Youth Sovereignty Peace Conference, ‘Piece of Peace’ Event
Piece of Peace', the peace conference for the peaceful unification of Korean peninsula, was held in Gwangju, South Korea under the public attention to the fact that North and South Korea will wave the "Korean Peninsula Flag" during the North-South joint opening in PyeongChang 2018 Olympic Winter Games on Feb 9.
There were 100 peace-loving youths participated in the event including members of International Peace Youth Group(IPYG) and Higgs Leadership and Gwangju citizens in G-Music Center at 7 pm on 29 Jan.
This event was held with a hope that North and South Koreas can step up to the way of peace and unification through the peaceful Olympics. It is thought provoking youth took the first step toward peaceful unification as main agents.
It was suggested to announce the necessity of the change of our awareness for achieving the unification of ethnic consciousness of North and South Korea because the division of two Koreas means that not just the division of territory or sovereignty but also the minds of people.
Ms. Yu-jeong Nam, Chairwoman of Halla-Baekdu Association for peace unification said " Many of youths has vague notions about peaceful unification but they actually have lived under the negative idea doubting ‘Will the unification be achieved?’ The reunification of North and South, however, is not difficult. It is just a difference in our ideas. We should unite ourselves together to leave peace as a legacy to our future generation." Also, she stressed the importance of peaceful unification by saying "Unification is our duty and reality. It must be achieved for future and security of the Republic of Korea."
Following her speech, various programs related to unification like Unification Golden Bell, Unification Round Table and 'Piece of Peace' performance were shown.
At the Unification Golden Bell Quizzes, they refreshed the mood by taking an OX and common sense quizzes at a level of youth who are unfamiliar to unification and culture of North Korea because about over 50% of twenties have a negative idea on reunification of two Koreas according to survey data of Institute for Peace and Unification Studies Seoul National University (IPUS). Afterwards, they had a discussion based on the topic of unification grouped into ten round tables.
In particular, after sharing all participants harmoniously expressed their hope of unification by completing background of the Korean Peninsula sculpture by attaching with 100 art pieces drawn by their own hands at the 'Piece of Peace' performance
The director of IPYG Gwangju Jeonnam branch, John Kwon, who attended the event shared his impression saying, "Unification is quite a burdensome topic to youth under such a blind environment for their studies and jobs. However, our thoughts about unification were changed positively through programs at an eye level of youth and became to entertain a hope to witness how the unified Korean peninsula would be like.”
