Ivo Josipović attended a utopian summit in South Korea.
One of the former presidents of Croatia decided to spend mid-September in the capital of South Korea, Seoul. Ivo Josipović once again attended a three-day peace summit organised by Heavenly Culture, World Peace, Restoration of Light (HWPL), an organisation whose leader is often linked to a religious cult. Josipović said he spoke at the stadium to nearly 200,000 people, reports tportal.hr on October 3, 2018.
Josipović participated at the summing after received an invitation from the HWPL a South Korean non-governmental organization led by Man Hee Lee. The event is held annually since 2014, and this was the third time that Josipović came there. He said that the organiser is a “non-governmental organisation whose goal is to eliminate global wars, disarmament and enduring peace.” It all started four years ago, when they invited “prominent legal experts, including some members of the UN International Legal Commission, to draft a declaration they would like to be accepted at the UN,” he explained.
He admitted that the goals seem utopian, but added that a number of prominent people support them. The Peace Festival is also held as part of the summit. Josipović participated in the summit for the first time in 2016, when he delivered a speech to 100,000 people at the Seoul Stadium. The same happened this year, and the only difference is that there were 200,000 people at the stadium and around it.
“The festival itself is a colourful event based on the message from the declaration, but also the Korean traditions,” he added. “This year, I was at the Peace Festival for the third time. There were some other former presidents, prime ministers and ministers, judges of supreme courts and religious leaders from different regions of the world,” said Josipović. When asked whom he met while in South Korea, he replied: “I talked with former Ukrainian President Yushchenko, former Romanian President Constantinescu, former Bosnian Prime Minister Zlatko Lagumdžija, former Hungarian President Palom Schmitt and others.”
In addition to speaking at the stadium, he also gave a “peace lecture which was attended by over two thousand young people.”
As for the organiser, Man Hee Lee, Josipović said he is “the leader of one of many religious communities in Korea,” adding that accusations about Lee being a cult leader are coming due to the rivalry between many religious communities in the country. “His community is Christian and Protestant. It has between 250,000 and 400,000 members and is one of the fastest growing religious communities. The large number of religious communities produces rivalry and mutual accusations,” said Josipović.
Josipović added that he is not a religious person, but he respects all religions as long as they are not exclusive or aggressive toward others. He does not understand why “the beliefs of our Catholics or Orthodox believers would be more correct than Lee’s preaching.”
Translated from tportal.hr (reported by Vlatka Polšak Palatinuš).
