32nd Anniversary of True Parents’ Visit to North Korea

“Seeking the shortest path to a world of peace, I devoted myself to inspiring change in the political process and to changing people’s ways of thinking,” True Father wrote in his autobiography, As A Peace-Loving Global Citizen (2009). “I met then-President Kim Il Sung of North Korea for a serious discussion on how to bring peace to the Korean Peninsula.”

This year marks the 32nd anniversary of a landmark 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 an unprecedented weeklong visit to Pyongyang from November 30 through December 6, 1991. True Father recalled in his autobiography 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.

“I knew that when the Soviet Union collapsed, most other communist regimes in the world would also fall,” True Father wrote. “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,” he continued. “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.”

It felt like an impossible goal, but after continuous prayer and devotion True Parents were invited personally by Chairman Kim Il Sung to visit North Korea. True Mother writes of the spiritual preparations she and True Father made leading up to their visit in her memoir, Mother of Peace (2020). It would be the first time True Parents returned to their homeland in over 40 years.

“Before setting foot in North Korea, we had to resolve any painful feelings knotted up in our hearts,” True Mother wrote. “We had to forgive Kim Il Sung, whose regime had hurt the nation and the world, not to mention our extended family and ourselves. If we had thought of him only as our enemy, we could not have forgiven him. Only in the position of parents, only with the heart of his mother, could I forgive. To save her son sentenced to death, a mother will even seek to change the laws of her country. That is what the maternal heart is like. What that heart, I pledged to forgive my enemy.”

Despite years fraught with Japanese occupation, imprisonment, and the subsequent division of his beloved homeland, True Father and True Mother remained hopeful for a peaceful reunified Korea — the key to peace flourishing globally.

“The Korean Peninsula is a scaled-down version of the world,” True Father wrote. “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 he was “not going to the house of my enemy, but rather, that of my homeland and that of my brother,” and stated that the Korean people should never again engage in a war against one another.

“We identified with Jacob offering everything he had, going at the risk of his life to meet with his brother Esau, who intended to kill him,” True Mother recalls. “… To change an enemy into a friend is truly impossible without the heart of a sincere parent.”

True Parents’ historic trip to North Korea included visits to Kumgang Mountain on December 3, True Father’s hometown of Jeongju on December 5, and meeting with then-President Kim at Jusuk Palace in Majeon, Hamheung, on December 6. The two 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 organizing a reunion between millions of separated Korean family members. 

You can learn more about True Parent’s visit to North Korea in True Father’s autobiography available here and in True Mother’s memoir available here.