31st Anniversary of True Parents’ Visit to North Korea

It’s the 31st anniversary of a historic trip to North Korea where True Parents met with former leader Kim Il Sung. At the invitation of the North Korean government, True Parents embarked on the unprecedented weeklong visit to Pyongyang from November 30 through December 6, 1991.

The itinerary included True Parents’ visit to Kumgang Mountain on December 3, and a trip to True Father’s hometown of Jeongju on December 5. Their landmark meeting with then-President Kim took place on December 6 at Jusuk Palace in Majeon, Hamheung. They exchanged a letter of agreement for peaceful unification based on a joint statement that contained 10 articles regarding key points such as hosting a North Korean–South Korean summit meeting, a peaceful resolution to the issue of North Korea’s nuclear armament, and hosting a reunion between millions of separated Korean family members. 

In his autobiography, As a Peace-Loving Global Citizen (2009), True Father recalled the great significance of his meeting with President Kim — which followed a meeting with former Soviet Union President Mikhail Gorbachev — and the imminent fall of communism.

Book Excerpt:

I met then-President Kim Il Sung of North Korea for a serious discussion on how to bring peace to the Korean peninsula ... ​​I knew that when the Soviet Union collapsed, most other communist regimes in the world would also fall. North Korea would find itself forced into a corner, and there was no telling what provocation it might commit. 

North Korea’s obsession with nuclear weapons made the situation even more worrisome. To prevent a war with North Korea, we needed a channel to talk to its leadership, but we had no such channel at that point. Somehow, I needed to meet President Kim and receive his commitment not to strike first against South Korea. The Korean Peninsula is a scaled-down version of the world. If blood were shed on the Korean Peninsula, it would be shed in the world. If reconciliation occurred on the peninsula, there would be reconciliation in the world. If the peninsula were unified, this would bring about unification in the world. 

True Father also noted, “I am not going to the house of my enemy, but rather, that of my homeland and that of my brother.” He said that the homogenous Korean people “should never again engage in a war against each other.”

You can read more about True Father’s historic trip to North Korea in his autobiography available here.