Dr. Pak's remarks given on the occasion of the Fifth Summit Council held in the Crystal Ballroom of the Lotte Hotel in Seoul, Korea, August 22-24, 1992. Dr. Abdel Aziz Hegazy, former prime minister of the Arab Republic of Egypt, served as conference chairman. The conference dealt with the theme, "The Reunification of Korea and World Peace."

Reverend and Mrs. Sun Myung Moon, distinguished heads of state and government, honorable guests, ladies and gentlemen.

As the president of the Summit Council for World Peace, I would like to extend my cordial welcome to all of you to the Fifth Summit Council here in Seoul, Korea. We see here today an unprecedented gathering of leaders from all five continents. Individually, each one of you has, through your own efforts, reached the highest levels of success and influence, affecting large numbers of people in your own countries.

Collectively, you constitute one of the most powerful forces for good in the world today. We are gathered here today to focus that power toward shaping a new world of peace and to lead mankind out of the darkness of the 20th century into a bright and hopeful new millennium.

By being here, you demonstrate vision and idealism, unity of purpose, and a profound moral conscience. For this, I salute you.

This year, we are greatly honored to have as our conference chairman one of the greatest statesmen from the Middle East and a most gracious and wonderful human being, His Excellency Dr. Abdel Aziz Hegazy, former prime minister of the Arab Republic of Egypt. I assure you he will do a most remarkable job to ensure the success of this conference. Let us welcome our conference chairman.

We are also deeply honored to have the highest representation from one of Europe's greatest nations, our keynote speaker, the former prime minister of the United Kingdom, and the "Father of the House of Commons," the Rt. Hon. Sir Edward Heath. Let us give him a very warm welcome.

I had the pleasure of meeting Sir Edward back in the 1970s at the White House. He must be aging backwards: He looks even younger today.

Ladies and gentlemen, we are equally honored to have as our special guest speaker the incumbent head of state of the newly independent Republic of Belarus, the chairman of the Supreme Council, His Excellency Dr. Stanislav Shushkevich. Let us also give him a very warm welcome.

The Summit Council for World Peace fulfills a dream held by many great people: a forum, structure, and organization where world leaders, particularly former heads of state, prime ministers, and senior government officials, can utilize the best of their creative energies, knowledge, wisdom, experience, and statesmanship for the sake of world peace and development.

The Summit Council is a place where former government leaders from around the world can be free to fulfill their highest ideals, on a larger than national scale, for the peace and development of all mankind. Because no nation can exist apart from the rest of the world, contributing to a peaceful world is ultimately the greatest thing any leader can do for his native land.

Peace is predicated on cooperation, understanding, and dialogue between people from the four corners of our world geographically, as well as those from the right and left politically, regardless of race, religion, nationality, gender, or age. Peace can only be achieved by mobilizing human good will, backed up with financial and technological resources. We are here to help provide those conditions.

The breakup of the Soviet empire, the universal rejection of Marxism-Leninism, and the end of the Cold War have created an unprecedented opportunity to guide this world into a true path of peace.

Before I go any further, allow me to say that this organization would not have come into being without the vision and undying will of the Reverend Sun Myung Moon. It was he who many years ago became aware of the great storehouse of wisdom and talent among the world's leaders, and what immense good they could accomplish when brought together to address the problems that face the world, to formulate workable solutions, and to help peoples, organizations, and governments to work together to make the ideal of a world of peace and harmony a reality. Please join me in recognizing the founder of the Summit Council for World Peace, the Reverend Sun Myung Moon.

An important partner in the success of Reverend Moon is Mrs. Hak Ja Han Moon. She has been a faithful and loyal supporter and companion to him, as well as being the mother of their 13 children. She is herself a person of great vision and concern for world peace, especially in identifying the role of women in the affairs of the family and the world, and the significance and importance that women play in developing a world of true peace.

Mrs. Moon is president of the Women's Federation for World Peace, which emphasizes the family and family values and the necessity of a moral revolution in society. In spite of her home duties, she has just finished the Federation's 65-city inaugural tour in Korea, where she spoke to mothers, homemakers, and businesswomen throughout the country on the value and role of women in the world. In September, she will be inaugurating the Women's Federation for World Peace throughout Japan in a seven-city tour. At this time let us also recognize Mrs. Hak Ja Han Moon.

The Summit Council's efforts in the past have been directed toward important issues such as Korean reunification, Soviet-Latin American relations, the global implications of glasnost and perestroika, and Latin American-East Asian relations.

Last year, the Summit Council sent a delegation to North Korea to find out whether that nation would welcome efforts from the Summit Council to facilitate the process of unification. The answer from the highest authorities in Pyongyang was completely positive. This led us to create our International Commission of former heads of state to work exclusively on Korean reunification, which was inaugurated in Washington, D.C., in September 1991.

Late last year, the Commission's efforts bore fruit when the Democratic People's Republic of Korea opened itself to the Reverend Sun Myung Moon and granted him the highest protocol as a world leader. President Kim 11 Sung himself welcomed him.

Reverend Moon told President Kim, as he told President Gorbachev in Moscow two years earlier, that a new value system is needed to integrate the strengths of both free market capitalism and socialism. Furthermore, in April this year, our International Commission was invited to a very substantial dialogue with the highest leadership of the DPRK, including President Kim II Sung and his son, Secretary Kim Jong Il.

Let me take this opportunity to salute the chairman of that Commission, and the chairman of our Council of Presidents, His Excellency Dr. Rodrigo Carazo, former president of the Republic of Costa Rica. He and the experts on the Commission accomplished a great deal in a short time, and they will fully report to you later in this conference.

Other issues on which the Summit Council is planning to mobilize its resources are the problems of China's reunification; the problems of peace in the Middle East; the problems of the Baltic and former Eastern bloc nations and newly independent republics of the former Soviet Union and their transformation to modern states and economies; and the tribal and ethnic strife in Africa.

You are all gathered here in a very exciting place and time, where history is being made. I hope you enjoy this Fifth Summit Council for World Peace, especially the friendships and relationships among the participants that are a natural by-product of gatherings like this. I trust that those relationships will add substance to your findings. I wish you the most fulfilling and productive deliberations.

I leave you now in the most capable hands of the chairman of the Fifth Summit Council for World Peace, and my dear friend, His Excellency Abdel Aziz Hegazy.

I sincerely believe this Fifth Summit Council will see another giant step forward in the realization of our highest and noblest goals. Thank you very much.

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