Warsaw, Poland—A UPF webinar titled “The Forgotten Pain of a Divided Nation” focused on the difficulties of the Korean peoples, who after World War II were divided by the 38th parallel into two nations.
The moderator of the online conference, which was held on June 12, 2021, was Krzysztof Gago, secretary general of UPF-Poland. In his opening remarks he gave an introduction to the ideals and activities of UPF International.
The speakers represented the spheres of religion, culture and science.
Rev. Michal Jablonski, pastor and director of the Evangelical Reformed Church, spoke about the absolute and unique value of every human being, proposing that we should go beyond the classifications of “friend” and “enemy” and become aware that we all are brothers and sisters.
Isabella Krapf, an Austrian musician who is the vice president of the DPRK Association in her nation, described in a moving way her personal experiences in teaching music in North Korea, including friendships she made there. Her presentation moved many audience members to post positive comments.
Tomasz Krzyzowski from UPF-Germany gave an overview about the many diplomatic initiatives and meetings of officials of both Koreas over the last decades. He mentioned that the Koreans’ common culture and history could be a basis for unification.
We had more participants than ever in a Polish UPF webinar, and for the first time there were many international participants from Europe and even the United States.