Civic-led campaign for Korean reunification, a development that could help promote regional stability and build a new economic powerhouse in Asia.
The One K Global Campaign’s current efforts to gain international support, including the One K Global Concert Global Tour, whose Manila leg is happening on March 2, 2017 at The Mall of Asia Arena.
United Korea an impossible dream? Mounting tensions won’t quash civic movement’s hopes of a unified Korea.
Despite on-going hostilities and unrelenting North Korean nuclear aggression, a civic-led movement continues to voice stronger calls for an end to the post-war schism that persisted in the Korean peninsula for more than 70 years.
Known as the One K Global campaign, this civic movement is taking its campaign to a global level as a means of rallying international support for Korean unificiation.
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| Action for Korea United (AKU) Co-Chairman In-teck Seo |
“Unifying Korea is about forging long-term peace and creating new opportunities in the peninsula, East Asia, and throughout the world. Bringing the two Koreas back together would be tough but we can and should make it happen,” said Action for Korea United (AKU) Co-Chairman In-teck Seo.
The AUK, a coalition of 850 Korean NGOs, partnered with the Global Peace Foundation Korea in launching the campaign last year during a conference on Korean reunification.
Threats to global stability
The division of the Korean peninsula traces its beginnings to the end of World War II and the outbreak of the Korean War, which caused the deaths of more than 2.5 million people, the separation of more than 10 million individuals from their families, and the suffering of more than 25 million Koreans under a repressive regime.
In a press briefing held at Manila, Seo explained that the continuing division aggravates North Korea’s nuclear prorgam, which he called the biggest threat to peace and prosperity worldwide.
Seo added that the conflict blocks opportunities for economic growth such as the creation of a tunnel that could link North America to Asia, a development which could help boost trade and other economic activities in the two continents.
For the One K Global Campaign, the best possible way to end these dire scenarios is to realize the “One Korea” dream.
Korean music making waves for peace
To make the “One Korea” vision a reality, the One K Global Campaign taps on the sweeping effects of hallyu or the Korean wave, which saw K-Pop music as a global phenomenon that the Internet helped create.
“We are taking our efforts to the international scene and we are proud to be working with artists who are helping us spread the message through their music,” Seo said.
In 2015, more than 30 K-pop artists supported the One K concert at the Seoul World Cup Stadium. The concert featured the unification song, “One Dream, One Korea,” which earned more than 13 million new YouTube impressions from over 200 countries.
The campaign plans to go global this year with another song like the United Support of Artists for Africa’s 1985 hit “We Are the World.” Grammy Winners Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis will help compose the new anthem of the unification campaign.
A concert tour promoting the campaign is also scheduled to take place in countries like China, US, and Russia. The concert tour’s Manila leg is happening on March 2 at the SM Mall of Asia Arena.
