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Segundo Valentin Valladares Melgar: Address to World Summit 2022, Plenary Session IV
Written by Mr. Segundo Valentin Valladares Melgar, IAED-Peru secretary general
Friday, February 11, 2022
Address to World Summit
February 11-13, 2022
Distinguished organizers of the International Committee of the World Summit 2022, authorities of the different delegations from countries around the world. I would like to thank you, Dr. Hak Ja Han Moon, Mother of Peace, for bringing peace to our country through the almost 1,000 Ambassadors for Peace who have been appointed and from whom I bring my fraternal greetings.
It is a great honor and privilege for me to address all of you, since this summit brings us together today to deal with an issue that sets great challenges for us—reconciliation and peace on the Korean Peninsula—and a topic of IAED itself, which is business, trade and tourism in the Korean Peninsula.
Precisely in these times after the pandemic, whose effects generated great health, economic, and social crises in our country, many countries of the Latin American region and many countries of the world, it forced us, both from urban and rural communities such as the homes of citizens and workers and neighbors to large companies and corporations, that led us to seek new models of recovery, reorganization, reactivation and innovation through large online businesses or telecommuting. Online connection allowed us to connect from one continent to another, to large companies, to large businesses which didn’t come to a standstill and today are being reactivated.
Adding to this episode, today we will analyze the great crisis generated by the division of two peoples that are united by the same history, the same religion, the same ethnic culture and, something very important, the union of many family ties. But for more than 70 years they have been separated due to the whims and ideological and political arrogance by foreign people who are not even the Koreans themselves but aliens to the realities of the countries. Due to their politics they brought a foreign war and an artificial division without any historical criteria or that had to do with the history of the Korean people.
This division was decided by great powers that came out victorious from the Second World War, that were led and motivated by foreign interests, from countries that have a presence on the peninsula, that antagonize and deprive their populations of great opportunities, to many generations of the Korean Peninsula.
For us pacifists, in our understanding there is only room for the idea that Korea is one people, and soon it will become a single republic, a single country. How not to demand the reunification of both Koreas? Reality shows us that North Korea, with its great territorial and maritime potential, can develop large amounts of wealth in agriculture, mining, fishing, industry, biochemistry, that is not only not a threat to the world but rather tries to ease problems such as the pandemic we have had and many sectors that can generate employment for workers from the Koreas.
If we add to this the opening of the doors to the export and import market as an open commercial economy, we would stop comparing the 18th position that North Korea occupies among the world's economies, and in addition to this, the malnutrition of 40 percent of its population, to the tenth place that South Korea holds among the world's economies and the high standard of living of its population.
Trade and open world markets have helped millions and millions of people to overcome poverty in recent decades. For both North and South Korea, reunification has been one of their main aspirations for many decades. Proof of this is the great titanic work that the great leaders and founders of UPF, Rev. Sun Myung Moon and Dr. Hak Ja Han Moon, Mother of Peace, have been carrying out for a lifetime, fighting tirelessly for peace and reconciliation of the Korean Peninsula.
This issue of reunification must be dealt with in an internal axis of nations that discuss and lead the reunification of their own country: Korea belongs only to Koreans. These challenges that the Korean Peninsula raises lead us to reconsider and rethink the elements needed for its pacification.
UPF, through its baseline organizations and activities such as the Think Tank or the Rally of Hope series carried out by the Mother of Peace, and this current summit that is taking place and its associations, leads us to believe that peace in the two Koreas is more than a possibility—it is an extremely urgent fact, and it’s a cry from all around the world: Peace, Korea wants peace.
The commercial, business, tourism and global exchange expectations must be openly connected with the whole world and thus allow both Korean peoples to improve their quality of life, for them and for the rest of the world. The great step taken by divided Germany before the eyes of the world would be the first step in the consolidation of world peace that should be emulated by the two Koreas: If men arrived on the moon and took a small step, the reunification of the two Koreas would be a great step for men and this century.
In this way we would be vindicating the great ideal of Reverend Moon: creating a peaceful global community without borders, without landmarks, without parallels, without selfish nationalism and indifference. By contrast, we would generate a culture of mutual prosperity, interdependence and citizen values such as solidarity, empathy, business-commercial economic resilience, with social responsibility that allows environmental protection.
Finally, in this context of great global concern and interest, the reunification of the two Koreas would be fulfilled if countries that have had a presence on the peninsula, that formed the Six-Party Talks, would remain on the sidelines, with the exception of the two Koreas. Only the two Koreas would resolve the issue of pacification.
Likewise, a multinational guarantor commission should be formed with neutral countries that haven’t had any participation in this conflict, that generate free trade with treaties such as those we already have here in Peru and in the rest of the world with nations like South Korea. Events that generate cultural, artistic, sports synergy and actions such as humanitarian aid for our brothers in North Korea should be expanded throughout the Korean Peninsula. Economic development, trade, tourism, business and humanitarian social inclusion will allow us to achieve our goals of pacifying the Korean Peninsula more effectively and efficiently.
May the reunification of the two Koreas be a great step for man and a great opportunity for humankind.
To go to the World Summit 2022 Schedule page, click here.