World Leader Has Answers for Achieving Peace

Gary Alan Spanovich

Kim Dae Jung, former president of South Korea and a 2000 Nobel Peace Prize winner, presents three lectures in Portland on April 17-18. His visit is hosted by the Wholistic Peace Institute's efforts to develop an international peace center based in Portland.

The Wholistic Peace Institute envisions an international peace building, a world peace garden and a Linus Pauling plaza. The peace center would also house a Nobel Peace Laureate Center where Noble Peace laureates would remain in residence in Portland to work with university faculty and students on conflict resolution and international peace issues. Planning is underway to also include a Dalai Lama world peace studies program at the center.

Kim, a longtime opposition party member, survived assassination attempts, kidnapping and imprisonment. He was president of South Korea from 1998 to 2003 and received the Nobel for participating in the first North-South presidential summit with North Korea's leader, Kim Jong-il. Kim continues to support South Korea's Sunshine Policy of cooperation with North Korea, which his administration launched.

The Korean War began in 1950 and full scale fighting occurred until an armistice was signed in1953. As part of the armistice a demilitarized zone (DMZ) was established North Korea and South Korea. Across this DMZ, these two enemies faced each other for almost 50 years. During this period of intense hostility, no families were repatriated.

There was no culture of democracy on either side that would allow different perspectives to view the stalemate in any other terms than those of intense hostility. That is until then President Kim Dae Jung articulated his Sunshine Policy to Kim Jong-il in 2000 and traveled to Pyongyang offering hope, forgiveness and reconciliation so that peace could once again occur.

The Dalai Lama, the 1989 Nobel Peace laureate and also an architect of world peace, has said that for a conflict to end, "one side must be willing to accept the last blow." There is a two-step approach to world peace: first, heal the relationship and then discuss the individual issues that keep the two sides apart. But the healing of the relationship is the most important part of the peacemaking process.

What Kim did was to heal the relationship between the leaders of these two countries, using the spiritual tools of compassion, forgiveness, love and reconciliation. Very powerful tools, used by Mahatma Gandhi, Martin Luther King Jr. and many others with amazing results. By extending a hand in friendship to Kim Jong-il the leader of North Korea, Kim literally changed over night the culture of war into a culture of peace.

Kim won the 2000 Nobel Peace Prize for his Sunshine Policy and his work of founding a dialogue between North and South Korea. The process he used to write the Sunshine Policy is a model for presidents of other countries on how to bring forgiveness and compassion into public policy.

Kim presents a lecture on his faith journey and philosophy on April 17 at 7 p.m. at the Chiles Center at the University of Portland. The event is free, but tickets are required. Contact Christina Sigler at events@up.edu or 503-943-7523.

Kim speaks on "Doing Business in Asia" at a luncheon on April 18 at noon at the Downtown Hilton Hotel in Portland. Tickets are $125 per person or $1,000 for corporate table sponsorship. Email worldpeace@canby.com, call 503-266-8996, or send a check to Wholistic Peace Institute, P.O. Box 1178, Portland, OR 97207.

Kim presents "Challenges on the Korean Peninsula" April 18 at 7 p.m. at the Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall in Portland. Cosponsored by the World Affairs Council, ticket details at www.worldoregon.org.

Gary Alan Spanovich, author of How to Achieve World Peace: Six Nobel Peace Laureates Answer the Question, is the executive director of the Wholistic Peace Institute in Portland. Visit www.wholisticpeaceinstitute.com.