SEOUL (UCAN) - South Korean Catholic leaders have welcomed the announcement of a summit meeting of North and South government leaders to be held in June, marking a historic breakthrough after half a century of division.
"I hope the summit will be an occasion to turn a half-century of conflict and animosity on the Korean peninsula into peace, reconciliation and cooperation," Auxiliary Bishop Peter Kang Woo-il of Seoul said April 11.
The previous day, simultaneous announcements from the governments in Pyongyang and Seoul stated that South Korean President Kim Dae-jung will visit North Korean leader Kim Jong-il June 12-14.
The meeting would be the first ever between the presidents of the two countries, which never signed a permanent peace treaty after the end of the Korean War. Since the war, both governments have punished unapproved visits or exchanges between their citizens.
Bishop Kang, president of the Catholic bishops' Committee for the Reconciliation of Korean People, also expressed hope that the summit will pave the way for reuniting separated families on the peninsula. According to South Korea's Ministry of Unification, some 690,000 people fled to the South, leaving families in the North, after the Korean War began in 1950.
Bishop Kang said he expects the talks to help foreign aid groups including the South Korean Catholic Church monitor aid distribution to famine-stricken North Koreans, something North Korea has not fully allowed.
Benedictine Abbot Placid Ri Tong-ho, apostolic administrator of Hamhung diocese and Tokwon Abbey Territory, both in the North, called on Catholics to pray for the success of the summit meeting.
"I expect that North Koreans will finally enjoy religious freedom if the summit goes on successfully," he said.
The apostolic nuncio to South Korea, Archbishop Giovanni Morandini, said he hopes the summit would give hope to North Koreans facing starvation.
Pope John Paul II has prayed for North Koreans and for the peaceful reunification of the two Koreas, Archbishop Morandini said April 10 at Myongdong Cathedral in Seoul.
Father Augustine Ham Sei-ung, adviser of the Catholic Priests' Association for Justice, said he is "convinced that the summit will promote peace and reconciliation on the Korean peninsula."
He expressed hope that the summit would also lead to the abolition of South Korea's National Security Law, under which anyone who "encourages" or "praises" North Korea can be prosecuted.
More than 30 members of the priests' association launched a fast last September to urge the South Korean government to repeal the law.
The two Koreas had agreed in 1994 to hold a summit meeting in Pyongyang between then South Korean president Kim Young-sam and North Korean leader Kim Il-sung, Kim Jong-il's father.
However, Kim Il-sung died on July 8 that year, a few weeks before the scheduled meeting, and the summit was called off.
UCAN 13. april 2000