THE KUKMIN DAILY

The Reconciliation and Reunification Committee of the National Council of Churches in Korea, meeting with reporters on April 4 (photo), strongly rebuked the government’s “obstruction of Korean church efforts for national reconciliation through South-North exchanges.” On the 23rd of last month, the Unification Ministry imposed a fine on the NCCK committee for its recent meeting with North Korean church representatives.

At the beginning of each year, the NCCK committee has met with persons from the North’s Korean Christian Federation to discuss plans for cooperation between the churches of the two parts of the divided peninsula. This past February 28~29, five persons including Yonsei University Prof. Emer. Noh Jung-sun, the committee’s chairperson, visited Shenyang, China, and held a working-level meeting with four persons from KCF including its chairperson Kang Yeong-cheol. Their talks focused on how to restore North-South relations to a state of reconciliation, following the sudden cutoff of contact after North Korea’s February rocket launch. At the same meeting, the two groups agreed on the North-South Common Prayer that was used in the churches’ Easter Sunday services this year.

The Unification Ministry accused the NCCK Reconciliation and Reunification Committee of failure to notify the government in advance of its contact with North Korean citizens, called this a violation of the Inter-Korean Exchange and Cooperation Act, and imposed a fine of 2 million won each on Prof. Noh and the other four members. The committee rejected this, saying, “The government announced that it would not grant permission for exchanges with North Korean citizens for at least three months…In a situation where civilian sector efforts are urgently needed to reopen the flow toward national reconciliation, it is hard to accept the government’s decision this time.” Prof. Noh said, “(The government’s new sanctions) totally block the citizens’ reunification movement, and are an infringement of mission, cutting off activities that are based on religious faith.”

At an emergency meeting on April 1, the committee and its nine member denominations decided to wage a disobedience campaign against payment of the fine and to file a lawsuit against the government.

Article and photo by reporter Lee Yongsang (sotong203@kmib.co.kr), with Marion Kim (marionkkim@icloud.com)


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