The International Peace Highway

Proposals

True Parents advocated the construction of the International Peace Highway at the 10th International Conference on the Unity of the Sciences (ICUS) held in Seoul in 1981.

The International Peace Highway should be constructed as a neutral zone with one kilometer of space on each side of four lanes going in each direction. This will be a zone without borders through which travelers can freely pass.

As it is intended to be a highway of peace, the proposal included immigration offices at interchanges to allow visa-free entry and exit, the prohibition of vehicles carrying weapons, and limitations on the movement of troops.

As part of True Father's presentation on the International Peace Highway, he also proposed a Korea-Japan Undersea Tunnel. He predicted that when the construction of the Korea-Japan Undersea Tunnel was completed, automobiles and high-speed trains could run from Tokyo to London researching and that this would expedite world peace.

To realize this plan, he founded the International Highway Construction Corporation (IHCC) in Japan in April 1982, which in July 1983 began researching the land and sea areas of Tsushima Island in the Tsushima Strait, Iki Island in Nagasaki Prefecture, and the city of Karats on the island of Kyushu, Japan.

In October 1986, the IHCC began excavation of a pilot tunnel in Chinzei, Saga Prefecture.

1. As this bloody and painful century draws to a close, and we usher in the 21st century, we have reached a time when to create a truly new culture, every country must stop emphasizing its national interests, which results in extreme struggle and enmity.

Nations must establish a new value system of a worldwide dimension. In addition, when we reflect upon whether it is possible for true peace to be maintained in one's own country alone without a shared interest in the happiness and peace of neighboring countries, we realize that it is impossible to conceive of world peace without love for humanity that transcends nationalism.

From this perspective, I think now is the time to formulate a new social and economic theory.

The world needs a new international economic structure that prevents the vast economic waste and losses of the past, and to implement a new plan for land improvement on a worldwide scale so that all people can fulfill their right to pursue peace and happiness.

With the advent of an ideal world of everlasting peace, all people can have a happy and prosperous life. Under the all-encompassing vision that “human beings are siblings of one family,” as a way to substantiate this idea, I would like to submit this proposal for the construction of the International Peace Highway that connects East and West. (115-177, 1981/11/10)

2. The first step is to go through Japan, South Korea, and mainland China. The road will then pass through South and Central Asia, the Middle East, Europe, and Russia, connecting all the countries of the world in a straight line.

A pneumatic tube system in the center of the international highway will transport cargo, and immigration offices at interchanges and airports in large cities will facilitate simple, quick visa-free entry and exit procedures.

A one-kilometer neutral buffer zone, an international area on both sides of the highway, should be set up to make space for recreational facilities for the passengers of the cars and tourist buses using the highway.

I am proposing this plan to create heaven on earth, by binding all people of the world together through a high-speed thoroughfare. This draft is part of a concrete plan to hasten the process of realizing the ideal world.

Through this, scientists will contribute to the realization of happiness and peace for humankind. The significance and purpose of this project is to build a new world of higher culture, by tying the entire world into a “one-day world,” meaning we can travel anywhere in the world and come back home on the same day. (115-178, 1981/11/10)

3. Looking at the situation in Asia from a global perspective, China is an issue. How can I involve China?

In Asia, Korea's survival is an important matter. That is why I proclaimed the construction of an International Peace Highway at the 10th ICUS back in 1981. I also prepared the Korea-Japan Undersea Tunnel excavation project.

It will take only one more year to complete the design. From then, we can start building a highway linking North Korea and China. If Japan takes the lead, we can open this new way to connect Asia. (135-249, 1985/12/12)

4. I proposed the construction of the International Peace Highway in 1981. It is a well-known fact in the academic world because I declared it to planners, educators, and administrative officials of many countries decades ago. I was the first to propose building a global highway, starting with the Korea-Japan Undersea Tunnel.

I can say that I exerted an influence on the Channel Tunnel in the Strait of Dover, too. I also bought land near the exit of that tunnel.

The piece of land I purchased has become part of the site where the Dover Strait undersea tunnel was dug. Digging in Japan has been suspended now, but I have been supporting continuous excavation work for ten years. That is why neither the Japanese nor the South Korean governments can ignore it.

God's Will is to achieve one world and one cultural sphere. If a world under God's sovereignty is to be established, the construction of an international highway is inevitable. That day will surely come.

National barriers must be abolished for the sake of world peace. If every country cooperates, peace will lead to equilibrium. We can move the world by upholding the vertical ideal. (431-037, 2004/01/11)

5. The Japanese are good at digging tunnels. They connected the four islands of Japan and dug the Channel Tunnel under the Dover Strait. Now Koreans have become the fastest excavators. I did not know that Koreans were so good at tunnel construction. No country in the world works as hard as Korea.

Korean people are engaged in construction projects such as bridge building, tunneling, and erecting buildings in the Middle East. Korea does not lag Japan in terms of technology either. (479-327, 2004/12/15)

6. When the Korea-Japan Undersea Tunnel is completed, goods imported from the East or the West can be shipped to Japan overland via Korea. The highway will stretch to northern Russia, southern China, into the heart of China, and pass through the Middle East before reaching London.

All big shipments go through Korea. Expanding the market for trade and linking Japan to the United States and Europe will strengthen the global economy, focusing on the six nations that fought in World War II, namely the United Kingdom, the United States, France, Japan, Germany,y and Italy.

The Korean Peninsula will be the commercial center through which people and cargo from the world's developed nations come and go. In addition, if we build convenience areas along the traffic routes, Korea will become a global transport hub. (447-199, 2004/05/02)

7. We have to build railroad bridges connecting the United States to Russia by way of Canada and Anchorage, Alaska so that goods can be transported by train rather than by water across the Pacific Ocean.

We will be able to go anywhere by train if the continents are linked by rail bridges. If you think about this, an undersea tunnel between Korea and Japan would not be a problem.

Digging a tunnel of that length is elementary in the modern age, so an undersea tunnel can be boring shortly. With high-tech equipment, this is not a difficult task. (493-293, 2005/04/26)

8. It was my idea to build the International Peace Highway from Beijing through Myanmar, traversing Shinuiju, North Korea, and Dandong, China. I directed that the proposal be sent to the presidents of nations throughout the world. By one means or another, I need to pull China in.

That was what I announced at the time. Almost three million Koreans live in Manchuria. The Korean residents of Japan, the United States, and Germany whom I have assembled have agreed to undertake the task.

They are capable of making use of the most modern technology. Utilizing the state-of-the-art technology of Germany, I intend to support China. (138-019, 1986/01/13)

9. South Korea's geopolitical location is exceptional. No country can establish a line of defense for Asia that excludes the Korean Peninsula. The island nations are already within the defensive circle. It will be a big issue if there is not a connection between Japan and the mainland.

Maritime transportation is complicated. Because the closest connecting point for Japan with the mainland is the Korean Peninsula, a connecting bridge or tunnel is needed to rectify all the problems related to the export of goods from China, Russia, and Asia to Japan.

The Korean Peninsula links the Pacific Ocean and the continent. It has sufficient means to distribute Asian goods to nearby countries. Because it is less convenient for China or Russia to transport raw materials by sea, they will want to ship them to Japan overland through the Korean Peninsula.

Since Japan lives on imports and exports, it is convenient to move commodities to the continent through the Korean Peninsula. All that is necessary to connect to the continent is a tunnel between the Korean Peninsula and Japan, and it will also connect everything to Russia. (389-135, 2002/08/03)

The Bering Strait undersea tunnel

During their speaking tour to four cities in the United States from June 25-28, 2005, True Parents proposed the construction of an undersea tunnel across the 85 divides of the Bering Strait that divide North America from Russia to, support the creation of a peaceful world – one family in a global village that transcends national, racial, ideological, and religious barriers.

To actualize this plan, they actively supported the establishment of the Tunnel Foundation for World Peace on January 18, 2008.

The Bering Strait is a boundary that divided the democratic camp from the communist camp when there were sharp conflicts between the two superpowers, the United States and the Soviet Union. In that respect, connecting these regions has enormous symbolic significance.

True Parents explained that “all humankind has to make the entire world into a “one-day world” and demolish the walls dividing races, religions, cultures, was and nations, thereby establishing world peace as God has desired.”

In particular, they emphasized the fact that since human selfishness created these divisions, it is cooperation that will lead to the elimination of these walls.

10. In the United States, I presented the idea of eliminating the border in the Bering Strait. This did not go unnoticed. It is something the United States wishes could be done.

We can build an eight-lane International Peace Highway as a safe zone for world peace. I am saying, let us enter the “one-day world.” The era when we can fly around the world in only seven hours is coming.

I am teaching and preparing for such a culture. All of you need to invest everything to realize that world. (500-126, 2005/07/10)

11. The International Date Line runs through the Bering Strait, situated on the border shared by Alaska in the United States and the Soviet Union. That border divides the world into two distinct camps, but I am resolute about removing that border and uniting the world.

In the United States, I announced my plan to build a bridge or undersea tunnel across the Bering Strait. This is not an issue affecting only Russia and the United States; it is a matter of concern for the entire world, a concern for heaven and earth. (502-197, 2005/07/29)

12. Unfortunately, so far, there has never been a nation of God or a land that is his. Countries should no longer exist as they are today. To bring the countries of this world together, barriers must be eliminated. To abolish them, I will build the Bering Strait Peace King Bridge or Tunnel.

I must remove the world's boundary lines. In the future, peace-lovers will abandon their homes and pursue a lifestyle built around peace tours. We can create a buffer zone extending 120 miles around the International Peace Highway and people can live right there. When borders are eliminated, the kingdom of God appears.
(502-219, 2005/07/29)

13. We have to build a bridge across the Bering Strait or drill a tunnel under it, to link North America and Russia, and designate it as a distribution route to transport materials only for good purposes. We should not transport military material and armaments.

The sons and daughters of God should devote themselves to building this, to secure the borderline of God's fatherland, driving Satan out. Every one of you will have to do this for the sake of liberating the fatherland.

If an older brother cannot fulfill it, his younger brother will accomplish it in his place. If the younger brother fails to realize it, his older brother will step in. If the father cannot achieve it, the son will take over, or the father for the son. If husbands cannot finish it, their wives will step in to complete it, and vice versa. (506-212, 2005/09/03)

14. You have to make the world into a one-day world. To achieve that, you have to build the Peace King highway system all over the world. So far, there have not been any Peace King bridges or tunnels.

These bridges and tunnels will be the final step in establishing the nation and hometown of God. (506-214, 2005/09/03)

15. Currently, our highway systems do not belong to the heavenly world, but to Satan's world. Therefore, originating from the Bering Strait, you have to build an elevated eight-lane highway with a buffer zone 120 miles wide, encircling planet Earth and making it the nation of God.

When you do that, the highway will freely connect all the countries of the world. Transportation of military supplies, munitions, and weapons would be banned because the highway was constructed for the sake of the throne of peace.
(506-035, 2005/08/30)

16. On January 3, 2007, 12 tribes were organized to build the international highway at the Bering Strait. They have to construct it across the border of land and sea, water and soil, to allow God to come to earth. It will be a unification highway for peace, not a unification highway for war.

We will make it with 16 lanes, eight lanes in each direction so that people can drive even with their eyes closed. How joyful this highway will be if it has 16 lanes!

Religious people will be asked to devote themselves to constructing the highway.

We will gather religious people and invite them to build it together. To run this project using money generated by extortion, embezzlement, or criminality is against my philosophy. (550-277, 2007/01/04)

17. Why do we need to solve the problem of the Bering Strait? Why did the East and the West divide?

Why are Russia and the United States divided? They would have been connected were it not for the Bering Strait. If the world understood Unification Thought, barriers between nations would not exist.

Therein lies the problem. Water can flow everywhere. Air knows no boundary. Sunlight shines through every gap. These three life elements, water, air, and sunlight, go everywhere.

All of them find their way into deep places, but water even moves to the treetops, carried upward from the root through the xylem.

We must live comfortably like these elements, so we need to create a one-day world. How convenient our living would be if we could easily travel back and forth between London and Europe or anywhere else if we could go wherever we wish!

Because of borders, just the act of applying for a visa requires us to go through complex formalities. Satan made it that way, not God. When we move through the vast universe harmonizing with the ideal law, even if there are national borders, we will pass over them. The macrocosm is moving in harmony as one cosmos. Therefore, borders can become a problem. (547-014, 2006/11/30)

18. We have to erect towers, lay the foundation, and build a bridge across the Pacific Ocean. Building that bridge will enable us to cross the Pacific at will. We should be able to cross the Bering Strait whenever we wish. Hence, the land, sea, and air everywhere should be free of borders.

Islam, Christianity, and Judaism are suffering from religious conflicts. As they diverged from a single root, this one root must gather them together again and sort them out before God into their unfallen original positions.

Accordingly, beyond religion and politics, they must live by giving and receiving affection as siblings in one family. (523-244, 2006/04/05)

19. True Parents have to liberate three areas of tribulation: the Middle East, North and South Korea, and the Bering Strait. The Bering Strait Tunnel must be built. In the Old Testament, Adam's family could not be established; it fell into ruin. In Jesus' time, he failed to establish a country.

In True Parents' era, a unified world in heaven and earth must be built via the Bering Strait. To achieve that, True Parents stepped forward, took responsibility, and carried the flag for peace in these three areas.

How amazing were the strides of True Parents! When South Korea comes forward to take on the work of True Parents, it will be blessed. (522-128, 2006/03/27)

20. We must realize the original ideal of God in the nation of God and the family of God, on the foundation of the ideal realm of God. By the same token, we have to construct the Korea-Japan Undersea Tunnel and the Bering Strait Tunnel. The purpose is to enter the one-day world.

World history left behind reminders of complicated wars and chaotic surroundings created by national borders. How confused today's environment has become! So whether you like it or not, creating a unified world is the final task for humanity.

We have to take up this mission and feel a strong sense of responsibility for it. We should assume overall responsibility for this providential duty that heaven has assigned us. (600-223, 2008/10/31)

21. With the Unification Church at the center, the 13 world religions have to form a coalition that pioneers the construction projects for the Korea-Japan Undersea Tunnel and the Bering Strait Tunnel.

The religious circles should announce to the world that they are taking charge of pioneering these projects. We have completed the Coronation for the Authority of the Liberation of God, the King of Kings.

God has come forward. I am creating a foundation centered on Busan, on the southern coast of Korea. I have paved a foundation in Hawaii that can connect the island nation and completed the foundation to link the world's islands, peninsulas, and continents. Upon these foundations, we declared the Abel-type UN. Next, we need to declare the Parents' UN.

After the coronation of God, the one and only King of kings, we have nothing to be afraid of because God can come forward in this era. There is nothing to be hesitant about. We have laid the foundation.

Now the lid can be opened and the secrets of heaven and earth can be revealed. The secular world will pay attention to us and take an interest in what we are doing. We have to resolve conflicts among nations along with all economic and political problems. (608-096, 2009/02/21)

22. I declared early on that I would embark on developing the Korea-Japan Undersea Tunnel and the Bering Strait Tunnel. The Washington Times printed an article about this. In the future, religious people will have to take the lead in this task.

Based on the background of the Unification Church, The Washington Times announced that it did not mind financing heavily the construction of the Korea-Japan Undersea Tunnel and the Bering Strait Bridge or Tunnel.

Politicians and other people of influence are debating this issue. It may take years for them to reach an agreement. Therefore, religious people must unite to take responsibility for this undertaking. (610-185, 2009/04/23)

23. The World Peace King Bridge or Tunnel across the Bering Strait will one day be the greatest work and the largest, most monumental project ever undertaken for the promotion of unity and harmony.

We must do this for the sake of all people. To accomplish this, wealthy people are needed to establish the huge financial base required for hiring engineers, technicians, and everyone necessary to build the infrastructure. Japanese and Americans should collaborate on the construction project.

The Unification Church, ambassadors for peace, and NGOs should also participate. (503-216, 2005/08/05)

24. The Bering Strait Bridge or Tunnel, a public thoroughfare for world peace, should connect to the air, sea, and land. All traffic by land, sea, and air will be managed by a public authority, which will manage and coordinate all means of transportation.

No loading, unloading, or transport of military material will be permitted. The Peace King Bridge or Tunnel is for peaceful purposes only.

War has put nations around the world N into serious debt and depleted natural resources. We must do everything in our power to build a peaceful world.
(503-202, 2005/08/05)

25. I have set up a company to ensure that the Bering Strait project makes progress. Furthermore, construction of the Korea-Japan Undersea Tunnel is well underway. No one can stop us.

When it is complete, the world's people will enter the one-day world. It will be as if there is no time difference around the world. People will gather throughout the world as if they are in a single village to educate, play sports, and even hold the Olympic Games. (593-139, 2008/06/14)