Rev Dr Jae-Joung Lee(Photo: (c) CMS)Behind the rhetoric of hostility and occasional exchange of fire across the demilitarised zone, chess pieces are moving into place not only to end the conflict between North and South Korea, but to reunite the two states.
There are encouraging signs, like agreement by the North in July to shut down its Yongbyon nuclear reactor, after months of negotiations. This weekend South Korea’s President Roh Moo-hyun will meet his North Korea counterpart Kim Jong-il in the North's capital, Pyongyang.
South Korea has a full-blown government Department of Unification. The Minister is an affable Anglican priest, the Dr Rev Jae-Joung Lee [pictured], a long-time friend of CMS. His three main concerns, he told me, how to resolve the nuclear issue and build a permanent platform for peace, how to boost economic cooperation between North and South and cultural exchange.
Is negotiating with a regime that’s a byword for xenophobia complicated? He smiles broadly. “You need to be patient.”
There’s inter-Korean dialogue at three levels. At Ministry level there have been 21 meetings between South and North since 2000. There’s inter-military dialogue that goes down to Colonel level. On May 17, 2007 the first South-North train crossed the border. “To do that you need to get all sorts of assurances from the military on both sides,” he explains.
There are three major economic joint projects, mostly textile and shoe manufacture, with the South contributing finance, technology and management and with the North, land and labour.
Tourism is growing. Next year it’s expected one and a half million South Korean tourists will travel north. High on the tourist wish list is Mount Geumgang, a place of spiritual important for all Koreans, located in the north on the east side of the country. Alongside development of a rail link there’s programmes for reconnection of highways. “Once these sorts of things are in place there’s no easy way to stop.”
A tentative programme to reunite families is underway. 200 visits since last Sept. At this rate, however, it will take a further 60 years before every K family can see their relatives on the other side of the DMZ.
When Germany re-united it all but bankrupted the nation. In Korea the wealth disparity is vastly more than Germany’s, $300 US in the North versus almost $20,000 in the South.
In November the Anglican Church of Korea will host an international peace conference, with an expected 150 international visitors. It’s looking to CMS as a co-sponsor. The menu includes a cross-border visit. But that’s just the starting point. The Church is seeking serious capital funds for economic and social development projects in the North.
Dr Lee says, “The next five years will be very important. A lot depends on how we prepare ourselves. The most important factor is not the date of reunification but the method of reunification.
“Maybe each side will be able to keep its own government, but it will be possible to visit each other, trade and communicate. That would be OK. If we could create a government with one system that would be welcomed, but perhaps variety would be better.”
He has another concern. The kidnap of Korean mission workers in Afghanistan raised the spectre of mission work being done in ways that fails to take account of local sensitivities. How will the churches treat the opportunity?
“I’m concerned that some of them will be more interested in gaining new adherents than really telling people about Jesus. Maybe we need a kind of church where competition between denominations doesn’t get in the way.”