Dear friends,
I would like to take this opportunity to express my gratitude to those around the world who continue to take an interest in our work here at the Korean Sharing Movement.
As many of you will be aware, KSM was founded on June 21st 1996 when North Korea appealed to the outside world for food assistance while suffering from severe famine. As many of you will not be aware, I was living in Daegu at the time and upon hearing about the KSM campaign in the press I resolved to join them. I had started working at KSM by March the following year.
In those days I didn’t know too much about North Korea and I didn’t have enough experience about grassroots movements. However, thanks to the guiding hand of my seniors and the encouragements of my colleagues I came to learn about the north through experience and to grow into my role while simultaneously finding out about myself. It was really a fun time. As I learnt and enjoyed my job, what I had initially intended as a brief participation in KSM, started to become my life. As initially a team member, then a team leader, through Deputy Director General and then Director General I filled various positions within KSM as a not insignificant twenty two years rolled by. Now as Secretary-General I intend to lead the Sharing Movement into the future.
The precious values of KSM The first pf many things that KSM taught me was solidarity and cooperation. Our organization was the coming together that June in 1996 of six religious organizations with civil society, various NGOs transcended religious and ideological differences to form a national campaign entitled the “Korean Sharing Movement” with the resolve to help our compatriots in the north. In so much as that campaign was an amalgamation of various different actors coming together for a common cause we needed to cooperate a great deal and to find points of solidarity and consensus when developing our campaign strategy and project specifics.
The second key understanding I have gained from KSM has been the concept of mutual sharing. The realization that the Korean people, wounded from war and racked by ideological division, can through sharing and assisting one another contribute to national reconciliation and efforts toward unification deeply reverberates with me. From KSM’s inception and continuing to this day, this spirit of mutual sharing and assistance has moved countless individuals and it is for that reason that it is also our most precious value.
The third key concept is change. Through KSM I have met ethnic Koreans from North Korea, China, and Russia. In planning and delivering projects with these people we have also experienced a lot of conflict. Whilst we might share our common Korean ethnicity, the trajectories of our lives have been very different which correspondingly makes our thought processes and our actions different. Initially, I wanted to change these new colleagues. However, I came to the realization that I had to change before my counterparts would change. Change is a two way street which cannot occur unilaterally. Now, I have come to believe in the potential of change where acting together leads us towards a better place.
I like to reflect on the values that the Korean Sharing Movement has taught me. As KSM’s Secretary General responsible for the day to day workings of our movement, I will strive to keep the values of solidarity and cooperation, the spirit of mutual sharing, and the belief that change is a mutual endeavor as a focal part in all of our undertakings.
In the beginning KSM started operating by delivering basic food assistance. From the year 2000 we transitioned into development cooperation. As the environment of south north exchange and cooperation changed, KSM adjusted and evolved in accordance with the flow of the changes on the basis that south north exchange has to reflect the needs of the citizens in the south and the north.
Since 2010 south north civilian level exchange and cooperation has faced a new change. The north no longer wants basic assistance or one off exchange. They want cooperation that helps develop their own capacity and provides real benefits to their people. In other words, they want a cooperation method with mutuality where both sides benefiting that results in common development.
The need for a new era of our Sharing Movement is apparent in front of us. We took the opportunity of the twentieth anniversary of our foundation, in 2016, to regroup and refocus our strategic direction in light of the changes to south north citizen’s perceptions and the changing exchange and cooperation environment. In so doing we revised our mission and our vision.
KSM’s vision in this new era is “A Just and healthy ‘Korean Peninsula Peace Community’ built through citizen power”. To realize this vision our team commit to their mission of “working to realize humanitarianism and establish peace in the Korean Peninsula through reconciliation and cooperation”.
To pursue these ends we defined three specific strategic focuses. The first is “to promote the co-development of the Korean people and broaden exchanges and cooperation to address the disparity between the two Koreas”. The second is “to resolve the conflict on the Korean Peninsula and promote a culture of peace in our society”. The third is “to strengthen solidarity with both domestic and international partners and to build a sustainable foundation for our work”.
I will make every effort to support our team in ensuring that we can together realize KSM’s new vision, mission, and strategic focuses. I will also strive to ensure that all of our supporters and partners can join with us and play a part in achieving our common goals.
In closing I would like to reiterate that I have been very fortunate and am eternally grateful for the assistance and friendship of my colleagues over the years. I have been incredibly fortunate to meet and then learn from Yong-Sun Lee and Young-Sik Kang our previous Secretary Generals. Moving forward I will endeavor to fulfill my role as a Secretary General representing all of our team and supporters.
Thank you. In peace,
September 2nd 2019
