NUAC hosted the 2017 1st ~ 3rd Functional Policy Meeting in Daejeon for council members of the education and culture/sports function (1st: Mar. 29-30, 2nd: Mar. 30-31, 3rd: Apr. 4-5). With 400 council members representing the 2 functions of education and culture/sports attending, the first day of the meeting consisted of a unification talk concert (Panel: Kim Kap-sik, Researcher at the Korea Institute for National Unification, and Kang Dong-wan, Professor of Political Science and Diplomacy Dept. at Dong-A University) and a group discussion, and the second day featured a special unification lecture and a presentation of the results of the group discussion.

In the 2nd Functional Policy Meeting held on March 31, Secretary General Kwon Tae-oh gave a keynote presentation on the topic “Status Quo of Unification Policy and Future Direction.” The Secretary General emphasized the need to “nurture a proper perspective on security against the North Korean nuclear crisis and overcome today’s crisis, considering the unstable situation in Northeast Asia caused by North Korean nuclear experiments and the uncompromising attitude of the Trump administration regarding North Korean nuclear weapons.”

Moreover, at the unification concert of the 1st to 3rd meetings chaired by Unification Policy Advisory Bureau Director Kim Jeon-joon, panels including Kim Kap-sik, Researcher at the Korea Institute for National Unification, and Kang Dong-wan, Professor of Political Science and Diplomacy Dept. at Dong-A University, shared interesting and in-depth stories on unification.

“The young people are the generation to lead a unified Korea and to create new cultures and values, and there is a need to promote policies to ignite a spirit of unification among the young generation, including amendments to current legislation on unification education, development/spread of a unification-friendly narrative, strengthened unification education in preparation for the future, participation and communication, and widespread consensus on peaceful unification through public-private cooperation,” Researcher Kim Kap-sik stressed.

According to Professor Kang Dong-wan, there is a need to break down the barriers between residents of South and North Korea for unification, and in order to achieve this, a specialized strategy for each subject through the culture/sports field is needed such as the promotion of an integrated unification project with the application of unification/culture/IT, spread of consensus on unification using regionally specialized contents, and spread of Hallyu culture within North Korea.

In the group discussion held on specialized topics for each function, council members separated into 6 groups to continue lively debates on “Policy Direction for the Igniting of Spirit of Unification among the Young Generation” (Education Function) and “Measure to Spread Consensus on Unification Using the Culture/Sports Field” (Culture/Sports Function).

Meanwhile, on the second day of the meetings, the 1st and 3rd meetings featured a special unification lecture by Kwak In-su, Researcher at the Institute for National Security Strategy, on the topic “See Unification by Knowing North Korea.” The 2nd meeting included a special lecture by Ahn Myeong-chul, Executive Director of NK Watch, on the topic “Liberal Unification is Our Long Wish,” helping council members have better understanding of the reality of North Korea.