President Moon Attends 'Cross of Peace' Exhibition Featuring DMZ Barbed Wire Materials

[Asia Economy Reporter Lee Ji-eun] President Moon Jae-in, who is on a European tour coinciding with the G20 Summit, visited the Sant’Egnazio Church in Rome, Italy, on the 29th (local time) to attend the opening ceremony of the exhibition "Barbed Wire Becomes Peace."

The exhibition, organized by the Ministry of Unification, features 136 crosses of peace made from dismantled barbed wire from the DMZ. This symbolizes the pain of division experienced separately by the North and South over 68 years since the Korean War (68 years × 2 = 136) coming together to achieve peace.

The President and the First Lady empathized with the reality of the division of the Korean Peninsula and the preciousness of peace together with Vatican officials, representatives of international organizations, and local Korean residents.

In particular, President Moon, along with key figures attending the event, received candles symbolizing the wish for peace from Korean and Italian children (aged 8 and 4), and together they lit the final candle on the exhibition piece shaped like the Korean Peninsula, completing the installation artwork.

The President expressed his gratitude to Chairman Park Yong-man, who planned the cross project using DMZ barbed wire, Professor Kwon Dae-hoon, who created the artwork, the Sant’Egnazio Church which provided the venue, as well as officials from the Italian government and the Vatican, and the Korean community members who attended the event.

The Sant’Egnazio Church, the venue for the exhibition, also hosted a concert themed on peace on the Korean Peninsula in 2019. At the end of the event, the parish priest of Sant’Egnazio prayed for peace on the Korean Peninsula and around the world, and for healing and divine grace from war, division, conflict, and the COVID-19 pandemic.

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