U.S. Extends Rare Welcome to North Korean Christian Leaders

NEW YORK —  For the first time since the end of World War II, a delegation of North Korean church leaders has arrived to visit counterparts in the United States.

The four-member delegation from the Korean Christian Federation arrived Wednesday, according to officials of the National Council of Churches. They participated in a worship service Thursday at the chapel of the Interchurch Center in New York, which also houses the council offices.

The North Koreans will participate in a council-sponsored conference on peace and the reunification of Korea Sunday through Wednesday in Washington. The conference, which will include delegations from both North Korea and South Korea, is expected to focus on the need for changes in U.S. foreign policy toward the Koreas.

It is expected that the conference will recommend the United States replace the Armistice Agreement signed in 1953 at the end of the Korean War with a peace agreement formally acknowledging the war is over.

Only 10 Allowed Into U.S.

According to the council--the nation’s major ecumenical agency with 32 Protestant and Orthodox member denominations--only about 10 people from North Korea, all non-church figures, have been allowed into the United States since 1945.

The visit occurs as communist-bloc nations are increasingly easing repression of Christians in their nations.

“For more than four decades after the conclusion of World War II, it was widely held that Christians in North Korea had either been totally eliminated or driven deep underground after the Communist regime came to power,” said the Rev. Dwain Epps, assistant general secretary for international affairs at the council.

“Only in very recent times have foreign church representatives had opportunities to visit North Korea and to discover that worshiping communities continue to exist there.”

Epps was among a U.S. ecumenical group that visited Pyongyang in 1986, the first to have visited North Korea.

The delegation, headed by the Rev. Ko Gi Jun, general secretary of the Korean Christians Federation, will later visit denominational headquarters in Louisville, Ky.; Elgin, Ill.; Chicago and Indianapolis.

The U.S. visit by the North Korean church leaders comes at a time of conflicting messages from South Korea over relations between the divided Koreas.

Last week, South Korean officials arrested the Rev. Moon Ik Hwan, a 71-year-old Presbyterian minister who secretly traveled to North Korea last month to discuss peaceful reunification between the two Koreas.

Moon, who has been arrested a number of times for anti-government activities, has been charged with secretly visiting North Korea to receive instructions from an “anti-state” organization, praising its activity and meeting and communicating with its members.

Under the National Security Law, which prohibits unauthorized visits and communications with North Koreans, the charges could result in a death sentence.