Seated among a handful of his countrymen in small tents right in front of the United Nations headquarters, he drank salty water for 24 days, punching the air and holding placards in a move to oppose the admission of North and South Korea into the United Nations as separate nations.

Please meet Kiyul Chung, founder of the ‘Young Koreans United USA’ in 1984, a movement that later became the forum to spearhead frantic calls for the unification of the North and the South into one Korea.

“We decided to go on a hunger strike during those days of the UN General Assembly from October 1 till about October 24,” Chung who now lives in Beijing, China, recalls. “Somebody needed to tell the world that Korea is still one; that the separation came against the wishes of the people.”

In his early days of struggle for Koreas unification, young Chung raise punch in the air in New York. - Supplied Photo

Activists from various countries participate in a rally to press upon the world for respect of the sovereignty of their respective member-states of United Nations. – Supplied Photo

Chung (in glasses towards right) with likeminded activists in Seoul during a visit to South Korea on the issue of reunification. – Supplied Photo

Chung (center) with friends in Australia. He has travelled across the world to spread awareness about demands of the Korean people. – Supplied Photo

North and South Koreans stage a sit-in New York, United States, to seek an end to foreign intervention and peaceful negotiations for unification to begin. – Supplied Photo

In his early days of struggle for Koreas unification, young Chung raise punch in the air in New York. - Supplied Photo

Activists from various countries participate in a rally to press upon the world for respect of the sovereignty of their respective member-states of United Nations. – Supplied Photo

Chung (in glasses towards right) with likeminded activists in Seoul during a visit to South Korea on the issue of reunification. – Supplied Photo

Chung (center) with friends in Australia. He has travelled across the world to spread awareness about demands of the Korean people. – Supplied Photo

North and South Koreans stage a sit-in New York, United States, to seek an end to foreign intervention and peaceful negotiations for unification to begin. – Supplied Photo

This ocean of commitment has spent over 30 years of his life on Earth crusading for the unification of the now Democratic Peoples’ Republic of Korea (DPRK), and Korea Republic - otherwise referred to, as North Korea, and South Korea respectively, into one country.

The Korean peninsula was ruled by Japan from 1910 until the end of World War II. Following the surrender of Japan in 1945, American administrators divided the peninsula along the 38th Parallel, with United States troops occupying the southern part and Soviet troops occupying the northern part.

The 38th Parallel increasingly became a political border between the two Koreas. Although reunification negotiations continued in the months preceding the war, tension intensified, eventually leading to open warfare on 25 June 1950.

The incentives behind Chung’s deeply rooted dream for a ‘One Korea’ were far from being ordinary.

“ I fully realized that we the Koreans, Africans, Black Americans, Native Americans, Palestinians, and all the other oppressed and colonized people around the globe are much in the same shoes in terms of being exploited and enslaved by Western and American imperial powers,” says Chung.

The atrocities of foreign powers against the Korean people in the early 1950s, consuming over four million people lives, followed a complete destruction of the entire land in the course of the 3 year-long war along the 38th Parallel.

According to Chung, the bloodshed became unbearable for any conscious Korean.

At 55, Kiyul Chung lives in in Beijing, China, is ready for more sleepless nights and painful times in the wake of his struggle.

The movement according to Chung is about diverse views, traditions, customs, religions, languages and philosophies.

Share this page