SEOUL (UCAN): Experts in South Korea urged the Church to lead the way in developing interest among young people to make practical efforts toward reconciliation and unification with North Korea.
They were speaking at a seminar themed, The Role of the Church in Overcoming Divisions and Reconciliation on the Korean Peninsula, organised by the National Reconciliation Committee of the Archdiocese of Seoul on May 3. The seminar, which consisted of two sessions, was organised as part of the ninth anniversary of the Seoul Archdiocesan Institute for Peace Sharing.
Peter Lim, a professor from the Institute of Far Eastern Affairs at Kyungnam National University, suggested a mid-to-long-term Church blueprint be developed to include “a Church-wide understanding of North Korea, promotion of reconciliation and unity, and evangelisation strategies based on this understanding of the young people who will be responsible for the future.”
In January this year, North Korean leader, Kim Jong Un, had threatened South Korea with war and had abolished agencies that oversaw cooperation and reunification, AFP reported.
In response to the threats, South Korea’s president, Yoon Suk Yeol, told his cabinet that should the nuclear-armed North conduct a provocation, the country would hit back with a response “multiple times stronger,” pointing to his military’s “overwhelming response capabilities.”
The often-tense diplomatic relations between the two sides were managed by Seoul’s Unification Ministry and Pyongyang’s Committee for Peaceful Reunification—one of the agencies abolished by Kim.
Meanwhile, the Catholic Church in South Korea along with the other religious and activist groups has consistently called for peace in the Korean Peninsula.
In March this year, a group of South Korean clergy, nuns, and laypeople from four major religions undertook a 400-kilometre journey to the Demilitarized Zone at the border and prayed for peace in the Korean peninsula.
Doctor Felix Nam Kyung-woo of the Peace Sharing Institute spoke on the “Impact of the Korean Peninsula’s Division on Society and Culture,” and alleged that regimes that came into power after the military coup used anti-communism as a governing strategy.
“Anti-communism acted as a kind of filter to separate citizens from ‘non-citizens,’ and the people who experienced this process had to strive to avoid being singled out as non-citizens,” Nam said.
“While the division is being treated as a thing of the past, it still has a powerful influence on our society,” Nam warned while adding that “there is still fear and anxiety about North Korea, which is linked to the division
The Korean War of 1950-1953 ended with an armistice, but no peace treaty, meaning both sides are technically still at war.
Jeong Wook-sik, head of the Peace Network, pointed out that an “‘emergency armed reunification theory’ for [a] peaceful settlement on the Korean Peninsula,” was impractical.
“The Korean Peninsula’s divisive system is increasingly converging toward militarism, and regardless of the change of regime, the theory is strongly diverging,” he warned.
This story is brought to you in partnership with the Catholic Times of Korea.
