Offers various side events for Millennials and Gen Z ‘Youth Peace Challenge’ and ‘Meta DMZ Peace Zone’

PYEONG CHANG-- February 22, 2022 -- Hosted by Gangwon Province, PyeongChang County, and Korea International Cooperation Agency (KOICA) and organized by the PyeongChang 2018 Legacy Foundation, the PyeongChang Peace Forum 2022 (PPF 2022) is held over three days from February 22 to 24 at the PyeongChang Alpensia Convention Center in Gangwon Province as a hybrid event utilizing both an offline venue and online channels.

Started in 2019 and held for the fourth time this year, the PPF will proceed under the slogan of ‘Peace, Here and Now!’ and the topic of ‘The Declaration to End the Korean War and Beyond.’ The attendees will comprehensively discuss issues concerning peace on the Korean Peninsula, in Northeast Asia, and across the world in the face of the COVID-19 pandemic by focusing on five key point agenda: economy, sports, DMZ Peace Zone, UN SDGs (Sustainable Development Goals), and peace public diplomacy.

The ‘Peace Cooperation through Co-hosting the Gangwon 2024 Winter Youth Olympic Games between North and South Korea’ has been selected as a special item on the agenda. For this, the plans to support 50 countries in difficult conditions to prepare for and compete at the Winter Olympic Games will be discussed, and the role of the PyeongChang Peace Forum to serve as a bridge between South and North Korea, such as through co-hosting of the Gangwon 2024 Winter Youth Olympic Games, will be promoted.

To encourage youth, the future peace generation, to participate in peace activities, diverse side events including the Pyeongchang Peace Forum Youth Peace Challenge 2022 (PPF YPC 2022) and the Youth Committee session will be in place.

At the PyeongChang Peace Forum 2022, the New York Philharmonic String Quartet will stage a special performance. This year’s event will also feature the ‘Meta DMZ Peace Zone’ implemented on the Metaverse for the first time.

The New York Philharmonic String Quartet, which presented a magical moment to the audience at the performance in Pyongyang in 2008, will bring back the unforgettable memory at the PyeongChang Peace Forum 2022. Together with a video capturing the performance of Michelle Kim, a violinist of New York Philharmonic, in New York, Ongnyugeum (played by Kim Ha-hyun) and Haegeum (played by Kang Eun-il), which are representative string instruments of North Korea and South Korea respectively, will create beautiful harmonies in prayer for the peaceful relationship among the two Korea and the U.S.

The ‘Meta DMZ Peace Zone,’ an international peace zone symbolizing the peace and coexistence of ecology and humans, has been implemented within the event website as the first in the world. Over the duration of the event, visitors can not only participate in the Youth Peace Challenge Award Ceremony and the Youth Peace Leaders Program as well as the main sessions of the PPF 2022 real-time but also create their own personal avatars.

“I hope the consensus for peace on the Korean Peninsula will be spread at the PyeongChang Peace Forum 2022,” said Governor Choi Moon-soon of Gangwon Province. He added, “I also hope that this event will be established as a platform for world peace on which the seed of peace planted by the Olympic Games will bear the fruit of peace and prosperity for humankind.”