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한반도와 동아시아 평화

Welcoming Speech by David Suh, 2018 World Peace Convention

by yunheePathos 2018. 11. 5.
서광선 박사님의 초청자 만찬사입니다.

2018 World Peace Convention
2018.10.29. 18:00~20:00
인천하버파크호텔 코너베이(14층)


I must confess that I am so emotional and happy to welcome the peace makers from all corners of the world.

I am happy because I lived long enough to be able to welcome you all to this most timely and important meeting of Korean YMCA 2018 World Peace Convention, and to be able to meet again my good old friends who have been struggling in solidarity with us for democracy in Korea and peace and reunification of divided and war torn peninsula!!!

When I listened to the trembling voice of Japanese Emperor announcing the end of the Second World War on a hilltop of Manchuria on August 15th of 1945,
some 73 years ago, I was 15 years old, a Korean student in a Japanese Middle School. We were digging deep holes against the invading Soviet tanks into Manchuria and North Korea.
After the Emperor’s announcement was over, our teacher with tears said goodbye to my Japanese classmates,
I thought and believed that the war is really over, and no more war on the Korean peninsula..
And people all around the world thought that the Second World War is over, and no more colonial invasion, and no more atomic bomb.

But people around the world realized soon enough that the war, the atomic war, the Second World War is not over, Right after the end of the War with the Japanese surrender, the War has continued until today, in the new name of “cold war.”
And, the colonial invasions and exploitation in many different forms continued under the name of
“neo colonialism.”
Korean War was not just a military conflict, a civil war, between the North and South Koreans, but it was a proxy war between the Super powers of West and the East facing each other along the line of the 38th parallel drawn by the Soviet and the USA. In so many parts of the world, the Second World War is not over. The wounds, hurts on the body and mind of the colonized people around the world people, have not been healed.  

Now, I can dare say that in my life time, I may be able to see the real and true end of the Second World War,
the Korean War, and peaceful reunification of Korea.
For this, the millions of Korean people, minjung, lighted candles on the streets of the capital city of Seoul and the major cities of Korea, to chase out the dark nights of history, evil spirits of military culture of death, and war and the powers and principalities..

My friends, colleagues and supporters of the Korean people, it has been your prayers for us the Korean ecumenical Christians, it has been your support, my friends, in our struggle to voice the ardent hope of the Korean people to live in peace and to overcome the almost century old separation, enmity, mutual hate, mistrust and conflict and killing, that we the Korean ecumenical Christians and YMCA people can actually look for the day in real near future, the US, China, and North and South Korean heads of states come to sit down at the table on PanMoonJum, the symbolic and real place of division and armistice, and sign the declaration of the end of the war: the real end of the Korean War, thus to end the Second World War on the Korean Peninsula.

We welcome all of you to this table to share our dreams, hopes and visions of PEACE not only on the Korean peninsula, but all over the world where there is conflict, enmity, shooting, killing and war. May God bless all of us, the peacemakers from all over the world: as Jesus told the people suffering under PAX ROMANA: “How blessed are the peacemakers, God shall call them children of God.” 

Amen and Thank you.

#peace #worldpeaceconvention #ymca #민에의한평화 #한반도평화
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