. The Chinese government is showing great interest and is in the planning stage of a one-thousand-kilometer stretch of highway between Dandong, on its border with North Korea, and Beijing.
Even in this period, when exchange with China has been very difficult, the Unification movement has sent numerous people to the People’s Republic to help with modernization. I established the Yanbian Scientific Technical College in northeast China, and we are sending it scientific equipment worth $500,000 every year. I am helping organize the exchange of visiting professors and also programs for Chinese students to study abroad.
The International Relief Friendship Foundation, which I founded, is sponsoring relief projects and sending American coaches to help the development of Chinese athletes. Also, we are giving Chinese scholars the opportunity to research Unification Thought, thereby supporting their efforts to address difficulties using new ideological perspectives.
Dear respected and honored guests! China is intransigent in its commitment to communism. When the June 4 Tiananmen Square massacre happened, the free world withdrew most of its investment from China. In that situation, I pushed ahead with plans to develop the Chinese automobile industry, and advised the person responsible not to waver at all but to push forward even more actively. On June 27, at the site in Huizhou, Guangdong Province, we had a major groundbreaking ceremony.
By offering a meaningful benefit to the Chinese leadership, which had found itself in a difficult position, I established a relationship of heart that served as a foundation to discuss the bigger issues. This all was to support the larger objective of cooperation in the Pacific Rim era.
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