Lecture Concert for Peaceful Unification on the Korean Peninsula (English)

Organized by The Institute for Advanced Studies in Levant Culture and
Civilization (ISACCL)
Hosted by HWPL IPYG
Date 20 September 2018, 14:00-16:00
Location Sejong University Daeyang Hall
A Special Proposal on the Unification on
the Korean Peninsula and World Peace,
Made by Leaders of Eastern Europe who
Led the System Change to Democracy
Lecture Concert
for Peaceful Unification on
the Korean Peninsula

- Present, Chairman of Institute for Advanced Studies for Culture
and Civilization of the Levant
- Present, President of Romanian Foundation for Democracy
- 2014-Present, the member of HWPL Peace Advisory Council
- 2011-2017, President of the Academy for Cultural Diplomacy,
Berlin
- 1996-2000, The 3rd President of Romania
- 1992-1996, Rector of the University of Bucharest
- President of the Baltic-Black Sea Forum
- Founder of the “Dignity” Politosophy School
- Founder of the Strategy Center for Humanitarian and Political
Science
- 2018-Present Member of HWPL Advisory Council
- 1991-1992 First Deputy Prime Minister of the Russian
Federation
- 1991-1992 State Secretary of the Russian Federation
- One of the authors and signators of the Belavezha Accords
- Member of International Centre for Black Sea-Baltic Studies
and consensus practices
- President of the Foundation for Strategic Research and
Development of International Relations “Lucinschi”
- 2018-Present Member of HWPL Advisory Council
- 1996-2001 President of Moldova
- 1993-1997 Speaker of the Moldovan Parliament
- 1992-1993 Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of
Moldova in Russia
Lecture Emil Constantinescu
Special Speech Gennady Burbulis
Congratulatory Message Petru Lucinschi
S P E A K E R

A transcript of Former President Emil
Constantinescu’s lecture. Where the
audio recording of the lecture is unclear,
ellipses or a notation that the recording was
unintelligible are used.
Honorable guests and dear students,
First of all, let me express my deep gratitude
for the invitation from Sejong University and
from [unintelligible] the International Peace
Youth Group organizer of this event, and my
special thanks for cooperation with Institute
for Advanced Study from Levant Culture
Civilization from Romania.
I am very happy to be here in Sejong
University. I spent 60 years of my life in
Bucharest University and other universities
throughout the world. And I owe everything
to the university.
I am proud because my former graduate
masters and PhD students are now professors
in universities throughout the world,
and researchers in different institutions
throughout the world.
The title of my lecture, today’s lecture,
is “The Memory of the Suffering and the
Pedagogy of Freedom.” I would like to begin
with a confession.
I was born in 1939. In that year, someone
would have crossed the Eurasian continent
from Tokyo to Lisbon from the Pacific to the
Atlantic Ocean only state under civil of the
military dictatorship. My family lived in that
time in a town located in Dniester River of
the Soviet Border.
We were twice forced to take refuge from
the Red Army alongside tens of thousands
of people, and my first memories are related
01
Emil Constantinescu,
the former president of Romania
Lecture Concert for Peaceful Unification on the Korean Peninsula

4
to this desperate exodus because those who
failed to leave were mostly arrested and
departed in Siberia.
I lived until the age of 50 under dictatorship.
In a country where people don’t have the
freedom of movement, you could not leave
the country, and you are forced to work
and live in a particular place allocated by
government- governmental distribution.
A dictatorship that would only recognize
state and collective ownership canceled all
forms of rights, free expression and oversaw
the personal life of every citizen by political
police surveillance.
I lived also through post-utilitarian transition
where the social price was heavily paid.
For those of my generation, democracy is
not an abstract concept, and my situation
that undermines democracy and prejudices
freedom affect us deeply.
The Second World War, which affected most
Romania and Korea, called the death of
more than 25 million soldiers and more.
Over 73 million civilians caused huge
economic losses and destruction of the world
cultural heritage.
The atrocities of the two wars, world wars in
the first half of the 20th century proved to be
insufficient to understand that peace cannot
be strengthened only by managing frozen
conflicts.
The establishment of communism in
Eastern Europe has led to the elimination
of constructive competition, removal of free
expression and emergence of an immoral
form claiming to be a society where ideology
replaces feelings.
Three words also, interpretative slogans and
freedom in general are replaced by constant
terror.
All these changes have defined the new
face of Eastern Europe crisscrossed by a
suffering of millions of people.
The result of implementation of communism
in Eastern Europe by violent means and
bloody repression of anti-communist
resistance.
The removal of actual potential opponents
was achieved through torture and re-
education centers, extermination prisons,
forced labor camps, political assassinations,
summary executions, mass deportations.
Amid the precarious peace secured during
the Cold War by focusing on arms race, the

5
price paid by the citizens of the communist
states of Eastern Europe was extremely
heavy.
Millions of death, tens of millions of human
life destroyed.
When oppression, censorship, terror seem to
ensure a small future for communism, the
resulting hardship turned into true pedagogy
of freedom thus building solid characters
able to tear apart the status quo.
The fall of communism was first of all an
ideological collapse that repairs the political
colors of dictatorship in most countries of
former Soviet blocks.
Culture played a fundamental role in this
context.
Parallel to the off icial speech, an
underground speech was created, mean to
denounce deception and falsity and to reject
those who stop at thinking.
The danger came from the intellectuals from
their own countries displayed by member of
the communist apparatus.
The danger came through the war of the
democrat intellectuals and through their
writings in regard to dissemination through
citizens of their countries taking surveys
and censorship.
The change took place when Mikael
Gorbachev, new team, launched Perestroika
– the economic reform – but especially
Glasnost, the transparency meaning the
freedom of communication.
Dear friends, we have among us today in this
room, one of the most important members
of this team, of Gorbachev team, who urged
for the peaceful transition to democracy.
Petru Lucinschi, doctor of philosophy, who
later became the chairman of the parliament
of independent Moldova, and democratic
president of the Republic of Moldova, and I
salute his presence here.
After the peaceful, peaceful change of the
totalitarian regime in Eastern Europe, the
first democratic presidents freely elected
by the people were representative of the
intellectual elite.
Coming from academic milieu was very
strange for the political history of the world.
And remember, the famous first democratic
president of Czech was Václav Havel, a very
known writer.
The first democratic president of Hungary
was the president of a writers’ union. The
first president of democratic Bulgaria was a

6
philosopher from Sofia University.
The first democratic president of Lithuania,
Vytautas Landsbergis, was the president of
the Academy of Music.
The first democratic president of Estonia was
also the president of the Academy of Music.
And the second president of Estonia was
the director and president of the University
of Agriculture and was of special family,
because this member of academic milieu,
of intellectual elite was not interested in
corruption, in their interests, or their family;
they worked for their country and for their
people, and for changing Europe, changing
the world.
The transition was not easy for those who
experienced communism and had to leave
to the post-communist transition period,
nothing is more true and instructive than the
reading of Exodus in the Bible.
We understand from Exodus in the Bible
best why it took 40 years for the Hebrew
people to reach the holy land.
What is the meaning of the worship of the
golden calf, the temptation of collective
debauchery, violence and treason, the need
for the table of laws, and the punishment
for failing to comply with the Ten
Commandments?
The historical memory appears to be the
element explaining why citizens from former
communist countries refuse to support
totalitarian approaches regardless of the coat
they are wearing. The pedagogy of freedom
needs a memory of suffering because as is
the case of health, we perceive the value of
freedom only when we no longer have it.
Debating the relationship between the
democratic power and individuals’ freedom
also targets a distribution of wealth. In a
novel, The Karamazov Brothers, by the
famous Russian writer, Dostoevsky, one of
the characters named Ivan tells our Russia,
that if people would be asking to choose
between freedom and bread, many would
choose bread. This is also the psychological
foundation, when totalitarian regimes
ground themselves in order to obtain a
concession of obedience.
A significant part of the population is formal
communist countries continue to regret the
times when they had fully paid by safe jobs.
They lived in miserable conditions, but in
houses received by government allocation
and they were given minimum food rationed
by cuts.

7
But the most important psychological
element s stoppi ng rebel l ion we re
paradoxically the fact that everyone was
equally poor and they did not feel humiliated
one in relation to the other.
The comeback of neo-communist party is
based on this nostalgia. In the democratic
societies with market economy from the
Occident, freedom is followed by a chase
after material goods that create significant
differences between the rich and poor. This
difference is not often correlated with the
quality or quantity of work performed and
with the contribution to the general welfare
of the society.
Many times these realities over hand you
once who believe in the ideas of democratic
principles in the western world, including us.
Only throughout granted transparency is the
governing process and the hidden relations
governments have with corporations more
affair governments can be rigid.
That’s the experience of the communist
regime which tried to alienate our natural,
humanist, European vocation was paid
at the cost of tens of millions of human
lives. Freedom regained through sacrifice
has created not only rights, but also
responsibilities we gradually familiarize
ourselves with in often difficult social and
psychological conditions.
The citizens of the formal communist
countries have been deprived of all their
rights, including their right to live for half
a century. They are suffering and struggle
lesson is for each of us a first step towards
understanding the greater lesson of freedom
and respecting each other’s freedom.
The amelioration of the democratic
conscious needs more time of adoption
for democratic laws or institutions. Let us
remember when the American system of
power separation was exported to Latin
America or South Asia it invariable led
to totalitarian regimes until a democratic
conscious was able to ensure to the function
of a democratic institution was formed.
Democratic culture is threatened at the
beginning of the certain millennium. Also,
by dominant post-modern culture, this seems
to invalidate the appeal of ideas of European
Union founding fathers. Political leaders,
the same as ordinary citizens, seems to
ignore the social significance of governance
by trust, virtue, and moderation, essential
moral values.

8
Perhaps exactly a return to these values,
given that the social cost of governance
as supporting increasingly harder where
society’s irreparably being divided between
the privileged and the disadvantaged, would
be a reconstruction tool for politics on other
grounds.
There’s a collectivism impulse during
communism and the selfish individualism
of promoting capitalism. Return to moral
values could be an alternative to the careless
of contentious attitude towards the needs and
the requirement resolves treated only as a
mass of waters or producers and consumers
of goods and information.
In the long run, for the survival of the
quality of democracy, the essential factor
is the democratic conscience of those who
choose freely. I come back to the novel, the
Karamazov Brothers.
In this novel, Dostoevsky tells us that
man prefers stillness and even death to the
freedom of solidarity choice between good
and evil. Nothing is more seductive for man
that is freedom of conscience, but nothing is
a greater cause of suffering.
Dostoevsky wrote these lines in the 19th
century, from the perspective of people
who never knew individual freedom or
democracy. One hundred years later, in
December 1989, in my country, Romania,
young people would demonstrate against
the communist dictatorship in the university
square in Bucharest.
They did not ask for bread or for higher
wages. They voiced free elections, freedom
of the press, freedom – we love you, we die
for you. And we will die and we’ll be free.
My son, my daughter, my students were at
that time in university square in Bucharest.
At midnight, the repression troops
went in with tanks against the unarmed
demonstration, who did not threaten any
governmental institution but offered flowers
to the militaries, dozens of people were
killed and thousands were arrested and
tortured. Those arrested would have been
killed too, as what happened five days prior
in other university town, Timisoara, in
Romania. If not half a million of Bucharest
citizens would surround the next day’s tanks,
and the symbol of communist regime, the
incredible lack of fear, and the solidarity of
people for the dictator to free, and freedom
was gained.
And in one of history’s bright moments,

9
people were willing to die for the ideas,
ideas of freedom and democracy.
The experience of transition from the
communist dictatorship to democracy in
Eastern Europe represents a very rare case
in the world history, the absence of any
ravage.
The survivor of the communist regime,
repression, wanted nobody to suffer what
they have suffered, and all the cities that
were given the possibility to contribute to
the democratization of the country.
The situation is representative especially for
Romania, where the bloody repression took
place even in the last moment.
The situation of Romania is interesting
for the current events from the Korean
Peninsula because we are also a nation
living in two different states.
After the fall of Soviet Union and the
independence of Moldova, the relationship
between Romania and new Republic of
Moldova were very good without any
disputes, especially during the term of
President Luchinsky in the Republic of
Moldova in the minor of Romania.
Dear friends, it was our recent past. The
answer regarding the future of freedom of
democracy is the choice of each generation,
and in the end, of each of us.
This was the event was the experience of our
transition from the communist dictatorship
to democracy which I have tried to present
to you sincerely as I have liked directly.
Good or bad, you, the next generation, can
decide what to choose to learn from it.
But at the end of my lecture, I ought also to
say what we Romanians can learn from the
experience of South Korea, and what I have
understood from my three visits in Korea
over the last 24 years.
I will use a single word that impressed
me in all my visits in Korea: patriotism,
an increasingly large sentiment in today’s
globalized world and a huge first repair to
solidarity of Koreans.
Over the last three decades…
And also, I want to share with you our
experience in that spirit.
Over the last three decades, we have secured
our territorial integrity by integrating a
donator.
We secured the economy, we have
economic security through European Union

10
integration, and we have had the highest
economic growth rating in the European
Union for the past five years.
But unfortunately, 100 years after the great
union of Romanian [unintelligible] in the
single state, we are disunited, differenced by
different groups or individual political and
social interest.
We need to rediscover what unites us, our
common goal. We need to redefine ourselves
in the globalized world by what we are, and
not what we have.
Only this way, we can preserve our national
identity and dignity respecting all other
nations in the globalized world.
Thank you for your attention.

Yesterday, the two heads of North and
South Korea, two divided nations, signed
a historical joint statement. Through their
signatures, they pledged to take action to
eliminate war risks in the disputed area,
including the demilitarized zone. I saw
the joint statement as the right thing to do
at the right time. Peace culture starts with
the strength and determination to throw
away the countless prejudices that each
individual holds in their thoughts. We must
rid jealousy, envy, and anger that is rooted
in our hearts. Creating a peace culture is
a difficult road we must travel until peace
becomes stabilized, but at the same time, it
will help people to find inner harmony and
to fit their lives to the stars in the sky and to
the work of humanity.
A culture of peace most deeply forms within
the university community. That’s why it is
such a pleasure to be here at a university,
speaking to all of you today. Universities
help to form a person’s value system and
is a place that holds great value in terms of
moral and spirit. Students learn dignity and
as an intellectual, and as a citizen, find ways
and build power according to their instinct
for community freedom. Students create
new values and rules and become a new
person, so without universities we have no
future nor chances for development.
It’s great to have the community of
universities working together to inspire each
other with a sense of duty, to think about
said duty, and to bring millions of people
who have yet to give up their prejudices in
their thoughts and perceptions. This is the
strategy that the I, myself, as well as former
president Constantinescu and Lucinschi are
aiming for at the International Centre for
02
Gennady Burbulis,
the former state secretary of Russia

12
Black Sea-Baltic Studies and Consensus
Practices.
Regardless of age, position, or field, the
work that we are doing will play a pivotal
role in actualizing peace through the
power of communities. And I believe that
actualization of peace within communities
is very well reflected in the Declaration of
Peace and Cessation of War (DPCW).
We must think deeply about the value of
creation and the meaning behind it. Peace
should not just exist as a great goal, a
beautiful dream, and a desire, but it should
be a work that we work for everyday with
our determination, efforts, and given talents.
In order to fulfill this goal, we must look
at this on a global scale, not on the scale of
individual nations. As long as the foundation
is still unstable, we cannot ensure the
success of today nor tomorrow. This is why
peace is so closely tied to dignity. I am sure
that the DPCW needs to be and will be
as historical as the Universal Declaration
of Human Rights. Every morning, I say
Article 1 of the Universal Declaration of
Human Rights like a prayer. Article 1 of
the Universal Declaration of Human Rights
states “All human beings are born free
and equal in dignity and rights. They are
endowed with reason and conscience and
should act towards one another in a spirit of
brotherhood.” From birth, we are equal in
dignity and rights, and we have the right to
live, to be peaceful, and to live in peace. We
are approaching this mutual understanding
and the goal of realizing a common peace.
And at this time, Korea, my own country,
Russia, the Baltic states, all European
nations, and the rest of the world is heading
towards a better future that we have long
aspired for.
Two-thirds of the DPCW’s 10 articles and 38
clauses say “the nation has the responsibility
to~” “the nation must~” “the UN must~”.
Through the DPCW, I thought to myself
“our dignity can be preserved and valued
when we realize our own obligations and
live a consistent life with our respective
duties and responsibilities, both mentally
and physically.” As I finish my lecture today,
I want to make a confession. I have lived
without a religion all my life, and my family
is also not religious. I am not part of any
denomination, but I, Gennady Burbulis,
signed the Belavezha Accords that ended the
Soviet Union with former President Boris
Yeltsin on behalf of 150 million Russians
in the Russian Federation and as Russia’s

13
deputy prime minister. Let us never forget
that the exhausting and cruel history of
the two empires ended in December 1991
and this decision has led to the peaceful
dismantlement of the Soviet Union, the
most brutal, cunning, and severe totalitarian
empire in human history.
This was only possible because at the most
important and difficult moment, we followed
the sound and reason of the soul, we were
courageous, and we had a wise heart. I
am confident that I can share this courage
and wisdom from that time with all of you
here. I believe that all of us will be used
according to our talents and skills. I believe
that harmony must be formed with the earth,
the universe, and our spirits. I believe that
we can create peace culture by keeping
the value of ‘good’ and actualizing it in
this divided world. Those who gave their
lives for the greater good in the past knew
their duty and they followed the words of
“no matter the result, do the work you are
supposed to do” like law. I want to believe
that everyone here agrees that these words
are not enough, and they are wrong in a
sense. I hope the phrase that I am about to
say will become a new law that will not only
protect us but unite everyone who supports a
culture of peace.
“Do what you are supposed to do, and
your dreams will come true. Your hopes
will come true. What you believe will be
fulfilled. It will be fulfilled without a doubt.”

Dear friends, the reason I am standing here
is because we are all the messengers of
peace.
We are all convinced that the only condition
to develop humanity is through realization
of peace.
This is my first time here at the Peace
WARP Summit.
I was very impressed by this event, and
I strongly believe that if anyone wants to
live in harmony for their children, parents,
family and countries, one must put in their
efforts to achieve it.
I honestly tell you that at every international
conference I attend, I raise this topic, the
topic of peace.
I am very concerned that over the past 25
years, the term ‘peace’ itself has gradually
disappeared and was not mentioned from
world’s political fields.
We hear about national interests all the time.
We hear about the fight against the climate,
about the fight against terrorism, which is
right and right for connecting people.
But it is not possible to realize such things
unless peaceful conditions are achieved.
Europe, which united in the European
Union, practically took this first step after
the Second World War.
It was really the leaders of Europe who were
horrified that Europe has been the source of
world wars over the centuries.
By seeing such sufferings, such tragedies
which started from one person and affected
the entire nations, they said “We must do
something, we must unite so that there are
no more wars”.
03
Petru Lucinschi,
the former president of
Moldova

15
And this was the beginning of the European
Union today.
Yes, there are some tensions, there are some
moments of dispute, but there is no war in
Europe.
However, war is still ongoing in the world.
And if the leaders of all countries do not
understand the results of sufferings of people
that are shown through the internet, radio,
and TV – those whose shelters and lives
are taken away due to hunger and tortures -
There cannot be a development in humanity.
It seems to me that, first of all, the leaders
we elect must understand this fact. But, the
question is, who are we voting for?
How can a person who once was an
instigator of wars be at a position of a leader
of a country?
This also means that the people have not yet
developed a form of mechanism to prevent
such people from becoming a leader of a
country.
It is because the leaders are the ones to start
a war, and victims are the people of the
countries.
Therefore, in my understanding, first of all,
it is neccessary to work out such tools that
would put a barrier, to stop the nomination
of such people.
And in order to stop the leadership of such
people, people must be united.
Leaders must speak on behalf of the people
of their countries.
Like how we have seen recently from South
Korea, if all people have their interests
together, the leaders of countries cannot
unleash a war.
We all have learnt the history of wars in our
countries.
Take any textbook of any country, all heroes
of any countries are wearing the military
uniform.
Well, of course, it is natural to honor the
heroes of their countries.
Yesterday I visited Suwon, Hwaseong, and
someone explained that the King Jung Jo
resided among his people at the time he was
there.
Also, I heared that he opened a banquet
for his mother and invited the elders of the
country to come.
And this story is remembered by many
people throughout the history.

16
Moreoever, King Jung Jo said it was no
good for a man to be on his knees before the
King,
But that it is enough to just bow your head.
I now understand that bowing your head in
South Korea actually came from King Jung
Jo.
Like so, if a leader shows good deeds first,
and shares one’s will through peacful
educations or cultures, it will remain in the
people. This should be a way to carry out
one’s role as a leader.
Here we are with H.E Emil Constinescu, the
former President of Romania, and my friend.
We are from neighboring countries from the
same root, and we speak the same language
and share the same cultures.
Of course, we do not allow the danger of
a war between us, like how there is in the
Korean Peninsula.
Although there may be some restrictions,
20 years ago, we were able to establish such
relations between our countries so that there
is not a single conflict, not a single case of
dispute.
We agreed that we should create not only
certain conditions to build our future
together and to enhance the friendly
relationship, but also to lead in such
directions and pathways.
And we succeeded.
And I will say, despite the ongoing wars
and conflicts between other countries, we
succeed to avoid wars through cultures and
educations.
We know that South Korea ranks first in the
world in terms of the number of people with
higher education, 72%, I was told.
And with my own eyes, I was able to witness
the reality of the result of such educations
during my stay at the WARP Summit.
Throughout the whole period of the Summit,
we saw joyful and friendly faces.
I saw the faces who truly hope for the
unification of the Korean Peninsula.
I believe it is symbolic that during the
WARP Summit, the meeting of the leaders
of North and South Korea took place.
I once said in one of my interviews that the
head of the state must speak on behalf of his
people in the country.
The benefit of both North and South Korea,
is through the unification.

17
At least at first, they must remove a threat of
war among themselves.
If the two leaders of South and North Korea
wish to be remembered in history, they
must become countries that take their steps
to achieve peace and abundancy through
unification of the Korean Peninsula.
I was deeply touched by the 4th Annual
Commemoration of the WARP Summit.
I believe that peace will be achieved soon,
because the details of achieving peace
are written in the Declaration, and I am
convinced that peace is coming nearer and
nearer.
All there is left for us is to convince the rest
of the heads of states and to implement the
DPCW to the UN.
In other words, it must be included in this
agenda.
We can achieve it.
Dear beloved friends, life is beautiful.
However for this beauty of life, we must
fight everyday.
There is nothing that we can achieve without
efforts and trials.
Nothing can be achieved without mutual
communications and agreements.
I want to congratulate all of you that such
peace movement has begun by all of you.
I said that the sun, rising from South Korea
comes to the West.
I hope the sun that has risen through this
peace movement for cessation of wars will
brighten up the darkness.
I hope to brighten the darkened world that is
still in its torture and sufferings.
And let this day come soon, when we rejoice
together, we will create and leave this global
community for the future generations.
Thank you.

HWPL Chairman Man Hee Lee and Romania’s former president Emil Constantinescu are presenting the MOU
document signed between HWPL and the Institute for Advanced Studies in Levant Culture and Civilization (ISACCL).
Notable guests who attended “Lecture Concert for Peaceful Unification on the Korean Peninsula”
promised to work together for peace as they posed for a commemorative photo.
HWPL Cultural Performance Group is giving a congratulatory performance.

Belavezha Accords led the way to the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991 and
a peaceful system change to democracy in the communist countries of Eastern Europe.
Former heads of state who are part of International Centre for Black Sea-Baltic Studies and Consensus Practices
(Viktor Yushchenko, former president of Ukraine, Stanislav Shushkevich, former chairman of the Supreme Soviet
and parliament of Belarus, Gennady Burbulis, President of Baltic-Black Sea Forum and the former state secretary of
Russia) are explaining the Belavezha Accords that brought Eastern Europe’s peaceful system change to democracy.
HWPL Symphony Orchestra and HWPL Concert Choir are giving a congratulatory performance.

A Special Proposal on the Unification on
the Korean Peninsula and World Peace,
Made by Leaders of Eastern Europe who
Led the System Change to Democracy
Lecture Concert
for Peaceful Unification on
the Korean Peninsula

Lecture Concert for Peaceful Unification on the Korean Peninsula (English)

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