Yongsan-gu Provides Peaceful Unification Education to 1,400 Youths

Under the theme "Lighting Peace Warms Unification," Projects Including Building a Peace and Unification Consortium from April to November 추진

[Asia Economy Reporter Jong-il Park] Yongsan-gu (Mayor Seong Chang-hyun) is promoting the project "Peace ON, Unification ON (溫): When Peace Shines, Unification Becomes Warm" from this month until November.

This is part of the 2021 Seoul Metropolitan Government’s local community-based district peace and unification education public project.

The detailed programs include ▲ Establishing a Peace and Unification Consortium (April) ▲ Peace Creators (April?September) ▲ VLOG production (April?October) ▲ Talk Concert (May?June) ▲ Unification 4th Industrial Revolution Education (May?August) ▲ Braille TongTong (May?October) ▲ Peace Makerthon (Make+Marathon) Day Camp (September?October), among others.

As the first step of the project, the district will form a peace and unification consortium with the War Memorial of Korea located in Namyeong-dong, Yongsan-gu, and local elementary and secondary schools. This is to establish an overall cooperation system. The consortium agreements with each institution are scheduled to be signed within this month.

The Peace Creators program involves creating videos on the theme of peace by utilizing war records and photos registered in the War Memorial of Korea’s open archive. A total of four online classes (via Zoom and Padlet) will be conducted.

The VLOG production aims to gauge youth awareness of peace and unification, including field visits to Korean War sites with experts. Youth participants will create videos themselves and upload them to the Yongsan Youth Center’s YouTube channel.

The Talk Concert will be held twice in May and June. The venue is the small theater at Yongsan Youth Culture House (5th floor, Yongsan Dream Tree Complex Town, 329 Baekbeom-ro). Youth-oriented education will be provided to eliminate prejudices about North Korea and enhance the will for unification.

The Unification 4th Industrial Revolution Education consists of activities such as a North-South Korean word quiz using artificial intelligence (AI), virtual reality (VR) unification storyboard production, YouTube video production titled "The Tomorrow We Change," and a drone flight competition along the Korean Peninsula course. It targets 30 elementary and secondary students.

A district official said, “In connection with the local schools’ free semester system, we will conduct various peace and unification education programs for 1,400 youths. We will strive to accurately inform about the reality of the division of the Korean Peninsula and foster a consensus for unification.”

The project budget is 40 million KRW, fully funded by the Seoul Metropolitan Government.

Last year, the district also promoted projects such as youth Nanta performance "PEACE," Unification 4th Industrial Revolution Day Camp, North-South Korean unification cooking classes, Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) ecological exploration, and Dragon Unification Leader Camp, and was selected as an excellent district for peace and unification education.

Seong Chang-hyun, Mayor of Yongsan-gu, said, “Our district enacted the Ordinance on Inter-Korean Exchange and Cooperation in 2019 and has continued projects including the establishment of a cooperation fund. Recently, with the revision of the Inter-Korean Exchange and Cooperation Act, local governments have become legal entities that can directly interact with the North. Through local community-based education, we will awaken the future generation to the necessity of unification and the importance of peace.”

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.