Research Fellow at the Summit Council for World Peace and a legislative analyst with the Arizona House of Representatives. He is also an adjunct faculty member at the University of Phoenix.

I have known Dr. Bo Hi Pak since 1972, when I first met him as a young member of the Unification Church. My first opportunity to work with him was in helping arrange a gala benefit performance for UNICEF by the Little Angels Folk Ballet at the United Nations General Assembly Hall in 1973. I then worked closely with him preparing promotional materials for three of Reverend Moon's major American speeches in 1974-76: at New York's Madison Square Garden and Yankee Stadium, and at the Washington Monument. From 1979-85, I worked directly under Dr. Pak as an executive assistant, helping with the founding of two daily newspapers, Noticias del Mundo and The Washington Times, the establishment of CAUSA International, and supporting his coordination of Reverend Moon's defense in his court case with the federal government. From 198797, I served under his leadership in the American Freedom Coalition, the International Security Council, and lastly, the Summit Council for World Peace, where I was Director of Research.

My most memorable moment with Dr. Pak occurred in 1981 in New York, when he was on the phone with another Unification Church elder, Rev. Chung Hwan Kwak, in South Korea. Rev. Kwak was telling him that Reverend Moon, who at that time was also in Seoul, would return to the United States to face his indictment on charges of tax evasion just issued by the federal government, despite the fact that, at that time, there was no extradition treaty between the two countries. Reverend Moon was voluntarily choosing, at the risk of imprisonment, to return to the U.S. to defend himself. Dr. Pak was in tears and speechless, having tried with all his effort to prevent the indictment, and now deeply sorrowful that Reverend Moon and his family would have to undergo a treacherous course with an uncertain outcome. Dr. Pak felt personally responsible for not preventing the indictment; he did not blame defense lawyers or anyone else.

Only a few people were in the room to witness Dr. Pak on this fateful overseas call, but I was among them. Indeed, the following year, despite his voluntary return and profession of innocence, Reverend Moon was convicted, and after unsuccessful appeals, served 13 months in federal prison. The injustice of Reverend Moon's court case was tellingly evident by the presence of dozens of Christian ministers who greeted Reverend Moon upon his release from prison in 1985. They saw the government's actions against him as a distinct threat to religious liberty.

A second very memorable moment for me came when Dr. Pak returned from attending the funeral of North Korea's president, Kim Il Sung, in Pyongyang in July 1994. He was the only South Korean citizen invited to attend an event closed off to most of the world. However, upon his departure from the North and arrival in Beijing, he learned that the South Korean government - his own country - had stripped him of his license to be publisher of a Seoul daily newspaper, his main occupation at that time, and of his legal residency in South Korea. If he returned to South Korea, he was threatened with arrest and imprisonment for violation of its National Security Law by attending the funeral of North Korea's president. Despite this effort to turn him into a man without a country, Dr. Pak went ahead and held a press conference in Beijing, which I helped arrange, to discuss his trip and share about his rare meeting with Kim Jong Il, the son and heir of Kim Il Sung. Dr. Pak handled the press conference with great dignity and eloquence, despite suggestions from the Seoul press corps that he was unpatriotic to go to the funeral. He defended his actions as highly patriotic, an effort to use this special opportunity to reach out to North Korea for the sake of reconciliation and a more constructive relationship for the future.

This was in Reverend Moon's spirit of playing the role of peacemaker and unifier. Unfortunately, from that day, Dr. Pak was unable to return home to Seoul for nearly three years until the government finally agreed not to press charges against him. Then in May 1998, he led a highly successful visit to the North by the renowned Little Angels Folk Ballet, a South Korean children's dance troupe founded by Reverend Moon. The visit won hearts in both Koreas as television viewers could see children from North and South performing together and embracing in tears. This historical trip more than vindicated Dr. Pak's visionary actions four years prior and helped smooth the way for future exchanges and cooperation.

Although Dr. Bo Hi Pak is a man of many external accomplishments, from my experience, it is his unforgettable quality as a human being which stands out most in my mind, and is indeed a reflection of his living Reverend Moon's teaching. Because of his genuineness and purity of heart, he has been a great instrument of God and foremost witness to the life and work of Reverend and Mrs. Moon.

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