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October 22, 2009

Lift North Korea sanctions, says World Council of Churches head

by Francis Wong
Ecumenical News International

HONG KONG — The leaders of the World Council of Churches and the Christian Conference of Asia are urging the international community to lift economic sanctions against North Korea following a visit to the communist-ruled country.

The WCC general secretary, the Rev. Samuel Kobia, led a delegation to North Korea from Oct. 17-20 and was accompanied by the general secretary of the Christian Conference of Asia, Prawate Khid-arn. It was the first time Kobia and Prawate had visited North Korea.

A South Korean national church leader, however, at a three-day conference in Hong Kong on Korean unification questioned the stance of Kobia and Prawate on sanctions.
 
United Nations’ sanctions against North Korea were intensified in June after it conducted an underground nuclear test in violation of international treaties.

The two church leaders stated their positions on the lifting of sanctions against North Korea in interviews with Ecumenical News International after attending the church-backed meeting in Hong Kong on Oct. 21 on the peaceful reunification of North and South Korea.

“An effective way of working towards peace and reconciliation on the Korean peninsula needs a multifaceted approach,” Kobia had said in a speech to about 100 international participants at the Hong Kong meeting. “The WCC in its established polices has always rejected any sort of confrontational approach to settle conflicts and disputes. We called on member churches to use every effort to overcome divisions and conflicts.”

After his Hong Kong speech, in an interview with ENI, Kobia was asked if he wanted  sanctions against North Korea to be lifted, and he said, “After my visit to North Korea, from my engagement with the church leadership and my observations, I am now very convinced that time has now come to end the economic sanctions.”

Kobia added, “That is the message I want to pass to international communities, for economic sanctions is a collective penalty.”

The WCC leader said, “I have called on WCC member churches to persuade their respective governments to lift economic sanctions against North Korea. It is not just the time to talk about Six Party Talks resuming. It is now the time to talk about the economic sanctions.”

The Six-Party Talks concerning North Korea's nuclear program involve China, Japan, North Korea, Russia, South Korea, and the United States.

Prawate, the general secretary of the Christian Conference of Asia, said he shared Kobia’s concerns about sanctions against North Korea.

“It is the poor people who pay the price,” Prawate told ENI. “I believe that economic bans should be lifted. And Christians should find ways to help their brothers and sisters there.”

The Rev. Kwon Oh Sung, general secretary of the National Council of Churches in [South] Korea, and one of the three guests-of-honor at the Oct. 21 meeting, however, told ENI, “One of the most important principles is that the Korean peninsula should be nuclear free. Lifting the economic ban or not is difficult to say. We need more advice.”

Prawate also noted in his interview that the number of Protestants in North Korea is growing.

“The Church still has the freedom to carry out its mission, but of course, still has some limitations,” Prawate said. “The challenge of the church is how to do its mission in a different societal system.”

At the opening session of the Hong Kong meeting, Rev. Kang Yon Sop, president of the government-sanctioned Korean Christian Federation, from North Korea, said he recognized the efforts of the WCC 25 years ago to launch an international consultation in Japan about Korean unification. He was one of four North Korean delegates at that consultation.

On Oct. 19, Kobia’s World Council of Churches delegation met with the president of the North Korean legislature Kim Yong Nam in Pyongyang.

The WCC said in a statement that Kim said a significant impetus to solving the nuclear weapons stand-off in the region would be for North Korea and the United States to meet “face-to-face with each othe.”

Kim told the WCC delegation that the North Asia region needs to be denuclearized. The WCC statement said he alluded to a certain unfairness within the Six Party Talks, saying that the members of the talks are “all nuclear powers or enjoy nuclear protection by the United States” with the sole exception of North Korea.

The official [North] Korean Central News Agency reported on Oct. 19 that Kobia presented Kim Yong Nam with a gift for the North Korean leader Kim Jong Il.

The Korean peninsula has been divided since 1950 when South Korea and a U.S.-led United Nations force fought against North Koreans backed by Chinese ground troops and aided by the Soviet Union. Hostilities came to a halt in an armistice signed at Panmunjom on July 27, 1953, but a formal ceasefire has yet to be signed.

Kim Yong Nam told the WCC delegation that the armistice agreement did not bring peace to the region and “should be replaced with a peace agreement between North Korea and the United States.”