The Voluntary Agency Network of Korea (VANK) announced it will officially launch Weform, an international policy proposal and communication platform, on August 15, 2025, marking the 80th anniversary of Korea’s liberation (Gwangbokjeol).
Building on the experience of Korea’s citizen participatory governance platforms Woollim and Yeollim, VANK’s Weform is a new online civic diplomacy platform expanding this model to the global stage.
Weform enables anyone to voice opinions on international issues, develop them into policy proposals through collective citizen discussion, and ultimately seek reflection in actual international organizations and government policies.
Ahead of the official launch, VANK will hold a global pre-launch campaign with five weekly sessions every Thursday until August 7, 2025. Each campaign will introduce a key international issue on VANK’s official Instagram account, inviting free expression of opinions. This pre-campaign allows participants to experience Weform’s core functions and provides VANK an opportunity to incorporate diverse viewpoints into the platform’s official operations.
The first campaign begins on July 15, 2025, focusing on the topic of independence activist Ahn Jung-geun’s “Theory of Oriental Peace.”
The Theory of Oriental Peace was an unfinished manuscript written by Ahn while imprisoned in Lushun after assassinating Ito Hirobumi in Harbin in 1909. It proposes a transnational vision for peace and autonomous cooperation in East Asia. Ahn envisioned Korea, China, and Japan as equals collaborating through joint banks, common currency, shared railways, and an international peace force to achieve peace and mutual prosperity. This was a forward-thinking alternative to the imperialist conflicts dominating East Asia at the time.
Ahn strongly condemned Japan’s forcible annexation of Korea and insisted that true peace required Japan to abandon imperial ambitions and sincerely cooperate with Korea and China. Far from mere idealism, his theory was a strategic blueprint for autonomous East Asian solidarity to counter Western-dominated international order.
Though Ahn’s execution in March 1910 prevented completion of the manuscript, the draft and preface remain, offering a message still relevant to modern East Asian cooperation and peace discourse. In an era emphasizing trust and institutional collaboration like the European Union or ASEAN, Ahn’s vision is recognized as a pioneering concept of a Northeast Asian peace community.
Through this campaign, VANK aims to reframe Ahn’s East Asia Peace Theory not just as historical heritage but as a practical philosophy for 21st-century international cooperation and peace. By asking, “Beyond peace in East Asia, what is the most urgent international issue the world must solve today?” the campaign encourages citizens to propose and reflect on global peace initiatives.
The ultimate goal is to carry forward Ahn’s unfulfilled ideals, expanding them beyond East Asia to the entire world—a move toward a global peace order in which citizens actively participate.
Previously, VANK has operated two national participatory policy platforms—Woollim and Yeollim—where citizens can propose policies and engage in public discourse. Woollim serves as an open channel for policy ideas from the public, turning everyday concerns into policy, while Yeollim enables government agencies to explain policies and communicate directly with citizens to enhance implementation.
This domestic governance experience laid the foundation for creating a participatory diplomacy model on the international stage. Additionally, VANK has broadened global civic engagement through years of international petition campaigns under its Bridge Asia initiative.
The launch of Weform integrates the strengths of all these platforms into a more structured and influential global policy participation platform.
Park Ki-tae, director of VANK, said, “VANK was Korea’s first to design and operate national policy proposal and communication platforms Woollim and Yeollim, experiencing firsthand how citizens’ voices become real policies. Now, we want to share that experience with the world and open an era where citizens participate directly in international policymaking through Weform.”
He continued, “When individual opinions accumulate into global public discourse and translate back into policies, that is the ideal of 21st-century democracy. Especially for Korea, with 200 million Hallyu fans worldwide, Weform can help the country become a model of global citizen governance. Starting with this campaign, VANK will continue building international participation platforms. Through these efforts, Korea will be recognized globally as a leading nation guiding the world using its vast Hallyu influence.”
Park expressed his vision: “The time is near when Koreans will design platforms like the UN and govern the global community. Beyond Korea’s 50 million citizens and 7.5 million overseas Koreans, we will include 200 million Hallyu fans in our grand national strategy to lead the world.”
Young researcher Park Ji-eun explained, “Although many efforts have been made for citizen participation, a structure allowing all citizens to proactively voice and propose on international issues has been lacking. Weform is an attempt to overcome this, designed as a space where we first pose questions and citizens freely express their perspectives.”
Researcher Jung In-seong added, “Ahn’s East Asia Peace Theory is not just a personal philosophy but a valuable legacy that can be reexamined as a model for today’s international cooperation. We hope this pre-campaign inspires youth worldwide to think about peace in their own ways and start voicing their ideas.”
Following this first pre-campaign, VANK plans to sequentially launch four more:
- July 17, 2025: How can we change deep-rooted prejudices about Africa?
- July 24, 2025: How can the Arctic route be developed safely and responsibly?
- July 31, 2025: Why must the G7 change, and how would Korea’s membership affect global cooperation?
- August 7, 2025: What new cooperative body can Korea lead in forming?
All campaigns will be accessible via VANK’s official Instagram (@vank_prkorea). Interested participants can easily submit opinions through links in campaign posters.
On August 15, 2025, VANK plans to officially unveil Weform, opening a new global governance arena where citizens are not only proposers but active problem-solvers of international issues.