September 28, South Korea—The “2024 Korean Dream Grand March for a Unified Korea” was a massive celebration of Korea’s National Foundation Day near the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ). Accompanied by the International Forum on One Korea hosted in Seoul, the festival mobilized civil society activists and leaders, both in Korea and from the global Korean diaspora, to support a campaign to engage 10 million activists by 2025.
The following is an excerpt from an article by Michael Marshall for UPI.
Billed as the 2024 Korean Dream Grand March for a Unified Korea, it was organized by Action for Korea United, the largest coalition of civil society groups supporting Korea’s unification in the country.
AKU has 17 regional chapters and has run hundreds of educational workshops in the Korean Dream philosophy of unification.
That philosophy was conceived by Hyun Jin Preston Moon, founder and chairman of Global Peace Foundation, a non-profit and co-sponsor of the March. He looks to Korea’s history—and a reconnection with its deep spiritual roots—to provide the glue that can unite diverse groups of Koreans around a common purpose.
He told a lively crowd they were at a “watershed in the history of our people” in which a “confluence of issues is moving Korea toward unification.”
He called upon the audience to help revive Korea’s ancient “high spiritual civilization” represented in the hongik ingan ideal linked to Korea’s founding, which means “living for the greater benefit of all humanity,” and the spirit of the March 1, 1919, Independence movement.
These mobilized around 20% of the population in peaceful, mass demonstrations, the first in modern times, against Japanese colonial rule.
Appealing to this legacy, Moon said, “We are a providential people with a mandate to serve humanity. Rise up and show the world who we are!”
He urged the government to re-establish the Ministry of Unification as a committee of scholars, experts, and civil society representatives to provide continuity and avoid the policy shifts that now came with changes of administration.
