Seoul, South Korea – Plans for building an undersea tunnel to connect the Japanese islands to the Korean Peninsula were presented during a press conference at the 2024 Korea-Japan Peace Road Forum held at the National Press Club in Seoul on April 23, 2024. The event was sponsored by the Washington Times Foundation and the Segye Ilbo newspaper.
The international tunnel project, originally proposed by UPF co-founder, the late Rev. Sun Myung Moon, has inspired people in both countries, and is supported by politicians, engineers, business people, and many others.
“If the governments and the private sector unite to complete the Korea-Japan Tunnel, it will ignite a great peace revolution that will extend beyond Northeast Asia to Europe,” said Dr. Chang-Shik Yang, chairman of the World Peace Road Foundation and of UPF-International, in his welcoming address. “The need for people and goods to freely travel between the east, west, south and north of the global village is growing,” he said, adding that the Korea-Japan tunnel would promote harmony and prosperity across races, cultures and borders.
Peace Road Forum Chairman Amb. Tae-ik Jeong, former South Korean ambassador to Russia, further explained the import of this project, followed by supporting remarks by Dongguk University professor Dr. Jong-il Ra.
Mr. Yuzo Takeuchi, chairman of the Korea-Japan Tunnel Technology Committee of the International Highway Foundation, explained the basic design of the undersea tunnel. Mr. Takeuchi is an expert who built Japan's Seikan Tunnel, which passes through the Tsugaru Strait between Japan's Honshu and Hokkaido islands and connects the two. He and his team have done preliminary research on the feasibility of the Korea-Japan tunnel.
Mr. Takeuchi explained that his team, after examining the sedimentary layers under the sea, had identified two possible routes for the tunnel, a northern and a southern route, across the narrow strait that separates the two countries.
Following his explanation, Sangji University professor Dr. Seung-ho Lee, who is chairman of the Korea-Japan Tunnel Research Institute and former president of the Korean Society of Civil Engineers, gave his assessment of the plans. Dr. Seong-yeol Park, chairman of UPF-Busan, whose doctoral thesis focused on undersea tunnel design, also gave his analysis of the project.
Each of the speakers voiced confidence that the tunnel project is technically feasible, inspiring optimism that political and bureaucratic obstacles to its construction will eventually be overcome.
