c. 1997 Religion News Service

NEW YORK _ In a rare public agreement, church leaders from North and South Korea have urged their respective governments to”cease hostile policies”and have called on the United States to lift economic sanctions against North Korea.

The agreement came during a three-day consultation here hosted by the National Council of Churches (NCC), which brought together representatives from North Korea’s Korean Christians Federation (KCF) and South Korea’s National Council of Churches in Korea.”What is remarkable is that the three parties were able to reach a consensus; that’s a first,”said Victor Hsu, director of the NCC’s office for East Asia and Pacific affairs.

In a joint communique issued at the end of the meeting Wednesday (March 19), the three church groups said:”Through churches’ engagement and advocacy, the international community has begun to grapple with the threat of a divided Korea to world peace, and with Korea’s devastating history of conflict and division.” Although the United States officially remains in a technical state of war with North Korea, the church leaders noted that the U.S. government”appears now to be working toward the goal of peace”in the region.”(The Korean War ended with an armistice, not a full-fledged peace agreement). “Cold War confrontation seems to have given way to negotiated relationships,”the joint statement said. However, it added that the peace process”remains fragile and vulnerable to political, economic and military crises and manipulations.” The joint communique included a 10-point action plan that urged churches to take the lead in promoting”new efforts”for peace and the reunification of Korea. One of those points was the lifting of the U.S. trade embargo.”We previously had said these things on our own as a U.S. church organization but had not gotten the North and South to agree,”Hsu said.

For more than four decades, Communist North Korea has been one of the most isolated and tightly controlled countries in the world. In the early 1990s, a few fragile contacts with the outside world, including with the United States, were established. Those contacts, especially with religious groups, expanded as a result of the flooding and subsequent famine that struck North Korea in 1995.

However, freedom of religion has been severely restricted in North Korea. For 35 years following the Korean War, not a single church building was constructed. Since 1988, only three churches _ two Protestant and one Roman Catholic _ have been allowed to operate in the nation of nearly 24 million.

Most of North Korea’s estimated 500,000 Christians worship in unofficial”house churches.”The government-sanctioned KCF is the official organization for the Protestant community and has been allowed to operate from a headquarters in the capital of Pyongyang.

In South Korea, Christianity has grown dramatically in recent decades. Today, there are about 12 million Christians in South Korea, and several of the largest Protestant congregations in the world are located there.

While the ultimate goal of Korean reunification set forth by the NCC 25 years ago remains elusive, church leaders said progress has been made. This week’s agreement comes despite the political setback on the Korean peninsula sparked by the recent defection of high-ranking North Korean official Hwang Jang Yop.”I am very satisfied with (the) results of (the) meeting,”said North Korean Rev. Kang Yong-Sup, chairman of the KCF’s central committee.”It was carried out in (an) atmosphere of friendship and understanding. There were some differences of thought, but as Christians, we communicate heart to heart and that transcends everything else.” Leaders from the three groups vowed to continue efforts to bring peace and reconciliation to the Korean peninsula.”For the sake of 10 million people who remain separated from their families, I hope for reunification in the next decade,”Hsu said.

Hsu said he sees the relative freedom the North Korean government has allowed KCF leaders as a promising development.”They can leave the country and participate in these events. No other non-state entities have had that kind of exposure and freedom of travel,”Hsu said.

A key element of the church groups’ discussion centered around the campaign to see the United States end its policy of economic sanctions against North Korea. The three parties agreed sanctions are a major obstacle to international relief efforts in a nation ravaged by floods and famine.”(Lifting the sanctions) has tremendous implications,”said Hsu.”We want to send relief directly to North Korea, but now we must ask permission from the U.S.” During the recent flood crisis, the KCF served as a conduit for relief supplies, which has strengthened its role as a advocate for political change in that country, church leaders said. “The KCF support for flood victims and agricultural reform has made it an important player,”said Kang, the North Korean official.”We are beginning a program of social services. That tells us the role is changing and increasing.” The international humanitarian community is warning that North Korea could be on the brink of another famine crisis. In a statement also released Wednesday, Robert Seiple, president of the Christian relief and development organization World Vision, called on the U.S. government to increase aid commitments to North Korea to address the growing levels of starvation.”We have a moral obligation to Korea which transcends politics and the use of food as a weapon,”Seiple said.”It is deeply regrettable that political considerations provide excuses to delay food aid to people who are starving.” Seiple predicted that an”extensive deadly famine”will occur within 90 days unless”massive supplies of food are shipped immediately.”

MJP END RNS