Dear Institute Member & Supporter:
I am pleased to announce the upcoming visit of President & Nobel Peace Prizewinner Kim Dae Jung to Portland. After three years of work and 8 meetings with President Kim and his staff, I am pleased to announce that the Wholistic Peace Institute is the official host of his visit. President Kim is a world figure and is known in international peace circles as the “Nelson Mandala of Asia”. He was kidnapped in Tokyo, put on death row for three years where his captors attempted to kill him three times; got out of prison and won the Presidency; pulled South Korea out of a severe recession; survived four assassination attempts; brought democracy to South Korea; he is known as the father of democracy in South Korea; and then won the 2000 Nobel Peace Prize.
President & Nobel Peace Laureate Kim Dae Jung will share his views on a three pronged, “Wholistic” view of achieving peace on the Korean Peninsula by;
- He will share his views on the North Korean Nuclear dilemma and the danger of the neo-conservative point of view as well as the great opportunity that exists today to develop a market economy in North Korea. He will also discuss the important role world business men and women need to play. In February 1972 trip the historic trip to China was made; that was 36 years ago and since then China has emerged from isolation and become a world partner. This is the work that must now be done in North Korea today by business leaders.
- To recommend his “Sunshine Policy” which resulted in a break-through in North-South Korean peace issues in 2000 and for which he won the Nobel Peace Prize. President Kim, a deep man of faith will discuss how he based his “Sunshine Policy” on the concept of “forgiveness” and why it had great power. He will also discuss how his faith sustained him (And the invisible hand protected him) through: kidnapping; torture; assassination attempts; and three years on death row, prior to winning the Presidency. “Forgiveness” can be used to solve other conflicts.
- He will explain The Different Pathways To Peace That Are Needed On The Korean Peninsula:
- Faith And Human Rights As A Path To Peace: President Kim will speak on this path with the Institute’s Co-sponsor the University of Portland; 7PM, April 17th, Chiles Center
- Market Economics As A Path To Peace: President Kim will speak on “Doing Business In South Korea & The US South Korean Economic Relationship & How Market Economics Can Solve the North Korean issues”; with the Institute’s Co-Sponsor the City of Portland; Noon, Friday, April 18th Hilton Hotel; Please consider buying tickets or a table to this to support the on going work of the Wholistic Peace Institute.
- Politics As A Path To Peace: Co Sponsor World Affairs Council; 7PM, April 18th; Schnitzer
Join the Wholistic Peace Institute to Support Our Work with Nobel Laureates
I want you to consider joining the Wholistic Peace Institute today. There are three main reasons I would like you to consider financially supporting the Institute:
- The Wholistic Peace Institute is connected to the architects of world peace, the Nobel Peace Laureates. If you join the Institute and get involved in our world peace work, you will have a connection with the Nobel Peace Laureates. Also our Nobel Peace lectures are free for members. No other organization can offer you that. This is a great opportunity for you to play a role in the world, helping to bring peace!
- By joining you will have played a direct role in the coming of world peace, for the Nobel Peace Laureates have already brought peace to a world conflict and in some cases prevented the deaths of millions of people and prevented war before it has started. By focusing 15 Nobel Peace Laureates at a time on the worlds most dangerous conflict areas, we have the possibility of a break through. If we can accomplish a break through your children and those of your friends and family will live in a safer and saner world. We are working to bring a 15 Nobel Peace Laureates conference together in Korea on the South & North Korean conflict and the end of the Korean War. We are also working to do the same in Israel and to find new approaches to end the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Can you imagine how safer the world would be if we were successful in this!
- Finally you will receive a tax credit for your donation. The Wholistic Peace Institute is a 501 c3 tax exempt Oregon non profit corporation. Your contributions are tax exempt and the receipts can be used to reduce your annual tax burden.
I hope you will consider joining.
How To Join the Wholistic Peace Institute
We invite you to join the Wholistic Peace Institute. Your tax deductible donation will mean the Institute can continue to organize Nobel Peace Laureate events and forums, publish books and video tapes on our generation’s greatest world peace makers. You will receive two issues of the World Peace Journal and invited to special coffees with our keynote speakers when they are in town.
Achieving Peace on the Korean Peninsula
By
Gary Alan Spanovich, Wholistic Peace Institute
Introduction
It seems like some human beings have a “divine appointment” with heaven for the work they do on Earth. Through all odds they have persevered through the darkest of times to bring light to the darkness of world conflict and the tyranny of government in its worst form, dictatorship. Dictatorship is the most ruthless way for human beings to be organized into societies for dictatorships function according to the whims of some of history’s worst human beings. Dictators torture, kill and maim their citizens in order to perpetuate themselves and the societies they create.
However Heaven does hear the prayers of the people and often sends miracle workers to reverse the course of history, setting governments and whole movements of people on a different course. Many of the Nobel Peace Laureates are these Heaven sent miracle workers who have been tasked with the righting of wrongs in the area of government and politics. It has been my pleasure to know many Nobel Peace Laureates and it seems from all odds that they have lived their lives with a “divine appointment”. That Heaven has sent them to us to guide us and their peoples and their governments from light to dark. This is especially true of many Nobel Peace Prize Laureates who have led their countries as Presidents.
Presidents such as Nelson Mandela who after suffering decades of imprisonment came from prison to lead his country to a new “government of reconciliation” promising not a blood bath but compassion and forgiveness or Lech Walesa whose work enabled the fall of communism in Eastern Europe and the fall of the Berlin Wall without a shot being fired. Or President Oscar Arias of Costa Rica who brokered a peace agreement which kept the Sandinista and Contra struggle from overwhelming Central America and showed the way for peace and democracy where a blood bath could have occurred.
Former President Kim Dae Jung is one of those Nobel Peace Prizewinners who had a “divine appointment” with Heaven and whose deep faith, perseverance and ability to discern God’s will allowed him to become the father of democracy in South Korea and engage in significantly diminishing the potential for war on the Korean Peninsula. This is the story and the views of one our century’s greatest world peacemakers, President Kim Dae Jung, winner of the 2000 Nobel Peace Prize. President Kim practiced at the highest levels of world government: compassion, forgiveness, and most of all peace.
It is the mission of the Wholistic Peace Institute to “stop the killing in the world” by calling on the work and the knowledge of the Nobel Peace Laureates. The Nobel Peace Laureates are the architects of world peace and by studying their work, applying their principles and engaging with them in conferences and forums on contemporary peace issues, world peace can be achieved. By studying what other people have not studied, i.e. their work, the Institute believes that world peace can be achieved in our lifetimes.
The Nobel Peace Laureates Can Bring World Peace
The Work Of The Wholistic Peace Institute: “To Stop The Killing”
The purpose of the Wholistic Peace Institute is to reduce the violence in the world and take action to stop the killing. In the Institute’s view, the most egregious sin is for one human being to take the life of another human being, thus war with its enormous killing potential is quite frankly the world’s worst sin. World War II killed 52 million people, most of whom were civilians and not soldiers. A modern war fought with nuclear weapons has the potential to kill hundreds of million of people and should be considered the worst possible situation. One of the world’s great peacemakers, Betty Williams the 1976 co winner of the Nobel Peace Prize once said: “every soldier killed by war is an act against God and the mother who bore him or her”.
One of the Institute’s Board members, Rabbi Emeritus Joshua Stampfer, tells the story of a King of Samaria from one of the oldest tablets of writing every found, dating back 5,000 years BC. In the story on the ancient tablet, Rabbi Stampfer says: “one king is saying the neighboring king is creating problems for him; so he makes war on him; vanquishes him and now he has brought peace to the world”. Rabbi Stampfer goes onto to say that kings or leaders or presidents have been doing this for at least the last 7,000 years, believing that war can bring peace; and it cannot. This is what the work of the Institute is about to stop the killing, whether it be by war and soldiers; the collateral damage to civilians that war causes; or the killing of people by poverty, genocide, or any other such means.
The means by which the Institute does this is by bringing together multiple Nobel Peace Laureates to dialogue on world peace and to offer fresh ideas for how to achieve peace in the world’s trouble spots. It is in the world’s most violent trouble spots that the killing goes on, often unabated because the governmental and diplomatic solutions have been tried over and over and have failed over and over. Areas such as the killing in the Middle East, which if left unchecked and unsolved could create the dynamics for a nuclear exchange, thus creating a nuclear winter and affecting all life on earth. It is no secret that Israel has upwards of 30 nuclear devices and would not hesitate to use them if its survival were at stake. Once a nuclear exchange occurs, it will be too late.
Other world trouble spots include the current nuclear tension on the Korean Peninsula and the rearming and remilitarization of Japan over the issue. Also the nuclear tension between India and Pakistan and the hegemony which China exerts on the conflict is worrisome. All of these areas are potentially gravely serious problems that may not have workable solutions without new and fresh ideas. The Institute believes that the Nobel Peace Laureate’s offer our world it’s greatest opportunity for achieving peace in these areas. The Nobel Peace Institute in Oslo, Norway have been awarding the Nobel Peace Prize in peace for over 100 years, recognizing the world’s greatest peace leaders who have found a way to bring peace to areas of conflict which could have killed millions of people, but because of their peace agreements, the killing has stopped.
Peace works and there is a formula to it, a teaching about it and an understanding of it. By bringing together multiple world peacemakers, focused primarily on the Nobel Peace Laureates, the greatest minds of our generation come to bear on how to solve the world’s peace problems. The Nobel Peace Laureates have all been awarded the peace prize for being able to discern the right and perfect formula for achieving peace somewhere in the world, in unique circumstances and then having the moral courage to stand against the possibility of personal death or torture and live by their principles. Then having applied their specific formula for peace, they have then refined it moreless in the heat of the battle and their peace has been successful, thus sparing sometimes millions of people, both soldiers and innocent civilians from torture and death.
Having done this, they have then been evaluated by a world wide body and not been found lacking morally, personally or their peace less than the best. As a result they have been awarded the most prestigious peace prize in the world, a Nobel Peace Prize. By studying who they are and how they did this the world and each of us can learn how to achieve peace. By bringing them together, 6 or 12 of them at a time for a conference, held in the regions of greatest trouble in the world, and giving them the opportunity of working together to formulate a plan for peace, the Institute believes offers the world one of the best ways world peace can be achieved in our lifetimes.
In a sense the Nobel Peace Laureates offer the world “teachings on peace” and the world needs to listen. The Institute is simply a vehicle for delivering the “teaching on world peace” which these “architects of world peace” have to offer to the world. Our World Peace Conferences are always held in University’s so that the world’s college students can be inspired by these dialogues and can come away with a determination to work for world peace. The Institute also believes that every University in the world should be declared a “zone of peace”.
The Institute believes that over time a new body of knowledge will emerge on world peace and peace making. The Institute looks to the Nobel Peace Laureates to articulate that new body of knowledge and so it will document and promote the “new fabric and formulas’ for world peace as it emerges from its peace conferences as well as other conferences involving Nobel Peace Laureates. The world has at its disposal an amazing group of individuals who are walking encyclopedia’s of how to achieve world peace and the Institute spends its resources tapping this knowledge and disseminating it.
A New Approach To Peacemaking: A Wholistic Approach
The Institute offers at our World Peace Conferences with Nobel Peace Laureates a Wholistic Approach to peacemaking, which can be defined as bringing to bear on the conflict at hand, all the faculties of a full human being. For example, a human being is composed of four basic aspects: a mental component; an emotional component; a physical component; and a spiritual component. With the mental component we know it is real for we have the experience of thought and thinking and so it is important what we are thinking for it affects our attitude and thus our actions towards others and ourselves. If there is conflict that cannot be healed, then we can conclude there is wrong thinking going on and the Institute attempts to document this and offer solutions so that conflict parties can see new and different perspectives
Likewise our emotional component is just as important and again we know it is real for we feel and have emotions. How does one heal the feeling of revenge, such as in the Middle East where say someone’s great-grandfather, grandfather, and father, for both the Israeli and the Palestinian side have been killed? How does family healing occur when generations have been killed by each side? The Institute offers solutions in its peace studies as to how emotional healing can be implemented and brought into the diplomatic peace seeking process, for without it peace agreements usually fail over time for the relationships are not yet restored.
The physical boundaries of countries are also an aspect. For without secure borders to guarantee physical security, there is really no way to guarantee safety and thus peace. Finally all human beings have a spiritual aspect and although it is often invisible and a mystery, it too is real. How to motivate and nurture that part in each of us that can be compassionate and can forgive becomes important. Our World Peace Conferences also reach out to international religious leaders and give them an opportunity to speak to these issues.
The word “Wholistic” is a derivation on the word “holistic” which is derived from the Greek word “Holos” which means to heal. Thus the word Wholistic is to seek “wholeness” in the solution so that “wholeness” or true healing can flow and a peace can be sustained, rather than a short term agreement not do violence or not to do violence while someone is looking. Thus the Institute promotes a Wholistic approach to peace and offers at the beginning of each World Peace Conference a peace study which lays out a “whole approach” to peacemaking. The Nobel Peace Laureates are then given an opportunity to comment on this plan and use it as they see fit.
It is vital that peacemaking include a recognition that a lasting peace cannot occur without human forgiveness, reconciliation, and compassion. This is because peace involves human beings and when tragedy occurs to an individual or a family, the easy path is revenge and the harder path is forgiveness. Without finding new ways to bring “spiritual or human values” into the diplomatic peace seeking process, the peace of today is often gone by tomorrow.
The Institute’s World Peace Conferences focus on how to bring forgiveness, reconciliation, and compassion into the diplomatic peace seeking process. The Wholistic Peace Institute held its first World Peace Conference on May 15, 2001 in at Portland State University in Portland, Oregon, six Nobel Peace Laureates gave their views on how to achieve world peace. They were: The Dalai Lama; President Lech Walesa of Poland; Betty Williams from Northern Ireland; Adolfo Perez Esquivel from Argentina; Amnesty International; Physicians For Social Responsibility
The Nobel Peace Laureates are the architects of world peace today. They have proven themselves through great personal courage and creativity and faith to stand up and take a stand when that was the only way peace could have been brought to a conflict. They deserve the world’s respect and it is important to listen to their ideas as to how to solve current conflict situations and to convene them in multiple numbers to articulate Nobel Peace Action Plan’s for our contemporary conflicts.
The Wholistic Peace Institute intends to convene 15 Nobel Peace Laureates in two international conferences within the next few years on new approaches to peace in the world’s two most dangerous conflicts: the Korean conflict and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. As an NGO (Non Governmental Organization) the Institute believes that by tapping the “creative peace ideas” of the world’s Nobel Peace Laureates, a new break-through in the conflict can be found. By relying on Nobel Peace Laureates to find new ways to prevent war, the Institute fulfills its mission of “stopping the killing” of a potential war before it starts. The conference will: start with a well researched study of how the Wholistic Approach can help each conflict; explore new approaches for peace in each conflict; will engage multiple Nobel Peace prize winners in dialogue on their ideas for how to bring peace; will seek the views of international religious leaders of all faiths on new ideas on how to bring peace; will explore how compassion and forgiveness can be part of the diplomatic peace seeking process; will publish a Nobel Peace Action Plan of the ideas of the Nobel Peace Laureates; and will engage them for a period of at least five years, directly and personally in helping to implement the Plan.
Faith As A Path To Peace
After Fifty Years of Hate, Forgiveness Is Offered
The Korean War began on June 25, 1950 and full scale fighting occurred until an armistice was signed on July 17, 1953. As part of the armistice a Demilitarized Zone or DMZ was established along the 38th parallel and separated North Korea, knows officially as the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) from South Korea, known officially as the Republic of Korea (ROK). Across this DMZ two of the larger standing armies of any country in the world, faced each other for almost fifty years looking through the lens of hate and a hair trigger alert which could have sent either army careening against each other.
Although the Korean War that was fought during the 1950-1953 year period was a result of the provocation of the invasion of the North Korean Army into the south, it was maintained and supplied by the big powers at the time: the United States, China, and the Soviet Union. It was for all intensive purposes a test of will between the United States and communist China and the Soviet Union and became the cold war’s first proxy war. Between 1953 and the end of the 1990’s each army was on a hair trigger alert as to the status of the other side. In this period of intense hostility, no families were repatriated; there were small deadly skirmishes in the nearby waters and now and then on land; there were tunnels built under the DMZ that seemed to indicate invasion plans. There was in fact no credible way to reduce the tension of the war footing that existed for both sides.
It was as if a “spiritual closed door” existed between North and South Korea and the DMZ, like the Berlin Wall in Europe, symbolically mirrored this inability for light to penetrate the thinking of either government. This situation was aggravated by the dictatorships that took power through coups in South Korea and by the cult of personality which was created around the North Korean leaders, who could do no wrong and who had no Parliament of people’s voice to temper them. In short there was no culture of peace, no culture of democracy on either side that would allow different perspectives to view the stalemate in any other terms than those of intense hostility.
That is until President Kim Dae Jung articulated and offered his olive branch to Kim Jong-il in 2000 and traveled to Pyongyang and offered his Sunshine Policy as one of hope and forgiveness and reconciliation so that peace could once again become part of the consciousness of both people’s. As a result of the Korean War and the existence of dictatorships on both sides of the DMZ a stalemate existed which promoted a “culture of war”? This “culture of war” was born in war and authoritarian government and the virtual physical destruction of Korean cities and infrastructure. It was fed by a lack of forgiveness and hate and mutual distrust and disrespect. It was for all intensive purposes a blanket which eliminated all hope that things might change for the better and that there was no other way to view each side other than through the lens of war.
A Nobel Peace Laureate once said to me that for a conflict to end, “one side must be willing to accept the last blow”. He has also gone onto say that there is a two step approach or a human approach to world peace: first heal the relationship; and then secondly discuss the individual issues that keep the two sides apart. But the healing of the relationship is the most important part of the peacemaking process.
Without delving too deeply into the politics or the history of the Korean Conflict, in simple terms we can say that the relationship between the leader of South Korea and North Korea had broken down. The breakdown of the relationship led to the first Korean War and maintained this “culture of war” in the consciousness of the people’s of both nations for almost fitly years. What President Kim Dae Jung did was to heal the relationship between the leaders of these two countries, using the spiritual tools of compassion, forgiveness, love and reconciliation. Very powerful tools, tools used by Mahatma Gandhi, by Martin Luther King, and many others with amazing even miraculous results. By extending a hand in friendship to Kim Jong-il the leader of North Korea, President Kim Dae Jung literally changed over night the “culture of war” into a “culture of peace”.
On December 10, 2000 President Kim Dae Jung won the Nobel Peace Prize for his world peace work with Kim Jong Il of North Korea and his Sunshine Policy. The Nobel Lecture he delivered below outlines this important policy. The idea of revenge must have occurred to the new president. Instead, as with Nelson Mandela, forgiveness and reconciliation became the main planks in Kim’s political platform and guided the steps he took. Kim Dae-jung forgave most things – including the unforgivable.
President Kim’s Faith and Service to Humanity
President Kim has spoken to God all of his life through deep prayer and he like other Nobel Peace Laureates such as Martin Luther King, Aldofo Perez Esquivel, Lech Walesa and others such as Mahatma Gandhi heard God’s voice in their quiet hours as a “still small Voice”. For it is in discerning God’s will that the Lord opens the doors and protects us through what can be the most adverse of personal times.
President Kim once said: “One night while in prayer, I heard a voice say, `Only be faithful and you will live.’ I made up my mind then to live only according to God’s will”. His life has been a testimony to that pledge. President Kim is at ease with his religious beliefs and has unabashedly referred to those beliefs throughout his life.*
The idea that God speaks to us as a “still small Voice” is first found in a passage in the bible in 1 Kings 19:11, 12, which states:
“And He said, Go forth, and stand upon the mount before the Lord. And, behold, the Lord passed by, and a great and strong wind rent the mountains, and brake in pieces the rocks before the Lord; but the Lord was not in the wind: and after the wind an earthquake; but the Lord was not in the earthquake: and after the earthquake a fire; but the Lord was not in the fire: and after the fire a still small voice.”
*This section comes primarily from a National Catholic Reporter Article Oct 27, 2000
President Kim was guided by the Holy Spirit in his faithfulness to the Lord; guided in his miraculous ability to withstand torture and being on death row; guided in his ability to win the Presidency after three years on death row, a seeming miracle; guided in his ability in bringing democracy for the first time ever to South Korea; guided in his reaching out to North Korea with forgiveness and reconciliation across decades of hate to repair a broken relationship; and blessed by God with a Nobel Peace Prize. To understand President Kim Dae Jung and the Sunshine Policy one must discern it through spiritual eyes as well as political and secular eyes. One cannot fully grasp what President Kim Dae Jung did without understanding its significance in spiritual as well as moral terms. To see it only politically is to miss the most important part and to not realize that the moral authority of the Sunshine Policy will stand the test of time.
President Kim Dae Jung converted to Catholicism in 1956 at the age of 31. He has spent 40 years opposing repressive, militaristic governments and has seen his share of adversity, trials and tribulations. President Kim has a deep and abiding faith in the Lord and has said many times that it is his faith that sustained him through his years in exile and his years on death row in Seoul. Between 1970 and 1990, he spent most of his time in prison, under house arrest or in exile and he has survived four assassination attempts and innumerable beatings from police and jailers. At one talk President Kim recalled the moment when he was almost thrown into the sea to drown by South Korean government agents, but saved through the direct intervention of the United States
President Kim once said: “I used to spend sleepless nights in anguish, thinking and praying how to carry on with life,” Kim once told a congregation of Korean Catholics. . Kim’s baptismal name is Thomas More, after a saint who had his own troubles with political oppression.
President Kim at his presidential inauguration in February 1998, vowed to make himself “the president of the people,” a president who would “wipe the tears of the alienated and encourage those in despair.” He called for a “revolution of mind,” which meant, he said, “respect for each person and adherence to justice as the highest value.” One commentator at the inauguration said Kim called for women’s rights and equality saying, “the wall of sexual discrimination in homes, workplaces and society must be removed. No Korean president had ever made such a pledge. It was also at his inauguration that Kim reiterated his determination to do all he could to bring reconciliation with North Korea, bringing unity to a people divided for more than 50 years. Later in 2000 President Kim won the 2000 Nobel Peace Prize for fulfilling this inaugural pledge.
President Kim exemplifies the virtues of forgiveness and reconciliation. In a letter sent to his second son, Hong-up, Nov. 24, 1980, after Kim was sentenced to death, he wrote: “Only the truly magnanimous and strong are capable of forgiving and loving. Let us persevere, then, praying always that God will help us to have the strength to love and forgive our enemies. Let us together, in this way, become the loving victors.”
President Kim once said: “I admire Abraham Lincoln and his spirit of tolerance, forgiveness and inclusiveness,” Kim said. He referred to the fact that after the North’s win in the U.S. civil war, Lincoln forgave the people of the South, saying, “With malice toward none and charity for all.”
Kim said, “I was able to forgive ex-Presidents Chun and Roh, who tried to kill me, because of Lincoln’s influence.” Kim was able to bear years of torment, because, like his baptismal namesake, he sees his political role as primarily that of a servant. He understands the term to mean not civil servant, but suffering servant.
“Carrying the cross means struggling against oppressive structures as Jesus did,” Kim told the gathering last year at his baptismal anniversary. There may be temporary failure and misunderstanding, he said, but history has proven that justice will always prevail.
Furthermore, Kim’s faith is that of an activist. He told the pope during one of their meetings: “The Korean Catholic church played a leading role in the struggle for democracy and human rights under the authoritarian governments of the past. It also took the lead in efforts to protect the rights of the poor as well as for reconciliation and peaceful unification. And in 1997, when the entire Korean people were suffering a setback on account of the foreign currency crisis, it gave us courage, confidence and hope.
“I believe that the Korean Catholic church will become an important foundation for peace and the development of Korean society.” For President Kim, his Catholic faith played a major role in his formation. Cardinal Stephen Kim Sou-hwan, retired archbishop of Seoul, who first nominated Kim as a candidate for the Nobel Peace Prize in 1992, said, “The award is an honor not only for President Kim but also for the entire Korean people. President Kim’s efforts for democracy and human rights were finally recognized internationally.”
Kim was kidnapped from the Hotel Grand Palace in Tokyo on Aug. 8, 1973 and taken to Seoul by boat. Shortly after being released in the streets of the capital five days later, he was put under house arrest by the South Korean government, and then led by Kim’s authoritarian opponent President Park Chung Hee.
Kim faced many trials, including attempts on his life and years of imprisonment and exile under past military regimes. In those tumultuous years when South Korea was under the authoritarian grip of President Park Chung Hee, Kim successively became a dissident, an exile, a death-row prisoner and, again, an exile. Through it all, he was a determined human rights campaigner and a champion of democracy.
In l98l, when the now-revered South Korean President Kim Dae Jung was rotting away in a military jail in Seoul, virtually no one expected this Roman Catholic dissident to survive. He was stricken with arthritis and heart trouble. His wife, Hee Ho Lee Kim, a Methodist lay worker, was permitted to visit him for only l0 minutes a month, and in his letters he wrote to her almost entirely about their shared Christian faith. To many, it seemed certain that he was preparing to die.
Even the Vatican sent its first official delegation to North Korea four years ago, a trip described as an aid mission for flood victims. The communist country had broken its long isolation then, asking the outside world for emergency aid to help feed its people. Vatican officials have made at least two other visits since then.
North Korea does not encourage religion among its tightly controlled population of 22 million. It built three churches-two Protestant and one Roman Catholic-in the late 1980s. South Korea, with a population of 46 million, has about 4 million Roman Catholics. There is no known Roman Catholic community in North Korea. About 4,000 North Koreans belong to a Catholic association it described as even more tied to the state than China’s state-controlled Catholic Church.*
President Kim Dae Jung’s Sunshine Policy & Politics As A Path To Peace
President Kim has said:
“Peace, reconciliation and love are all Christian values and since this has been my motto throughout my life, one could say that the foundation for the Sunshine Policy is Christian values. However, the wisdom of the East has also played a role, e.g. Buddhist ideas of mercy and Confucius ideas of tolerance. Peace in Asia is directly related to peace in the world. Peace on the Korean Peninsula is also directly related to the economic development in the region, which is turning into a huge market globally.” (The 21st Century and the Korean People, Page 317)
The Sunshine Policy for which President Kim won the 2000 Nobel Peace Prize was motivated by his deep faith and personal commitment toward forgiveness, compassion and reconciliation. It is essentially a manifestation of the Holy Spirit and so it has great power to effect positive outcome and change. Before the historic meeting of President Kim Dae Jung and Kim Jong IL in 2000, the two Korea’s were armed bastions, on hair trigger alert where the slightest provocation could have brought a new Korean war.
Since the implementation of the Sunshine Policy there has been a dramatic lessening of tension on the Korean Peninsula; there is huge investment in North Korea by South Korean corporations to bring jobs and improve the overall well being of the people; and there is a major flow of NGO humanitarian aid to the North Korean people. In the southern part of North Korea, in Geosong, there are large tourist facilities being developed and which will be expanded and the model used in other parts of North Korea to encourage tourism. In short President Kim’s Sunshine Policy has done just that, it has brought light to a relationship which has been in the dark since 1950 and is beginning to heal. One can say that forgiveness, compassion, reconciliation are the Light of God and this Light was shown upon the relationship with North Korea to bring healing.
The Sunshine Policy softened North Korea’s attitudes towards South Korea by encouraging interaction and economic assistance; you can see this directly in Geosong, North Korea. The policy has three basic principles: Peaceful coexistence, however no armed provocation by the North will be tolerated; Peaceful exchange, the South actively seeks cooperation with the North on all economic and social matters; and Peaceful unification, the South will not attempt to absorb the North in anyway; but both countries will strive for long term unification, in perhaps a 25-50 year time frame.
The goal of the Policy is peaceful coexistence rather than regime change or reunification, although reunification is the very long range goal.
As part of the Policy there would be three stages: Confederation, to create a organizational framework which would create by treaty, two empowered states which would later adopt a constitution; Federation (Latin: foedus, covenant) a union comprising North and South Korea as partially self-governing states or regions united by a central (“federal”) government. In a federation, the self-governing status of the component states is typically constitutionally entrenched and may not be altered by a unilateral decision of the central government
Market Economics As A Path To Peace
Why Does War Exist (Excerpts From: War, Peace and the Social Order-By Brian Fogerty)
Professor Brian Fogerty in his book: War, Peace and the Social Order* analyzes the nature of war and why it exists; most President’s of countries still today believe “war brings peace” which it never does, only plants the seeds of future wars. Professor Fogarty makes the following case:
“The Cold War is over but the US military has worked hard at finding a new mission. Today the US military is charged with the global advancement of American interests and enforcements of American dictates. The ongoing Gulf crisis has helped justify that mission, while the military has also tried its hand at peace enforcement roles in missions while retaining at least part of the old one, and because it has managed simply to maintain its enormous size, the influence of the military in American civilian life seems as strong as ever. The United States continues to be a society organized for war, as exemplified by the permeation of military values into many of its most central institutions”.
Professor Fogarty goes onto postulate why war occurs and also concludes:
“The existence of animosity between nations is not enough to lead to war, nor even the need to protect them from encroachment by others. Even the large-scale theories of war offered by the functionalists and the conflict theorists are better viewed as theories of why, rather than how, wars occur”. “A modern world power must therefore develop a culture of militarism; that is military values must permeate civilian life. This is accomplished by blurring the boundaries between the military component and civilian component of society; it must be as familiar as a football game and as friendly as first grade; this blurring is seen in the education system, arts & entertainment, news media, sports & the economy”.*
War can be overcome with the demilitarization of society and education, to teach about peacemaking activities and conflict resolution strategies from the earliest ages in our school systems. Right from the beginning of a student’s development in school, education to settle conflict with non violent means and how to do this is crucial. It is in changing the culture of society, from a “culture of war” to a “culture of peace” that true progress can be made in preventing future wars and settling violent conflicts.
In October, 2006 President Kim Dae Jung gave an interview to Newsweek Magazine on the solving of the nuclear crisis on the Korean peninsula and the recent testing by North Korea of a nuclear weapon. President Kim insisted that the negotiations, not pressure tactics, remain the key to solving the crisis. Excerpts from the interview follow:
“I cannot understand why the US is still saying it won’t talk because North Korea is evil. You can have dialogue even with the devil if necessary. In the past, President Nixon went to China and had dialogue with Mao Zedong. President Reagan called the Soviet Union and evil empire but still pursued dialogue. President Eisenhower pursed dialogue with Pyongyang during the Korean War, and because that there was an armistice that maintained peace on the peninsula for the last 50 years. From a country that is very much responsible for world peace, the Untied States’ refusal to talk is quite unacceptable”.
In conclusion, to reduce the threat of violence that can come from a conflict between nation states, “culture of peace” must be uppermost in the minds of the President of the countries. The President’s must rely on both a spiritual and political approach; this is what President Kim Dae Jung did with his Sunshine Policy.
Interview With Kim Dae Jung
On February 22nd, I met with the 2000 Nobel Peace Prizewinner & former President Kim Dae Jung, in Seoul, South Korea at his home, to discuss the planning for the Seoul World Peace Conference and also his visit to Oregon. He talked at length for over an hour on his views of the “six party talks” and the prospects of peace between North and South Korea today. The following dialogue ensued:
Question 1: President Dim what are your ideas on the reunification of North and South Korea?: “Some have said that the reunification of East and West Germany is a good model for the reunification of South & North Korea; however South Korea does not have the economic capacity of West Germany. If we were to take on this type of burden, it could prove disastrous economically. There is a wide gap between the people of these two countries; we went to war 60 years ago and stood in conflict with one another (remember it was Korean’s fighting Korean’s). East West Germany is not a good model to use and it did not work that well. What we want at this stage is peaceful coexistence and I believe that the majority of the people want peaceful coexistence, in both countries.”
Question 2: President Kim do you think there was a break through in the “six party talks”? “This agreement is important; but now both the US and North Korea need to implement what was agreed on and I am cautiously optimistic. The US is presently having a problem in Iraq; it can’t wage another war and must pursue dialogue, it simply cannot afford another war. President Bush needs to move away from dictating to North Korea and toward a give and take dialogue; these issues can only be resolved through give and take. Likewise: North Korea should withdraw from its nuclear activities; should allow for regional inspectors; should be free of economic sanctions and receive the fuel oil it has been promised for doing so; and should be given security guarantees. The US can continue to pursue economic pressure to North Korea; Japan and the US are doing this now; but as they do this, China simply pours economic assistance in, making North Korea more dependent on China and less on the international community. Economic sanctions cannot be the means to resolve the issue.”
“President Bush has failed in the Middle East and has only 2 years left. There is a possibility of success with North Korea if he engages in give and take. With the mid term elections; Democrats had a victory and as a result President Bush has to change his policy to be successful on the Korean Peninsula. If North Korea sticks to the agreement and gives up on its nuclear program; and if the US provides the economic aid; does not employ economic sanctions against them; gives security assurances they will not engage in regime change as they have done in Iraq; and tries to normalize relations with North Korea, then there will be foreign policy success for Bush. China is opposed to a nuclear North Korea; for it could mean a nuclear Taiwan, a nuclear Japan, and a nuclear South Korea. It is important for those who want peace in the US to lobby for this deal. If North Korea does not fulfill its commitment to end its nuclear program; then no excuses will exist for North Korea; this will make it very difficult for North Korea. If North Korea deceives and does not keep the agreement; then the US will not provide security assurances and will introduce sanctions and there will be no normalization of relations; North Korea is not in a place to deceive. The US should provide security assurances; try to normalize relationships with North Korea; should not engage economic sanctions; this was the deal agreed on by the 5 member states of the 6 party talks; North Korea must keep this agreement if it wants normalization of relationships; if it doesn’t then the 5 member states will take collective counter measures against North Korea. To date the US has had no direct dialogue with North Korea; has only demanded and has not engaged in give and take talk; the US must learn how to give and take in its foreign policy. The Institute then suggested to President Kim that they would approach all 7 members of the Oregon delegation to sponsor a bill in Congress to ask the US Department of State to open direct talks with North Korea. President Kim felt if this one simple action could be taken, this would be the beginning of peace on the Peninsula and the “normalization of relations with the US and NK would bring an end to the standoff.”
A 2009 World Peace Conference in Asia on the Sunshine Policy’s Next Step
The Wholistic Peace Institute and the Kim Dae Jung Peace Center are working together to convene a large World Peace Conference in either South Korea or China with fifteen or more Nobel Peace Laureates; to ask them to come together in two to three day meetings, to explore new approaches to peace for the Korean Peninsula. The Nobel Peace Laureates are the greatest minds of our world peacemakers, alive today; they are brain trust of humanity’s most creative potential for avoiding major nation to nation state conflict, as well as perhaps avoiding a nuclear war. They have through their own persistence, their creativity, their faith, and there intelligence; brokered a peace, the peace has held and they have been awarded a Nobel Peace Prize. By having them convene and to employ their great reservoir of experience on world peace, to avoid war is the first part of the strategy for world peace.
The second involves taking the “Nobel Peace Plan” they produce and initiating with the Kim Dae Jung Peace Center and the Wholistic Peace Institute office at Pyongyang University of Science and Technology (PUST) in North Korea, a program to employ the Nobel Peace Laureates over a 5 year period to help implement the Nobel Peace Plan, working with high government and University officials and NGO’s and the United Nations in this regard.
The peace issues on the Korean Peninsula are profound. South Korea has become an economic miracle and its capital, home to 15 million people is one of the great cities of the world, well planned and well organized, providing home, health, employment to the South Korean population and economic support to the region. South Korea as a democracy is a model for all of the Far East . Yet only 45 miles to the north lays North Korea , under a dictatorial government, whose people often go to bed hungry, where lights to not burn 24 hours due to energy shortages and where the existence of nuclear weapons has been confirmed. The outcome of a war on the Korean Peninsula would be devastating for South Korea but also the entire Far East . It is in the best interests of all to find ‘new and creative solutions” to avoid any chance of war being started on the Peninsula which could possible kill hundreds of thousands of people. By working with the 2000 Nobel Peace Laureate Kim Dae Jung the Wholistic Peace Institute working with the Kim Dae Jung Peace Center and the Nobel Peace Laureate Center at PUST; organize a three day gathering of 15 Nobel Peace Laureates for dialogue an evolution of President Kim’s Sunshine Policy. The World Peace Conference would occur in the following manner:
2008: Planning of the Conference
- Meeting with President Kim Dae Jung on the details; formulating a letter of invitation to them with President Kim’s signature and Gary Alan Spanovich who will do the follow up work of organizing the conference; as he did in 2001 with 6 Nobel Peace Laureates (this letter of invitation went out under US Senator Mark O. Hatfield’s signature and Gary Alan Spanovich).
- Choosing the Korean or Chinese University to host the conference
- Working with the 15 Nobel Peace Laureates, their staffs and their peace foundations on the conference and their staffs
- Other planning activities of the conference
2009: Holding a Three Day Conference In Korea or China With 15 Nobel Peace Laureates
- Holding of the three day conference in front of a large audience for three days
- The Institute is working with the Kim Dae Jung Peace Center would place on the table at the beginning of the conference a “Wholistic Approach To the Peaceful Reunification Of the Korean Peninsula, Based on President Kim’s 3 Point Peace Plan
- The Nobel’s would then dialogue and create a Nobel Peace Action Plan for the Korean Peninsula
- The Conference would be video taped and transcribed so that a book and a documentary would be published and distributed to colleges, governments, and the news media afterwards.
- One or more of the Nobel’s (perhaps Kim Dae Jung and Jimmy Carter) would travel to Pyongyang to present and discuss these ideas with the North Korean government afterwards.
- The work would also be translated and published in the Korean language.
- A satellite NGO: The Korean Wholistic Peace Institute would be formed at the University with offices there to work on implementation of the Nobel Peace Plan on an on-going basis.
As part of the planning and development of the World Peace Conference and the Nobel Peace Action Plan that would result, two Nobel Peace Laureate Center’s are being planned. One will occur in Portland, Oregon and it will consist of an International Peace Building housing a residence program for Nobel Peace Laureates to spend extended amounts of time in at the Center, working with University faculty; the Center would also contain a World Peace Garden and a Linus Pauling Peace Plaza named after Oregon’s only Nobel Peace Laureate.
A second Nobel Peace Laureate Center is also being planned for Pyongyang University of Science and Technology (PUST), Pyongyang, North Korea and will also contain a separate building where Nobel Peace Laureates can stay for extended periods of time, a World Peace Garden dedicated to Nobel Peace Laureates and public gathering place. This second one at Pyongyang University of Science and Technology (PUST), in Pyongyang, North Korea, will be developed by the Northeast Asia Foundation for Education and Culture, and PUST. These two Nobel Peace Laureate Centers will house a Nobel Peace Laureate for weeks and months, while the Laureate devotes him or herself to research, policy, and educational efforts focusing on the major conflict areas of our time. The Center in Pyongyang will work towards resolving all outstanding conflict issues between North and South Korea.
At this Center’s World Peace Conferences will be planned and the Nobel Peace Laureates will offer creative solutions to reducing and eliminating violence initiated by governments and other bodies in world conflict situations. We believe that to prevent war and the possibility of war, the Nobel Peace Laureates, the greatest living peacemakers of our time, must play a major role in solving contemporary conflict problems. Because many of these problems are complex, the initiation of these conferences and the subsequent partnership with University faculty for follow-up implementation, meaning policy, research, and education at Nobel Peace Laureate Centers, is necessary for success.
Pyongyang University of Science & Technology (PUST): Presently, a series of buildings are being built in Pyongyang, the capital of North Korea, at the University campus. As reported in the April 13, 2007 issue of Science Magazine, “PUST will train North Korean graduate students in a handful of disciplines including market economics, engineering and computer science.” Mr. Chin Kyung Kim, PUST’s founding President, notes on the University’s website (www.pust.net) that, “While the skills to be taught are technical in nature, the spirit underlying this historic venture is unabashedly Christian.” PUST hopes to establish research links and exchanges with North Korea’s top institutions and with universities abroad.
How did North Korea come to grant permission for PUST? After Chairman Kim Jong-Il’s tour of Beijing and Shanghai, a renewed desire for change arose within North Korea, along with the realization of the need for leaders who can revitalize North Korea’s industry and economy and who can engage in international negotiations. It was North Korea that first approached President Chin-Kyung Kim and YUST, requesting that a school be set up in North Korea.
Can it serve as a means for peaceful reunification? PUST faculty will not only consist of Korean professors, but world-renowned professors from many countries, working together and setting the stage for reconciliation. Most importantly, PUST will provide an opportunity for the divided nation to come together and learn from one other and understand one other through collaboration. PUST will be used as a peace zone within North Korea, and will contribute to the alleviation of the tension between the two sides. The fact that PUST is a purely educational venture that seeks to educate young North Koreans who can bring forth peaceful globalization of North Korea has been understood by the United States Congress, which has given PUST its moral support. As the peace talks and negotiations continue, PUST will play a vital role in establishing peace in the Korean Peninsula.
Are there no objections by the international community, including the US? Although North Korea wishes to receive international assistance for economic development, the dilemma lies within its weak infrastructure, which keeps its economic dreams from becoming a reality. Ultimately, it will be the graduates of PUST who will make partnerships with foreign corporations a reality. The phenomenon of bloc economy worldwide hints at the inevitability of alliance among Northeast Asian nations, and PUST will aid North Korea in becoming a legitimate partner, in order to bring about the development and peaceful existence of the region. PUST will also serve as a passageway to the new century. PUST is the channel for reconciliation, reunification, and prosperity in the Korean Peninsula. Through education, PUST will play a key role in preparing the two nations for the post-unification era.
Which programs and majors will be offered at PUST? PUST will initially begin with graduate programs in Information & Communication Technology (ICT), Industrial Management (IM), and Agriculture & Food Technology (AFT). In order to facilitate international education and research, there will be a 1+2 program in which the first year will be dedicated to foundational education and the remaining two years will focus on specific majors or fields of study. In the first year, there will be 150 students, fifty in each department, with plans for major expansions in the fields of market economics, architectural engineering, public health, material science, and mechanical engineering. PUST will commence with three graduate programs, each having fifty students, but plans to expand eventually to 600 graduate and 2000 undergraduate students, while also expanding in the number of departments and majors. The faculty will begin with ten professors in each department, but will eventually increase to 250 members. In addition, there is the need for staff members with experience in network system management and medical facilities.
The proposed Nobel Peace Laureate Program at PUST would have as its purpose housing Nobel Peace Laureates at PUST to help with identifying and implementing new solutions for resolving the Korean Conflict. Additionally, the Laureates would seek to initiate full diplomatic relations between North Korea and other world governments. The first Nobel Peace Laureate to be in residence would be former South Korean President Kim Dae Jung. Following him, other Nobel Peace Laureates would follow: former UN Secretary General Kofi Anan, former US President Jimmy Carter, former President of Poland Lech Walesa, and others. The Nobel Peace Laureate Program would be managed and overseen by the Wholistic Peace Institute, in partnership with the World Peace Center, and would have three functions:
The vision of the PUST Nobel Peace Laureate Residency program is to make a meaningful contribution to world peace by establishing university and Nobel Peace Laureate contacts that can work to reduce tension and accelerate peace on the Korean Peninsula, creating a prosperity and ease of movement that resembles the US-Canadian relationship. This vision aims to maintain two separate countries, but with full diplomatic relations, a deep respect for each another, and a transportation system that allows goods and services to flow freely, for the sake of prosperity and through such instruments as tourism.
The process President Kim Dae Jung used to write the Sunshine Policy, the nature of the Sunshine Policy and the intent of the Sunshine Policy is a model for the Presidents of other countries that are facing conflicts that could result in violence or war. The Sunshine Policy is a model on how to bring forgiveness and compassion into a public policy; partnering both spiritual values and political realities, creating a “Wholistic solution”. The Sunshine Policy contains “spiritual depth & knowledge” along with public policy realities to diffuse conflict and the possibility of imminent war; can be used by other Presidents of other nation states to reduce conflict and tension with their adversaries. The Sunshine Policy healed a relationship; it brought sunshine or Light to a dark conflict. President Kim’s brilliant application can be applied and used in other world conflict situations, again and again. The approach could be used to help ease the Israeli-Palestinian tension and avoid any future wars. President Kim Dae Jung has made a significant contribution to the cause of world peace, by both easing the war tension on the Korean Peninsula but also by showing the ways for other governments and how other world conflicts can be resolved.