From the 1960s True Parents initiated and supported a global movement to confront the communist ideology and its practice. Father would speak about North Korea and its leader Kim Il Sung. Yet, against all the odds, in the later months of 1991 True Parents were able to visit North Korea. That they could go at all was a miracle and that they could engage so personally, meaningfully and productively with the leader of the strongest communist dictatorship of all time evidences the great work of God. Not long after Father and Mother and their party returned from Pyongyang, Dr. Peter Kim gave the following testimony to the American members in New York. That was 30 years ago this month.
By Dr. Peter Kim
World Mission Center (New Yorker Hotel), New York City
December 15, 1991
Part 2 (Click here to read Part 1)
Surmounting the challenges of the initial meetings
Father and Mother were also welcomed by seven relatives: his elder sister, Hyo Soon Moon, who is seventy-three years old now, his younger sister, Hyo Sun Moon, sixty-four years old, his elder brother’s wife, who is sixty-nine years old, Father’s elder brother’s first son, Byung Hyun Moon, forty-nine years old, one of Father’s cousins, fifty-seven years old, Yon Hyan Moon, and a nephew. This was the first time in over forty years that Father met them. Father could not remember their faces really well because they were now much older. They introduced themselves and started crying. They were so happy, shocked, and surprised.
Father almost cried, but he never showed tears. His first statement to them was, “I missed you so much too, and I love you, but I am not here as an individual to visit my family. I am here to save the entire twenty-three million people in North Korea. I am here for an official mission, so I cannot cry. Please calm yourselves.” If Father had shown tears there at the airport, it would have been a mad house with everyone crying. But since Father restrained himself, they cried a little bit and calmed down.
North Korea does not have many cars, but they have a lot of Mercedes Benz. A limousine pulled up for Father and Mother. This was the only limousine I saw in North Korea. We had a motorcade of five Mercedes, led by patrol cars. When the motorcade passed, all the vehicles on the road had to stop in every direction. Some people were waving and clapping. About fifteen people accompanied us from the airport to the Moran Bong guest house, a VIP guest house in Pyongyang where usually only kings and heads of state stay.
When we arrived at the guest house, the Deputy Prime Minister met Father again, and they had about a thirty-minute talk. The Deputy Prime Minister constantly tested Father by making abrupt statements, or asking questions. Suddenly he said, “Rev. Moon, I respect you but somehow I never thought about inviting you to North Korea because you have been criticizing and accusing us all these years. But I had to obey because there was an order from the top to invite you.” Think about it. Is it polite to make such a remark to your guest? That was the way he tried to test Father, but Father just gave him a big smile.
Father was led to the presidential suite of the guest house, which was decorated very well, in their style. That night we went to a welcoming party that the North Korean government prepared. About one hundred high government officials attended. Chairman Yoon said, “Rev. Moon, you have done a lot of work all over the world. We warmly welcome you. Let’s forget about the past and hold hands together with each other now. Without having our Motherland, there is no happiness, there is no life. Our Motherland comes first. That is why you are here, Rev. Moon, so let us become friends.” I thought it was very good. Then they made a toast together.
Father returned his welcome with a twelve-minute talk, which was Father’s first official speech given to the twenty-three million people in North Korea. Father used one catch phrase, “Blood is thicker than water.” Thicker means with more bonding power. Father spoke about God and said, “I truly love the twenty-three million people here. This is why I came-for the sake of reunification, not just to visit my hometown.”
There was entertainment for about forty-five minutes. It was a very nice banquet.
When we returned to the guest house we stayed up until midnight to make plans for the next day. The country is tightly sealed, like a big cage. Most people in North Korea do not know what is going on in the world. There is only one official newspaper, six pages long. It does not have a single line of advertisement, just government propaganda and reports. Even in Father’s guest house it was not safe to speak freely. Before I landed in Pyongyang, a man in Beijing who had been arranging this trip told us clearly, “No matter how softly you whisper, all your words will be recorded and they will get it.” So even though we tried to make a plan for the next day, we could not do anything. They would not tell us what was next, or where we were going. Many times we had to write on paper to communicate. Father has been their arch enemy, and they watched his every movement. It was not really pleasant, but we expected it, so we could manage it. I asked Father if we should have Pledge the morning of December 1. I knew whatever we did or said in our prayer would be reported. Father said, “Why not?” Honestly, when we recited pledge #5, I could not say it really out loud. Father prayed and talked about reunification a lot.
Father says
The next morning I found out that, at 3 o’clock in the morning, the editor-in-chief of the official government newspaper had come to Dr. Pak’s room asking for permission to print Father’s speech. This is the first time in this newspaper’s history that somebody outside of North Korea had the entire contents of their speech printed in the newspaper. It was also the first time that this newspaper printed the word “God” in their paper, because normally they do not know whether Premier Kim Il Sung will like it or not and they might lose their job.
At 9 o’clock Chairman Yoon came, and he was to be our guide for that day. The Korean people have had it instilled in their minds from the government and the newspaper that Father is the archenemy of North Korea, a monster who creates everything bad against them. Chairman Yoon said we could sightsee wherever we wanted (but they had their own agenda). Father replied, “Well, I am not here for sightseeing. Since I am here for the sake of unification and to learn more about North Korea, why don’t we go and see Mangyung Dae?” This is the house where Premier Kim Il Sung was born.
When Father said that, they were so happy. They never expected Father would want to visit there. That area was cleaned and decorated, but not very fancy. The desk, dishes, and blankets, etc., that Kim Il Sung used are on display. It is a holy place, like Jerusalem is for Christians. All twenty-three million North Koreans have to visit there once or twice. They gave us about an hour-long explanation about what Kim Il Sung and his parents had done. We were educated for a while.
At about 10:30 am we were taken to the Parliament of North Korea, a gigantic stone building decorated in marble. It is well-built and ten times better than the South Korea national assembly building. They have large paintings on many of the walls. Father was led to a big meeting room with an official congress table. They were still testing Father. Four of their representatives met with Father. Even though the night before Chairman Yoon had spoken warmly, he now started to preach to Father, saying reunification of Korea must be according to Premier Kim Il Sung’s Juche ideology, and so on. Then Father stood up. They were kind of shocked and said, “Rev. Moon you don’t have to stand up. Please take your seat, please sit down.”
But Father insisted, “Never mind.” Their parliament building is where all kind of discussions and decisions are made; it is like the holy ground of the North Korean government. Father, right in the center of the conference room, stood up and preached true love. He said, “Leftwing ideology, rightwing ideology is gone. Now the only ideology is head-wing, which is Godism [God-centered ideology].” He even went into man and woman relationships, [plus and minus] from plants all the way on up to human beings—women’s bosoms, hips, sexual organs, everything. I was shivering with fear because I knew we were right in the hands of the devil there. If they wanted to do anything to us, they easily could. I was not sure if Father was safe to speak as he did. But Father never showed any hint of fear, he just said what he wanted.
They were so shocked, they could not even open their mouths. Later on, I was told that when a world leader, minister, or businessman comes, they are briefed on Juche ideology. They nod their heads and somehow compromise their standard by saying it may be a good ideology. But Father from the beginning said, “No. Head-wing ideology is the only solution.” They wanted to discuss Juche ideology, but could not, because Father hit them with head-wing ideology.
Continued next week…