SEOUL (UCAN) - North Korean Catholic leader Samuel Chang Jae-on visited Seoul but failed to meet Church leaders of South Korea.
As president of the North Korean Red Cross, Chang led 100 North Koreans who came to meet their separated families in South Korea for the first time in 50 years. The North Koreans made the visit Nov. 30-Dec. 2.
According to South Korean Church sources, Chang, president of the (North) Korean Roman Catholics' Association, did not have enough time to visit the bishops of Seoul on his first visit to South Korea.
Prior to the visit, the Lay Apostolate Council of Korea sent him a faxed message Nov. 27 inviting him to visit Archbishop Nicholas Cheong Jin-suk of Seoul. Archbishop Cheong is also apostolic administrator of Pyongyang diocese.
However, there was no response from Chang, and "our letter might have been late," an official of the council told UCA News Dec. 4.
Meanwhile, one day before the North delegation returned to Pyongyang, Chang hosted an official dinner reception to which he invited leaders from six main religions in South Korea.
Father Paul Han Jung-kwan, executive secretary of the bishops' Committee for Reconciliation of the Korean People, attended the reception as representative of the Catholic Church.
Father John Kim Mong-eun, former president of the Korean Conference on Religion and Peace, which has played a significant role in providing food aid to North Korea, also attended.
Father Kim shared the main table with Chang along with the secretary of South Korea's Unification Ministry and the vice president of the South Korean Red Cross, the local partner in the reunion program for separated families.
Father Kim told UCA News Dec. 4 that he and Chang have built up a relationship based on a "deep mutual understanding."
For reunification of the Korean people, "we must recognize the basic line that we have the same blood and we are the same people of God," he stressed. Any sense of superiority by the South based on their economic wealth would hinder the reconciliation process, he said.
Human relationship must be established and "communion in the heart" should be built for the sake of reunification, he said.
Asked why Chang did not meet South Korean Church leaders, Father Kim said that Chang's schedule was so tight that even a meeting for religious purposes was not possible.
Chang is also president of the (North) Korean Council of Religionists which comprises Protestants, Buddhist and others.
Meanwhile, David Pong Du-wan, vice president of the South Korean Red Cross, led 100 South Koreans to Pyongyang for the reunion with their separated families. He visited the Changchung Church in Pyongyang during his stay there.
END
UCAN
5. desember 2000