2020 DMZ Global Forum on Peace and Cooperation
- Peace blooming
in the DMZ -
□ The Ministry of Unification holds the 2020
DMZ Global Forum on Peace and Cooperation under the theme of ‘Peace
blooming in the DMZ’ at 10 a.m. on October 30 in Cheorwon, Gangwon
Province.
o The global forum, in its third year, is the
only government event about the DMZ. It is now an established forum
for experts and activists at home and abroad to discuss peace and
cooperation in the DMZ and its development.
o The forum
plans to recognize the meaning of the DMZ as a ‘peace-making’ space in
which win-win cooperation between the two Koreas will be pursued and
to discuss ways to further peace and cooperation in the DMZ in various
respects.
o This forum is particularly meaningful in
that it is held in Cheorwon, Gangwon Province, one of the border
regions, thereby enabling the participants to more personally sense
the significance of peace in the DMZ and border regions.
□
The event will be held in a non-contact way in compliance with
anti-epidemic measures to prevent the spread of COVID-19 and will be
broadcast live via the Ministry’s UNITV channel on YouTube (www.youtube.com/user/mounikorea).
□
The global forum commences with an opening ceremony and features
symposiums and sessions on cooperation for each field.
o
The opening ceremony will begin with the opening remarks by
Unification Minister Lee In-young, followed by the congratulatory
speech by Governor Choi Moon-soon of Gangwon Province, and the keynote
speech (via video) by Executive Director Darynell Rodriguez Torres of
the Global Partnership for the Prevention of Armed Conflict
(GPPAC).
o The symposiums will feature presentations on
the direction for amendment of laws for the idea of transforming the
DMZ into an international peace zone and for the development of border
regions; on cooperation cases for peace in Northern Ireland; and on
access to the DMZ from the perspectives of women and youth.
o There will be three sessions on cooperation, and they
will address Peace·Women·Youth, History·Culture·Tourism, and
Environment·Ecology·Han River Estuary.
- Experts will
engage in presentations and discussions on the role of women and youth
in transforming the DMZ into an international peace zone (Session 1);
using the DMZ as historical, cultural, and tourism resources to inform
peace on the Korean Peninsula (Session 2); and peace and ecology that
connect between rivers, mountains, and seas (Session 3).
□
On October 29, the Unification Walk will be held as part of the
pre-event planning. Some fifty participants in the forum will take a
walk to a peace observatory, the Memorial Tower of the Battle of
Baekma Goji, the Geumgangsan Mountain Railroad Bridge, and other such
locations to feel in person the importance of peace in border regions
including the DMZ.
* The walk is limited to 50 people
in consideration of the COVID-19 pandemic situation, and they will
thoroughly comply with the anti-epidemic measures including those for
sanitizing hands and wearing masks.
□ The Ministry will
hold the DMZ Global Forum on Peace and Cooperation regularly in border
regions to build the consensus on peace and cooperation in the DMZ at
home and abroad and promote cooperation between the government, local
governments, and the international community.
