THE KUKMIN DAILY

With visible signals that the blocked relations between South Korea and North Korea are easing, particularly through the current reunions of divided families according to the August 25 South-North agreement, figures from the Korean church, the world church and other religious sectors are making consecutive visits to the North. These moves are attracting attention for their possible role in opening the gate to South-North civilian exchanges and in stimulating improved relations between the two halves of the divided Korean people.

12 Korean and world church leaders arrived in Pyongyang on October 23 for a meeting of the executive committee of the “Ecumenical Forum for Peace, Reunification and Development Cooperation on the Korean Peninsula.” The National Council of Churches in Korea (NCCK of the South) and the Korean Christian Federation (KCF of the North) are the main axis of this forum, created in 2006; the World Council of Churches (WCC) and the Christian Conference of Asia (CCA) also cooperate with its work. At the 10th WCC Assembly, held in Busan in 2013, the world churches resolved to cooperate to realize peace and reunification on the Korean peninsula; and accordingly, WCC, NCCK and KCF met in Switzerland last year and agreed to hold the meeting this time in Pyongyang.

Participating in the visitors’ team to the North are WCC Co-President Chang Sang, WCC International Affairs Director Peter Prove, NCCK General Secretary Kim Young-Ju, and NCCK Justice and Peace Committee Director Shin Seung-Min. Also on the team are Lutz Drescher, East Asia Liaison Officer at Germany’s Evangelical Mission in Solidarity (EMS), who has maintained a deep concern for peace on the Korean peninsula, and Park Kyung-Suh, former UN ambassador for human rights. The four-day intensive forum, opening on the 26th, is seeking ways to develop solidarity among the churches related to NCCK, WCC and KCF for cooperation and support activities.

An NCCK-related source said, “The discussions will focus on how the world church can join in solidarity with the North Korean church and participate continuously in North Korean social development.” The discussion process also is likely to include consideration of the role of the churches in South Korea. On the 25th, the visiting team members took part in Sunday worship at Bongsu Church and visited Pyongyang Seminary. They will leave Pyongyang on the 30th.

Next month there will be a large-scale meeting of religious figures from South Korea and North Korea. The “Korean Conference of Religions for Peace (KCRP),” a consultative body representing seven religious bodies, will gather at Geumgangsan on November 9~10 for its “South-North Meeting of Religious Persons.”

Since the middle of this month, a treatment team and a construction team totaling a dozen or so persons, including Stephen Linton (Korean name: 인세반), president of the Christian NGO Eugene Bell Foundation, which has led in the treatment of multi-drug resistant tuberculosis in North Korea, are in Pyongyang for three weeks, doing support work there.

Reporter Narae Kim (narae@kmib.co.kr), with Marion Kim (marionkkim@icloud.com)


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