It is not just the cease-fire line that divides our people. The Youngnam and Honam regions are also divided by an invisible line. Also, Koreans who live in Japan are divided between the Korean Residents Union in Japan, or Mindan, which has ties to South Korea, and the General Association of Korean Residents in Japan, or Chongryon, which has ties to North Korea. The conflict between the two organizations in Japan is based on the hometowns of their respective members. Second- and third-generation Korean residents in Japan, who have never been to their parents’ hometowns, still live in conflict with each other, as they live within the lines drawn by their parents. The members of the two organizations use slightly different language, send their children to different schools, and do not intermarry.

       In 2005, I put into effect my long-held plan to create oneness among Koreans in Japan, as well as among Koreans in the Youngnam and Honam regions. I invited one thousand members of Mindan and one thousand members of Chongryon to Seoul, and matched them in sisterhood and brotherhood relationships to one thousand people from the Youngnam region and one thousand people from the Honam region. It is next to impossible for Chongryon and Mindan to sit down together in Japan and talk about the peaceful unification of North and South. The task of gathering these people in one place was difficult, but it was deeply moving for me to see them sitting together and embracing each other. One Chongryon official at the event was visiting Seoul for the first time. He spoke in tears as he commented that he deeply regretted the many years he had spent fighting a war that was not his own, particularly as he was not even certain which part of the peninsula his father actually came from. He said he felt immeasurably ashamed for having lived his life with a meaningless line of division drawn in his heart.

       To fully understand the division of the Korean peninsula and the conflict between the two sides, we must be able to look comprehensively at the past, present, and future. Every incident has a root cause. The division of the Korean peninsula was created by the history of struggle between good and evil. When the Korean War broke out, the Soviet Union, China, and other communist countries came to the aid of North Korea. In a similar way, sixteen countries, led by the United States, sent armed forces to the aid of South Korea. Also, five countries sent medical teams, and twenty nations provided war supplies. What other war in history involved so many countries in the fighting? The reason that the entire world became involved in a war that took place in the tiny country of Korea is that this was a proxy war between the forces of communism and the forces of freedom. It could be said that Korea came to represent the world, and that good and evil fought fiercely on its soil.