The following is an excerpt from an article by Lee Hyo-jin for The Korea Times. Held on September 28, 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.
Around 30,000 people, including North Korean defectors and international experts on Korean Peninsula affairs, participated in the Korean Dream Unification Action March near the Demilitarization Zone (DMZ) separating the two Koreas on Saturday.
The event, aiming to create a new nation that contributes not only to unification but also to global peace, was organized by the civic group Korean Dream 10 Million Campaign’s citizen organizing committee, which includes the Committee for 10 Million Separated Families and People Practicing Unification. It was sponsored by the Ministry of Unification, the Paju city government and the Global Peace Foundation (GPF).
According to the organizers, the marching event aimed to highlight the vision of Korean unification as a grassroots movement rather than a political ideology.
As participants marched down the 2-kilometer route around Imjingak Peace Nuri Park, they chanted slogans such as “Unification through the power of citizens” and “Realizing free unification and world peace.”
