In the following speech, Dr. Pak explains the purpose of the Summit Council for World Peace, which brings together former heads of state, prime ministers, and national leaders from different countries to bring their considerable experience and expertise to bear on world problems, and announces two major initiatives growing out of the Summit Council. These are the Federation for World Peace and the International Commission for the Peaceful Reunification of Korea. Dr. Pak spoke on the occasion of the Fourth Summit Council for World Peace held in the Crystal Ballroom of the Lotte Hotel in Seoul, Korea, August 26-27, 1991.

Distinguished heads of state and government, prime ministers, ministers of government, cabinet ministers, senators, congressmen, ambassadors, ladies and gentlemen. On behalf of the founder and chairman of the Summit Council for World Peace, the Reverend Sun Myung Moon, I would like to welcome you to the Fourth Summit Council.

Today, August 26, 1991, in Seoul, Korea, we see the gathering of an unprecedented number of leaders from five continents. Each one of you in your own right has excelled in different endeavors in which large segments of humanity have been affected. Each one of you has been selected not only for your prominent background, but because of the serious responsibility ahead of us as we conclude the 20th century, shape the foundation of a new world order, and begin the new millennium.

Your presence here demonstrates inspiration and ideals, a commonality of thought and inspiration. For this, I salute you.

The Summit Council for World Peace has been able to fulfill a dream of many great people-to provide a forum, a structure, and the organization where world leaders, most particularly former heads of state and government and prime ministers, can utilize the best of their creative energies, knowledge, wisdom, experience, and statesmanship for the sake of world peace and development.

Former heads of state and government, prime ministers, and leaders of your stature have a debt to yourselves, your principles, to your countries-to humanity. In the highest office, whether it be president or prime minister, you may have found it difficult or even impossible to accomplish the aspirations that brought you to that position and the promises made in political platforms. Constraints of different nature and the incumbency of government, parties, and other distractions in many cases impede a leader's being true to what he pledged before the election or appointment.

The Summit Council is the place where, unhindered by those obstacles, you, the leaders of the world, can freely use your energies for the sake of accomplishing on a greater scale what you feel was left undone, this time going beyond the nation to the world, bringing peace and development for our fellow man.

Peace cannot be achieved without cooperation, understanding, and dialogue between the people of the north, south, east, and west, those on the Right and the Left, regardless of race, religion, national origin, sex, or age.

Peace cannot be achieved without a mobilization of mankind's goodwill, matched with financial and technological resources. The fall of the Berlin Wall and the end of the Cold War have created an unprecedented atmosphere and opportunity to guide this world into a true path of peace.

Before I go any further, let me say that this organization would not have been possible without the vision and undying will of the Reverend Sun Myung Moon, who was aware of the great potential of the world's leaders when their minds come together to address the problems that face the world, to formulate proposals that can be discussed and implemented by peoples, organizations, and governments that will contribute to make a world of peace and harmony a reality.

Efforts of the Summit Council have been directed toward important issues such as the problem of Korean reunification, Soviet-Latin American relations, the global implications of glasnost and perestroika, and Latin American-East Asian relations.

In our third Summit Council last year in Moscow, our founder and a delegation of 28 former heads of state and government met with President Gorbachev in the Kremlin. In that meeting, the positive reality of where the world was heading became very evident when Mr. Gorbachev said, "The basis for a new world order will come out of restructuring and openness on a global scale. Glasnost and perestroika are needed at the worldwide level. The West needs also a positive change."

The Reverend Moon told the Soviet leader that "a new value system was needed to incorporate the strengths of both free market capitalism and socialism." He insisted that a God-centered view was necessary to achieve harmony between individualism and collectivism. President Gorbachev agreed with Reverend Moon and said, "Restructuring and openness will be the basis for a new world order. Only with the Western world experiencing their own glasnost and perestroika can we expect to see emerge a new world of peace." This was a reaffirmation of where we are going and the hope on the horizon.

I would like to report to you a very special development. Earlier this year the Summit Council sent a delegation to North Korea to find out whether North Korea would welcome efforts from the Summit Council to facilitate and advise the process of unification. The answer from the highest authorities in Pyongyang was unwaveringly positive. This led us to start work to create an international commission of former heads of state on Korean reunification. The program and priorities of this commission will be drafted at its inaugural conference, September 8-10 in Washington, D.C. The initial members of the commission include former heads of state from Canada, Lebanon, Sudan, Portugal, and Costa Rica.

I want to take this opportunity now to salute the chairman of that commission and chairman of the Council of Presidents, Dr. Rodrigo Carazo.

The commission will be advised and assisted by about 20 experts on North and South Korea. Its focus and priorities will be on the economic questions and deliberately avoid political and security issues, which may be divisive.

Future issues that we are contemplating in which the Summit Council can mobilize its human resources are the problems of China's reunification-Hong Kong, Taiwan, and Macao-peace in the Middle East, and the problems of the Soviet Union, Baltic, and Eastern bloc nations and their transformation into modern states and economies.

This work can never be realized without the establishment of a grassroots organization that can bridge ideals, vision, and goodwill with material resources.

I have the pleasure to announce that such an organization, petitioned by tens of thousands of concerned citizens and leaders of many levels worldwide, will be inaugurated August 28.

The Federation for World Peace will function as an instrument of cooperation between governments and peoples. It will serve to unite scholars, industries, and entrepreneurs to promote practical solutions to the problems of poverty, hunger, disease, ignorance, racism, and cultural and religious conflict.

Through global cooperation, the Federation for World Peace will call for equal access to technology and give all peoples and nations a chance for economic independence. It is also a crusade for the preservation and sensible use of the environment as a common trust for all mankind.

You are in a very exciting place, particularly in a very unique conference-one of a kind. I hope you enjoy the Fourth Summit Council for World Peace, the friendships, the relations among the participants that are a natural by-product of gatherings like this. I trust that the relationships built here will add to the substance of your findings. I wish you fulfilling and productive deliberations.

I will leave you now with the co-chairman of the Fourth Summit Council for World Peace and chairman of the International Advisory Board, Ambassador Jose Maria Chaves, who has been instrumental in the creation of this illustrious body.

I believe that the Fourth Summit Council will be one more giant step in the realization of our noble goals.

Thank you very much.

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