[INTERVIEW] 'If youth get excited about unification, things will happen very quickly'

Hyun Jin Preston Moon, the chairman and founder of Global Peace Foundation, speaks during a joint interview with Korean media outlets last Friday in Clark, the Philippines. Newsis

Chairman of Global Peace Foundation explains why unification of 2 Koreas matters to younger Koreans

By Lee Yeon-woo

CLARK, Philippines ― Younger Koreans, particularly those in their 20s and 30s, struggle to find a connection between themselves and the unification of the two Koreas. They were born in the 1980s or afterward when Korea was already rising to become one of Asia's economic powerhouses and their grandparents, who were born before the Korean War and may have left their families behind in the North, have already passed away. Having no immediate family members or relatives who are from the North, younger South Koreans find it hard to take interest in unification.

Hyun Jin Preston Moon, the founder and chairman of the Washington, D.C.-based non-profit group Global Peace Foundation (GPF), challenges this notion, emphasizing that young people are the ones ― not the government, scholars or so-called "experts" ― who should fix their focus on unification.

"I've heard young people call Korea 'Hell Joseon,'" Moon said. "Hell Joseon" is a satirical term that some frustrated young Koreans use to refer to their nation, believing that Korea is a hellish place to live.

"And they have a 10 percent (youth) unemployment rate in their country. If Korea follows the current trajectory, it's only going to get worse. So why is unification not a key issue?" Moon asked during a joint interview with Korean media outlets on the sidelines of the international peace forum in Clark, the Philippines.

"The unemployment rate, especially among young people, is going to get harder. It's going to be harder for you to have even housing and even be able to have a family," Moon continued.

Moon asked young Koreans to think outside the box. "Unification will be the most significant event that will have not only security consequences but geopolitical economic circumstances as well (if it happens)."

At the same time, Moon refuted the idea that South Korea will end up bearing the huge financial burden of North Korea's integration alone and deteriorate its economy. If unification happens, Moon claimed developed nations will be more than willing to take the financial burden.

"North Korea is the number one security issue for the United States. The number one security issue for Japan," he continued. "The U.S. was willing to spend $2.5 trillion in the war against terrorism in the Middle East. The U.S. will spend trillions of dollars in terms of military preparedness to deal with the North Korean nuclear threat."

However, he went on to say that it needs one condition: young people should get excited about unification first.

When Moon first started the unification movement 12 years ago, the first place that he went was all the top think tanks in Washington. The first question analysts there asked Moon was whether South Korean people actually want unification.

"Of course from the analysts' point of view, the easiest way to deal with the North Korean problem is Korean unification … The basic position was, rationally, if the Korean people don't want it, how can we support?"

Bottom-up civic movement based on Korean Dream

Moon has presented his "Korean Dream" peace framework which highlights that real progress will be made toward unification only if it's driven by the people.

In this belief, he also established Action for Korea United (AKU) in 2012, a coalition of 1,000 civic organizations based in Seoul which aims for a fresh grassroots approach to building awareness of the importance of unification, particularly among younger generations.

Historically, relations with North Korea have been led by government negotiations. However, he believes it's wrong to approach the issue that way.

"Koreans, you put way too much faith in your politicians."

All history in terms of major transformation was from the bottom up, he said. "For example, British Indian independence happened through Gandhi and a bottom-up civic movement for national sovereignty. One man brought down the entire British Empire, which controlled India for hundreds of years."

"I'm planning over the next three years to mobilize tens of millions of South Koreans for unification based upon the Korean Dream (with AKU)," he said.

"If I'm building a campfire and I have a fire going, youths are like the gasoline on that campfire. I know how to make things go, I know how to make things work. If young people get excited about unification and are as committed, things will happen very quickly."

Hyun Jin Preston Moon speaks to the crowd gathered at the Global Peace Festival held last Friday in Clark, the Philippines. Courtesy of Global Peace Foundation

Importance of Education Transformation

Citing his background as a history major at Columbia University, Moon also highlighted the importance of young people establishing national identities and characteristics through quality education.

One of the core themes of the Global Peace Festival was on transforming the current education system, an official from the GPF said. Heads of major Philippine universities and three government agencies in charge of education in the Philippines took place at the event.

As the Global Peace Foundation has worked for more than 10 years in the Philippines, "the level of trust we have among the highest levels of government, as well as educators, is incomparable," Moon said.

Moon is the one who adopted the Peace Education to National Service Training Program (NSTP), a program designed to develop young people's physical, moral, spiritual and ethics of service in the Philippines. Students of any baccalaureate degree are required to complete the program before graduation.

Most of the university students participating in the Global Peace Festival said to this reporter they knew the importance of unification by taking the Peace Education seminars.

"I want to show with a developing nation what can happen if you do education," Moon said. "Because each subsequent generation, they bring about the necessary transformations that bring the nation to a whole new level."