Hansun Foundation

● What does "Hansun" mean?

Hansun is a Korean abbreviation of "Hanbando sunjinhwa jaedan" and the translation is "Korean Peninsula Advancement Foundation. " However, the word“sunjinhwa”, or“advancement”embodies more than its literary meanings. Not only does it mean economic development of a nation per se, but it also implies enrichment in the quality of life to the level of advanced nations. One critical precondition to such advancement for Korea underlies in the nation’s unification. To meet this prerequisite, the Foundation strives hard in development of policies necessitated by the nation’s unification aspiration.

● Mission Statement

Founded in September 2006, the Hansun Foundation is a bi-partisan, non-profit, independent private think tank based in Seoul, Korea. Its goal is to formulate and promote the values it believes in. It believes in Korea’s unification imperatives, the value of national vision and strategy, and intellectual integrity. Based on these values, the Hansun Foundation desires to pioneer a vision for Korea’s future.

The mission of the Foundation is to educate the need for national vision, to materialize such vision through independent, high-quality research, and to promote the vision in both public and private sectors.

The focus of Hansun’s research agendas has three goals:

▶ To realize autonomous, independent, and peaceful unification of the Korean
   peninsula
▶ To better serve the Korea’s advancement with democracy, market-economy,
    rule-of-law, and social welfare.
▶ To foster higher quality of life for all Koreans

● Major Activities

The motto for Hansun Foundation is "Research & Action." It places high priority on taking action based on the findings from its policy research activities. As part of this endeavor, the Foundation has made great strides in communicating its research findings and messages to the following audiences: the Korean public, the academic and intellectual communities, the news media, members of the Korean National Assembly, and policymakers in the Korean government. 

To communicate better with our primary audiences, the Foundation actively engages in three major activities: (1) agenda setting, (2) policy formulating, and (3) policy education.

Agenda setting activity involves selection and screening process of ideas beneficial to Korea’s advancement to a higher level. In perspective, the Foundation has been proactive in promoting the selected ideas into national agenda. Policy formulation activity is carried out in line with the agenda set by the research staff of the Foundation. It is performed with open-mindedness while appropriating the strict demand for impartiality, expertise, and quality. We want our research findings and policy recommendations to be embraced by the general public and the government in Korea.

As a means to test the acceptability and applicability of the policies formulated by the Foundation, policy forum and education program is run by such institutions as the Hansun Academy. The Academy functions as more than an education forum. It is a venue where diverse opinions and views are incorporated in evaluating the viability of national agenda and visions that the Foundation wants to proudly present to the Korean public.

● People

Despite its short history, the Hansun Foundation is regarded as one of the most highly respected private policy think-tanks in Korea. The major contributors to this progress have been the university professors and academicians who have been very active in the Hansun Foundation with full commitment to the cause of this institution.

Dr. Se-Il Park, former Senior Secretary to the President for Policy Development and Social Welfare, and currently Professor of Law and Economicss at Seoul National University, founded the Hansun Foundation, with support from more than 200 intellectuals. At the opening ceremony of the Foundation on September 28, 2006, South Korea’s current President Myung-bak Lee and former Chair of the major political parties of Korea including the Grand National Party and the Democratic Party were all present to express their sincere support to the Foundation’s objectives
and commitments to the development of national visions, national agenda, and national strategies. 

Former and current members of the foundation include the following prominent figures:

▶ Minister for the Ministry of Unification, In-Taek Hyun
▶ Senior Secretary to the President for National Policy Development,
   Jae-Wan Park
▶ Vice-Minister for the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology,
   Joo-Ho Lee
▶ Minister for the Ministry of Government Legislation, Seog-Yeon Lee
▶ Commissioner of the Statistic Bureau, In-Sill Yi
▶ Member of the National Assembly, Seong-Lin Na
▶ Standing Commissioner of the National Election Commission,
   Kyung-Keun Kang
▶ Chairman of the Presidential Committee on National Strategy for
   Information Society. Kark-Bum Lee
▶ Secretary to the President for Civil Society, Jin-Kwan Hyun
▶ Director of the National Assembly Research Service, Jong-Hoon Lee and
▶ Member of Korea Communications Standards Commissions, Tae-Gyu Son

Advisors to the foundation also include:

▶ Former Speaker, the National Assembly, Park, Kwan-Yong
▶ Former Prime Minister, Hong-Koo Lee
▶ Former Prime Minister, Soo-Sung Lee
▶ Former Minister of the Ministry of Science and Technology, Jin-Hyun Kim
▶ President of Dongwon Group, Jae-Chul Kim
▶ Former Minister of the Ministry of Culture, O-Young Lee
▶ Former Mayor of Seoul, Soon Cho
▶ President of the Sejong University, Woo-Hee Park
▶ Former President of the Constitutional Court of Korea, Yong-Jun Kim
▶ Former Minister of the Ministry of Education, Myung-Hyun Lee
▶ Former Ambassador to Russia, In-Ho Lee.

September 28, 2006 ?-- The Opening Ceremony of the Hansun Foundation
held at Bank Assembly Hall in Myungdong, Seoul.
Myung-Bak Lee (current President of South Korea),
Jae-Sup Kang (former President of the Grand National Party)
and other participants take part in the national pledge. (Seoul, Yonhap News)