​In 2025, the Korean Peninsula marked 80 years of division. For decades, cross-border interaction was strictly prohibited, and both sides dehumanized one another through propaganda. In the Republic of Korea (ROK), for example, Cold War-era policies encouraged children to participate in anti-communist art contests well into the 1980s, shaping entire generations through narratives of fear and animosity.

To counter this, a fundamental question emerged: How can we recognize each other’s humanity, build peace, and shape a shared future?

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Addressing this challenge, Okedongmu Children in Korea launched the "Hello, My Friend" campaign in 1996, collecting self-portraits and letters from ROK children. This initiative replaced propaganda and hostility with genuine curiosity about peers on the other side of the border. By observing their own faces and writing to unknown friends, children began to view the "other" as human, grounded in a shared reality. These artworks were delivered to the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK), eventually facilitating a historic—and unprecedented—visit of ROK children to Pyongyang. In 2000, Okedongmu extend this drawing exchange to Japan with Japan NGO partners. The committee had hosted annual exhibitions and workshops across DPRK, ROK and Japan.

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The Drawing Hope: Children’s Art for Peace exhibition debuted in Los Angeles in the United States in November 2023. In 2024 and 2025, the exhibition traveled to Belfast, Northern Ireland, and Cape Town, South Africa, facilitating cross-cultural learning among societies recovering from protracted conflict. Most recently, in November 2025, the exhibition was hosted at the United Nations Headquarters in New York. In 2026, the exhibition was hosted at iconic locations on the Korean Peninsula: the National Assembly of the ROK, a symbol of Korean democracy, and the DMZ, The Korean Demilitarized Zone, a symbol of both division and peace.