World Harmony and the Korean Peninsula
I miss my hometown so much that I visit it often in my dreams. My
hometown is far beyond Seoul, in Jungju, North Korea. It is an area
that has both mountains and the sea. Wherever I am and whatever
time it may be, my heart is always reaching out to that place where there
is love and life. All of us are born into our parents’ lineage, and as we
grow up we are nourished by our parents’ love. We cannot forget our
hometowns because that is where the ground is soaked with our parents’
love. That is why the older we get, the more we miss our hometowns.
It is where our roots are and where we must return. It is difficult for
people to cut themselves off from things that are fundamentally important
to them. In 2004, I ended my activities in the United States after
thirty-four years and returned to the Korean peninsula, where heavenly
fortune resides.
We are not aware of the exact time when morning becomes noon.
Neither are we aware of the exact time that evening becomes night.
In the same way, human beings have no way of knowing the moment
when Heaven does its work. That is how it is with our lives as well. Our
moments of success and failure all pass us by without our being fully
aware of exactly when they began to unfold. The same is true with nations.
We cannot know the moment when good or ill fortune comes to a
nation. Heavenly fortune is a force that moves the world; it is a principle
that makes the universe go around. Though we may not know it, there is
clearly something called heavenly fortune, which the One who created
this world uses to conduct His providence.
The universe moves in perfect accordance with its own order. All beings
in the world bear within them a certain principle that is put there
even before they exist. When a baby is born, no one has to teach it
how to breathe or to open its eyes. The baby does these things without
being compelled. Things that happen on their own hold within them
important keys to the secrets of the universe.
Many natural phenomena seem to just happen on their own. In
reality, though, they don’t happen in this way. Hidden within natural
phenomena in the universe is a directional force that we are not aware
of and do not understand. This is the same with the forces of fortune
in the universe, or heavenly fortune. As the universe turns, it is certain
that there will be a period of powerful fortune. If we understand the
principle of the universe whereby spring follows winter and is then followed
by summer, then we can foresee a bright future for Korea after a
long winter of misfortune.
Those who are wise will align themselves with the laws and rhythms
of the universe. When I was in America I would often fish in the Hudson
River near my home. I have been a very skilled fisherman since I
was a young boy, but there were days on the Hudson when I could not
catch so much as a tiny minnow and had to return home disheartened.
Fish have paths that they travel and certain times when they pass along
those paths. If we don’t know where these paths are and what times they
are on these paths, we won’t catch any fish. Just because there is water,
it does not mean that there will always be fish passing by. A person who
doesn’t understand this could keep his line in the water all day and all
night, and it won’t do him any good. The same is true with heavenly fortune.
If we don’t have an eye to see the future, we will not see heavenly
fortune, even if it is staring us in the face. That is why it is important to
have a keen understanding of heavenly fortune and an ability to sense
its movements.
World civilization has developed throughout history in a westerly
direction. Egypt’s continental civilization gave way to the peninsular
civilizations of Greece and Rome and then developed to the island civilization
of Britain before moving on to another continental civilization,
this time in America. Civilization continued its westerly move, crossing
the Pacific Ocean to Japan. The movement of human civilization didn’t
stop there. The force that raised Japan up to such a great position is now
moving to the Korean peninsula. Human civilization is about to come
to its fruition on the Korean peninsula.
For Japan’s island civilization to link up with the continent, it must
pass through a peninsula. Asia, of course, has other peninsulas, but only
Korea possesses sufficient foundation to inherit contemporary civilization.
The Korean peninsula is in a most exquisite geopolitical position.
It faces Japan and the United States across the Pacific Ocean. It also is
connected to the continents of Asia and Europe and shares common
borders with China and Russia. This is the reason that Korea has been a
focal point in the power struggles among the world’s great powers and
has suffered a great deal as a result.
During the Cold War, we fought for our very existence in a war against
communism. Even now, the concerns and interests of the world’s great
powers continue to involve the Korean peninsula, so Korea remains a
divided country unable to be completely at peace. The time has come
when the Korean peninsula, where the interests of the great powers collide,
will take on an important role in preventing conflict between these
countries. As a result it will be in a position to lead the rest of the world
into prosperity and peace.
Heavenly fortune comes with tremendous responsibility. Now that
the Korean peninsula has come into its heavenly fortune, it must play a
role similar to a ball bearing, making sure that these countries not only
do not collide with each other but instead cooperate closely for the sake
of the prosperity and peace of the world. The functions of a ball bearing
are to hold the axle of a machine in place while also allowing the axle
to rotate freely. Korea needs to maintain smooth relationships with the
great powers and thus become a ball bearing that allows peace to rotate
freely throughout the world.
For a long time I have been making intensive preparations for
Korea to play this role. I supported the glasnost policies of President
Gorbachev and pushed the goal of improving relations with the Soviet
Union. I also supported the reform and openness policies of Deng Xiao
Ping in China, starting in the late 1980s. I began my work in China
by supporting Yanbian University to establish a college of engineering.
Even after the Tiananmen Square incident, when foreign capital was
leaving China, we remained in China and invested hundreds of millions
of dollars in Huizhou, in Kwangtung Province.
I did not do this just for economic reasons. I am a religious person,
not a businessman. A religious person is someone who sees into the
future and prepares for it. Russia, China, Japan, and the United States
must learn to cooperate with each other while using the spiritual
bearings of the Korean peninsula. The Korean peninsula is destined to
become the axis for world peace.
When I began working to improve relations between Korea and
the Soviet Union and China, I discovered that Korea did not even
have something as basic as a Russian or Chinese dictionary. Very
little was going to get done as long as we could not understand each
other’s languages. When I heard that there were groups of academics
who had the foresight to begin work on a Chinese–Korean dictionary
and a Russian–Korean dictionary, I supported these two projects.
The Chinese–Korean Dictionary Project was led by Professor Il Seok
Hong of the Korea University’s Institute of Korean Culture, and several
professors in the university’s Russian studies department were behind
the effort to publish a Russian–Korean dictionary. These dictionaries
are playing crucial roles in the exchanges between the two Koreas and
China and Russia.
When a rock sits atop the highest mountain peak, once it begins to
fall it will fall all the way to the deepest part of the valley. This describes
the changing fortunes of Western civilization. It is common knowledge
that the West achieved incredible development through the use of science,
but now moral decay is sending it down to the depths of the valley
floor. That valley floor is the East, which has been developing a spiritual
culture for thousands of years.
In particular, the Korean peninsula is the place where Eastern and
Western cultures meet, as well as the place where continental and oceanic
civilizations meet. The historian and philosopher Oswald Spengler put
forth a cyclical theory of the rise and decline of civilizations that took a
dim view of democracy and described it as the type of government that
is leading Western civilization into decline. He argued that democracy
is driven by money and that democracy’s corrupting power and its signs
of moral decline include the rise of materialism and cults of science.
Looking at today’s Western culture, it appears that some of his thoughts
were prophetic. The Atlantic civilization that has prospered until now
is clearly facing a new era, the era of a pan-Pacific civilization that is on
the rise. Asia, with Korea poised to take a central role, is becoming the
lead actor in a new world history. Two-thirds of the world’s population
lives in Asia. All the world’s major religions began in Asia. It has long
served as humanity’s spiritual root.
It is inevitable that the Western and Eastern civilizations come
together in harmony on the Korean peninsula. As the world rapidly
changes, heavenly fortune is moving in Korea’s direction at an ever-increasing
speed. However, if the Korean peninsula is to properly perform
its important role in leading the world to harmony and peace during an
era of chaos, then it must prepare itself well. It must do away with a past
marked with prejudice and selfishness and greet the new age with clear
eyes and a new heart.
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