THE DIOCESE OF PYONGYANG, the capital city of North
Korea, will be consecrated to Our Lady of Fatima. This was announced by
Cardinal Andrew Yeom Soo-jung, the archbishop of Seoul, South Korea on
June 25,
2020, the 70th anniversary of the start of the Korean War—at a time when tensions on the peninsula are once again on the increase.
Cardinal Yeom Soo-jung spoke about the significance
of peace and harmony for the Korean Peninsula. He commemorated the
approximately three million people who died during the war that broke
out on June 25, 1950, the suffering of refugees,
the drama experienced by families that were torn apart, and the
persecution of Christians by the North Korean regime.
The 70th anniversary of the beginning of
the war has come at a particularly tense time as leaders of the North
Korean regime have severed all communication channels with South Korea.
On June 16, the north blew up a building in
Kaesong that served as the joint liaison office for delegations of both
countries.
Technically speaking, the two countries are still
at war, and the regime in Pyongyang continuously threatens the
development of new weapons of mass destruction. The escalation of
tensions over the past few weeks has brought the possibility
of a direct military confrontation ever closer.
The renewed standoff signifies a large step
backwards on the path of reconciliation, a path that the two countries
had been pursuing for several years and which culminated in the
Panmunjom Declaration signed by South Korean President Moon
Jae-in and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un in April 2018.
The Catholic Church has been actively supporting
the peace process on the Korean Peninsula. For example, a Mass for peace
is celebrated each day in South Korea; the first took place in December
of last year and the last will be held on
November 28.
The Korean conflict was one of the bloodiest
episodes of the Cold War. The main backer of the regime in Pyongyang was
China, while the United States helped the government in Seoul. An
armistice ended active combat operations in 1953.
In addition to the ever-present danger of a
military conflict on the Korean Peninsula, the two countries are also
divided by the issue of religious freedom. According to the most recent
report on the persecution of Christians, published
by Aid to the Church in Need (ACN) in October 2019, “North Korea is
widely considered the most dangerous place in the world to be a
Christian.” The profession of Christianity, which is seen as “Western,”
is “severely punished” in the country.
According to ACN, witness statements by defectors
from North Korea describe how Christians who are arrested by the regime
“face torture” and many of them are “sent to camps” primarily set up for
political prisoners, where they are required
to perform forced labor.
According to the ACN report, “between 50,000 and
70,000 Christians could be present in these camps,” comprising about
half of all prisoners held there. Christians suffer “extra-judicial
killings, forced labor, torture, persecution, starvation,
rape, forced abortion and sexual violence,” once they become ensnared
in the expansive surveillance network of the North Korean regime.
—Paulo Aido
With picture of Cardinal Yeom Soo-jung (© ACN)
Editor’s Notes:
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Outstanding Apostle of Charity,” the organization is now at work in over
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for priests and nuns and help to train seminarians.
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