Remarks given before the International Commission for the Peaceful Reunification of Korea held September 8, 1991, in the Sheraton Carlton Hotel in Washington, D.C.

Distinguished heads of state, members of the International Commission for the Peaceful Reunification of Korea, scholars, ladies and gentlemen.

Today, September 8, 1991, marks an important date in the history of the Summit Council for World Peace. We gather together to inaugurate an international commission on the peaceful reunification of the Korean peninsula. To all of you committed to this endeavor-heads of state, scholars, and experts who will be assisting this commission-I give our warmest welcome to the city of Washington, D.C., and to these most important 2-day deliberations.

The Summit Council for World Peace has been able to fulfill the 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.

I am pleased to report that from August 26-28, we convened the Fourth Summit Council, with the attendance of former heads of state and government and prime ministers, as well as leaders from 59 nations. We culminated the Fourth Summit Council with the inauguration of a world body that will deal with the questions of peace and development at the practical level: the Federation for World Peace.

This Federation 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. This organization was successfully inaugurated on August 28, 1991, at the Seung Hwa Performing Arts Center in Seoul, Korea, by the Reverend Sun Myung Moon, who is also chairman of the Summit Council for World Peace.

The Summit Council will assist that federation in the fulfillment of its goals; however, our role is one of facilitation, policy prescription, and recommendation rather than implementation.

The Summit Council for World Peace previously has directed its efforts toward important issues such as Soviet-Latin American relations, the global implications of glasnost and perestroika, Latin American-East Asian relations, and the problems of Korean reunification. The creation of this International Commission fulfills ideas that were discussed and presented at the Second Summit Council in Seoul, Korea, in 1990.

This International Commission will pioneer a wholly new approach to deal with the problems of unification in the Korean peninsula. Although other organizations have held seminars on Korean unification over the past several years, both in Korea and in America, no one but the Summit Council has put such exclusive and serious emphasis on the economic and humanitarian dimensions as a potential method of promoting peaceful Korean reunification.

Our coming two days of meetings are not merely an academic exercise, but the basis for the Commission to operate in its advisory and facilitating capacity. The recommendations made here can be acted upon by the world leaders who comprise the Commission.

The majority of our participants in this inaugural meeting have visited North Korea at least once, which will give our discussions an enormous authority and credibility. Moreover, two of the world's leading experts on the North Korean economy [Dr. Joseph S. Chung and Dr. Pong Sun Lee] are participating.

This conference prides itself in being led by former heads of state from five continents and in having received initial encouragement from North Korea for the Commission's founding. It is the intention of the Commission to embark on a visit to both Koreas this fall to brief and dialogue with the presidents of each nation. In addition, the Commission will likely visit China, Japan, the Soviet Union, Canada, and the United States to enlarge its effort at facilitating the unfolding peace process. International organizations such as the United Nations and European Community will also be embraced.

Peace cannot be achieved without a mobilization of mankind's goodwill, especially at the level of former heads of state and prime ministers, who would like to accomplish at a greater scale what they feel was left undone while in office, going beyond their nations to the world. That wealth of statesmanship, experience, and know-how matched with the necessary financial and technological resources can make a difference in helping fulfill mankind's ancient ideals of peace and prosperity for all.

This job becomes more crucial as we approach the end of the 20th century and prepare ourselves for the new millennium with a new world order, which will be the responsibility of leaders in the fields of academia, science, culture, and politics. The creation of this commission marks one step forward in the realization of our ideals. Other areas we see of enormous importance for the maintenance of world peace are PRC-Taiwan reunification efforts, dialogue and settlement of old grievances in the Middle East, and the reformation of centrally planned economies, such as in the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe. These are just a few of the areas that the Summit Council intends to address as a facilitator and advisor.

This International Commission is highly qualified to embrace the task ahead of it because of the caliber of its membership. These assembled world leaders, who have governed their nations, were selected for this task because of their freely expressed interest and voluntary efforts. Other world leaders who have indicated a desire to join this inaugural meeting may later join.

This Commission could never embark on this enormous task without the assistance of the most distinguished and qualified body of scholars and experts on the politics and economy of the Korean peninsula and Northeast Asia. Your participation assures that our meeting will have the necessary depth and scope of understanding of the issues of Korean reunification. This Commission will forego addressing the divisive issues of regional security arrangements, weaponry, and specific volatile political questions; instead, it will focus its energies on the humanitarian and economic aspects of Korean reunification. The scholars assembled here are among the best America has to offer in this field, and we will be calling on you from time to time for future assistance.

Above all, the most important component of this International Commission is its chairmanship, and we could not obtain anyone better qualified to deal with the issue of Korean unification than Dr. Rodrigo Carazo, former president of the Republic of Costa Rica, and one of the world's foremost experts on conflict resolution. His leadership of this meeting and the Commission, in conjunction with the goodwill of our participants, guest speakers and observers over the next two days, will secure a very solid program with a clear outlining of priorities for the Commission.

Once again, I salute you, and on behalf of the founder and chairman of the Summit Council, the Reverend Sun Myung Moon, I wish you very fruitful deliberations.

Thank you very much.

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