Creating a World of Peace - The Thought and Works of Sun Myung Moon by Joon Ho Seuk

Volume 1 - The Life and Teachings of Reverend Sun Myung Moon [Part 9 / 20]

8. Return To Homeland

In 1990, Reverend Moon organized a major meeting of government and media figures in Moscow. During this conference, Reverend and Mrs. Moon met with Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev. Through several interviews, televised and in print, they gave a message of hope to the Soviet people, urging them to turn toward God.

Reverend Moon Embraces Communist Leaders

From Dr. Bo Hi Pak's Introduction to Reverend Moon, World Convention of Federation of Island Nations for World Peace, June 1996.
Reverend and Mrs. Moon boldly entered Moscow in April 1990 and had a one-on-one meeting in the Kremlin with Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev. This was another miracle that have occurred. Reverend Moon conveyed his support to Gorbachev of his policies of glasnost and perestroika.
I was there to translate that extraordinary meeting. Reverend Moon persuaded Gorbachev to allow religious freedom, to allow God to enter the Soviet Union. In my opinion, this meeting was crucially important in the sight of God. It was, in a way, the beginning of a peaceful process of the demise of the Soviet empire.
Reverend Moon indeed motivated Gorbachev in the direction of peaceful reform. The greatest miracle that occurred in this century was the liberation of the Soviet Union without nuclear war. The threat of nuclear war was the single greatest concern of Reverend Moon. He said, "Thank God, not a single nuclear weapon was used against mankind since 1945." Clearly, it was God who dismantled the Evil Empire.

In the following year, Reverend Moon traveled to North Korea and met with President Kim Il Sung, under whose regime he had been tortured and sent to a labor camp.

His purpose was to seek ways to bridge the gap between North and South Korea, which he views as a crucial step for the establishment of world peace. The North Korean ruler, who had suppressed religion for forty years, completely welcomed Reverend and Mrs. Moon.

During that visit, Reverend Moon also returned to his hometown, and to the house of his birth. He put flowers on the graves of his parents, who had died during his absence. He was welcomed with tears of joy by his surviving relatives.

Reverend Moon Embraces Communist Leaders

From Dr. Bo Hi Pak's Introduction to Reverend Moon, World Convention of Federation of Island Nations for World Peace, June 1996.
After that meeting with President Gorbachev, Reverend Moon told me, "Now I must meet with Kim Il Sung." I was shocked. It was a sheer impossibility. Yet Reverend Moon said, "God will lead me to Pyongyang."
Why was he so determined to see Kim Il Sung? Because he saw the end of the Soviet Union coming, Reverend Moon's concern shifted to another part of the world, the Korean Peninsula, a potential powder keg.
He saw his next mission: to prevent the outbreak of another war on the Korean Peninsula. He decided to go to Pyongyang to meet with President Kim Il Sung to reassure him that even if the Soviet state perished, that would not mean the end of North Korea. He did not want that isolated country to feel trapped and miscalculate. Knowing the tragedy of the 1950s, Reverend Moon indeed wants to prevent at any cost another outbreak of hostilities on the Korean peninsula.
On Nov. 30, 1991, I escorted Reverend and Mrs. Moon on a special flight to the North Korean capital, Pyongyang. Six days later, the world's foremost anticommunist, Reverend Moon, embraced with President Kim Il Sung and sat down with the world's foremost communist dictator in the presidential palace.
I was there as the entire world was shocked by this news. Yet for me, it was probably the greatest, warmest, most hospitable peace-making event ever on the face of the earth. Simply I want to say, Reverend Moon prevented another Korean War by assuring President Kim he would be a friend and brother, and look after his well-being.

In 1992, Reverend and Mrs. Moon inaugurated the Women's Federation for World Peace. The Divine Principle teaches that the unity of brothers (Cain and Abel) restores the position of the mother who then brings the family back to God.

Thus the end of the Cold War, the global expression of the Cain-Abel conflict, offered the opportunity to heal the world based upon a new women's movement. On April 10, Mrs. Moon initiated this movement at a rally of 150,000 in Seoul. In the months that followed, she spoke to more than one million people in over 120 cities and twelve nations.

Table of Contents

Tparents Home

Moon Family Page

Unification Library