ASIA/SOUTH KOREA - May it be real peace, and not a fragile "armistice". 73 years after the start of the war, Korean Catholics pray for reconciliation and national unity

by Paolo Affatato

Seoul (Agenzia Fides) - In the mid-1990s, the Swiss Kathi Zellweger, then director of international cooperation programs at Caritas Hong Kong, began to take an interest in North Korea, where a severe famine had broken out, leading to dramatic consequences in terms of malnutrition. This opened a channel to organize humanitarian aid for the local population and Caritas of Hong Kong became the liaison agency for the entire global Catholic community for North Korea. Kathi Zellweger began to provide intensive aid, carrying out more than 50 humanitarian missions beyond the "bamboo curtain" until 2006, becoming the person outside the world who knew and frequented Pyongyang more than anyone, constantly traveling in a nation marked by the political isolation imposed by the then president, Kim Jong Il.
Since 1995, the humanitarian action promoted by Caritas identifies, in agreement with the Korean authorities, specific areas of the country where to intervene. The Pyongyang government had just reopened its borders after the famine that had hit the country and NGOs were preparing to intervene. Caritas is one of the first organizations to have launched projects beyond the 38th parallel and, in total, in ten years, it has provided more than 27 million dollars in aid, publishing an emergency appeal each year. Humanitarian work, she noted, goes hand in hand with a natural promotion of dialogue, encounter, peace and reconciliation on the Korean peninsula.
"The humanitarian work - she told Fides - is carried out with the full trust of government authorities. At the same time, we try to be a bridge between North and South Korea, promoting meetings between representatives of Caritas South Korea and those of the North. Although it seems that the whole world is preparing for an escalation of the war, we believe that weapons are not the right solution: we believe in dialogue and negotiation and we will work in this direction". Zellweger also called for "not politicizing humanitarian action", emphasizing that "Caritas is only concerned with the fate of the population" and that humanitarian aid should not be used as a "weapon of negotiation": "The Humanitarian aid and politics should be kept separate. We must not stop organizing aid because of the tense political situation. In North Korea, people are struggling to survive, concerns are about food, health, schools. The beneficiaries of aid are the most vulnerable groups, in particular children, women and the elderly, who are guaranteed basic food and health care". And she concluded, thanks to her local experience and wisdom: "To solve problems, we have to talk to each other. Dialogue is the essential first step".
That history of cooperation and "life dialogue" took a leap forward when, in 2006, a "handover" took place: Caritas Seoul took over full responsibility for cooperation projects in North Korea and, from 2007, the management of humanitarian aid was entrusted to Augustine Koo, a Korean Catholic layman who took over from Kathi Zellweger.
In addition to welcoming cooperation missions, there were also signs of openness towards a "controlled religious activity": in the absence of Catholic priests in North Korea, in the only existing Christian church in Pyongyang, a mass was celebrated periodically when a priest from the South (such as Maryknoll missionary Father Gerard Hammond, who had crossed the border several times) was admitted to Pyongyang.
The political context was favorable: observers remember that in 2000, the so-called "sunshine" policy was inaugurated by the historic meeting between Kim Dae-jung and Kim Jong-Il - the two leaders of South Korea and North Korea respectively - which foreshadowed a new season of mutual cooperation. The construction of the Kaeseong Industrial Complex, a "free zone" on the border, made up of plants and factories that welcomed workers from the North and the South, opened up horizons of economic cooperation hitherto unexplored.
All signs that, in recent years, intended to overcome the logic of war and isolation to bring a beneficial "enclosure of peace" to North Korea, while the barbed wire curtain of the 38th parallel still divides the same nation, since the days of a war that has never officially ended.
It was June 25, 1950 when Kim Il-Sung ordered his army to invade South Korea, thus starting the Korean War, which ended in 1953, 70 years ago. The Korean peninsula, occupied by Japan in 1910, was liberated in 1945 by the Soviet Union (which occupied the northern part) and the United States (which advanced to the south) which met near the 38th parallel. In 1950, the army of the North conquered Seoul and almost all of South Korean territory and only American intervention succeeded in driving the North Koreans out of South Korea. In October 1950, the Chinese army entered Korea: faced with the Chinese offensive, the Americans were forced to retreat until the front line stabilized near the 38th parallel. The parties began negotiations to reach an armistice, which was signed on July 27, 1953 in the city of Panmujeon, located near the border, which marks the "bamboo curtain" still in place today. The war was bloody. The South Koreans, Americans and their allies lost approximately 200,000 men dead and missing, and hundreds of thousands wounded; the North Koreans and Chinese suffered losses of between 400,000 and 1,000,000 men. Civilians suffered heavy consequences: historians estimate that some 2,500,000 North and South Koreans lost their lives during the conflict.
After the war, a dynastic regime consolidated in North Korea. Kim Il-Sung, who died in 1994, was succeeded by his son Kim Jong-Il until 2011 and by the current Kim Jong-Un. The regime is based on the "Juche" philosophy, the official state ideology, which includes a strong militarization of society, the use of national economic resources and isolation from the rest of the world. South Korea, on the other hand, has remained in the orbit of the United States and, in recent decades, has adopted a democratic and liberal system, developing an economy specialized mainly in technological products.
Today, the nation - and within it the South Korean Catholic community - relives this painful experience of war with a deep desire for peace which revolves around two axes and two terms: reconciliation and reunification, a dream that has never died down in the Korean imagination, which takes us back to the centuries in which the peninsula was united.
Over the past 70 years, relations between the two Koreas have seen ups and downs, phases of high tension and - as has been reported - attempts and stages of rapprochement. As the 70th anniversary of the end of the war approaches, South Korean bishops have announced a "Day of Prayer for Reconciliation and National Unity" for June 25, preceded by a preparatory trip during which Catholics across the country will experience a novena of prayer. "This unfinished confrontation remains the main cause of the current threat to peace", they write, recalling that the armistice is not a real peace treaty. The episcopal conference observes with dismay the breakdown of communication between the two Koreas, a harbinger of incomprehension and conflict. Underlining the risk of escalation, on the eve of the Day of Prayer for Reconciliation, the Korean bishops recall that the only way to avoid war is to reactivate a channel of dialogue: "Even if the path is long and arduous, we cannot abandon our efforts for peace on the Korean Peninsula. God has entrusted us with the ministry of reconciliation. We believe that true peace can be achieved through mutual trust and forgiveness. Meetings, dialogue and efforts to understand each other are the right path to peace: high-tech weapons or military power are not". (Agenzia Fides, 24/6/2023)

Share:

wars

---

---

peace

---

---

reconciliation

---

---