Korean youths write 24,912 ‘Peace Letter’ in 24 hours

IN its bid to promote culture of peace across sections and building sustainable across the globe, scores of youths in Korea have written about 24, 912 peace letters in order to sustain peace within the two Korean leaders following historical peace moves between the two leaders.

The current two Korean leaders – South Korea’s President, Moon Jae-in, and North Korea’s Supreme Leader, Kim Jong-un. met on April 2018 for a summit.

A summit was held on 27 April 2018 in South Korea’s portion of the Joint Security Area. It was the third summit between South and North Korea, agreed by South Korea’s President, Moon Jae-in, and North Korea’s Supreme Leader, Kim Jong-un.

The meeting was held at Joint the Security Area, South Korea where talks on Panmunjom Declaration was held.

Again, on 26 May 2018, Kim and Moon met again in the Joint Security Area.The meeting took two hours, and unlike other summits it had not been publicly announced beforehand.

This epoch feat was achieved during a two day event organised by an international NGO under the United Nations Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC), The International Peace Youth Group (IPYG) and Heavenly Culture, World Peace, Restoration of Light (HWPL) early this month.

The event tagged the “Peace Letter Campaign” was held at 35 locations in seven major cities of South Korea including Seoul and Paju where the recent inter-Korean summit and declaration of Panmunjom was announced.

Earlier this month, the United Nations (UN) Security Council on June 6, unanimously adopted the Resolution 2419 (2018) to “consider ways to increase the inclusive representation of youth for the prevention and resolution of conflict”, considering the crucial role of youth in “building sustainable peace”, “promoting a culture of peace” and protecting youth from violence and conflict at the same time.

At the event citizens, especially students, wrote letters with the contents advocating efforts of peace by their national leaders.

According to the IPYG, 24,912 peace letters were written and collected in two days of the event through youth participation.

The IPYG further said that the letters will be delivered to the two leaders of the two Koreas when they reached 150,000 in number.

As a backbone of the youth-led advocacy campaign for peace-building, the IPYG introduced “the Declaration of Peace and Cessation of War (DPCW)” with 10 articles and 38 clauses, which stipulates peaceful dispute settlement, disarmament, religious and ethnic freedom, and spreading a culture of peace.

A participant at the event,Ms. Park Min-Jeong, said, “Although there was a vague fear of reunification, I have come to think about positive aspects and expectation that reunification will be achieved in this era by seeing the inter-Korean summit.

“I realized that I should be aware of the issues of the international community to join in peace activities that will end the war in our times,” she added.

The General Manager of IPYG, Mr Peter Jung,”The future of Korea is youth. If young people are interested in reunification, and take the lead for it, we can achieve peace on the Korean Peninsula. The start can be a letter of heart. We will work hard so that youth can be more interested in and lead the peaceful reunification,”

The IPYG has initiated a youth network for peace with 851 youth organizations in 110 countries around the world.

The IPYG says that the “Peace Letter” campaign has also been held globally and the letters advocating peace-building in their countries will be delivered to their national leaders.