wfn.org | Former ambassador says Korean reunification is right road

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Dec. 12, 2000 News media contact: Thomas S.
McAnally·(615)742-5470·Nashville, Tenn.     10-21-35-71B{558}

By Gregory Crawford*

LINCOLNWOOD, Ill. (UMNS) -- The reunification of North and South Korea is
the only way for the country - divided for more than half a century - to
have its own "voice" in the world and to create its own destiny, according
to a United Methodist clergyman and former ambassador.

"A united Korea will have a voice and will have a destiny," said the Rev.
James Laney, a United Methodist clergyman who served as U.S. ambassador to
South Korea from 1993 to 1997. Laney spoke Dec. 8 during a three-day
conference in Chicago, where Korean-American United Methodists discussed the
changes in Korea from a Christian faith perspective. "We need to pull
together, to get away from our sense of hesitation."

Laney said that South Korean President Kim Dae Jung's summit to North Korea
in June of this year was a good first step toward reunification, and it
showed that for the first time since before the Korean War, Korea was making
its own decisions.

"He didn't call Washington and ask if he could go," Laney said of Kim. "He
charted a new course. He fashioned a new destiny. Washington followed behind
for the first time in a half century."

He likened Kim's trip to North Korea to U.S. President Richard Nixon's
groundbreaking trip to China in 1972. Now, nearly three decades after that
trip -- although China still has many problems -- the country is changing
and changing for the better, he said.

"There's a market economy," he said. "Christians can read the Bible. There
are houses of worship."

He also warned that a united Korea faced a similarly long road to full peace
and prosperity but urged the group to stay the course and move beyond petty
differences.

"It's a long, long road," Laney said. "It's a bumpy road with a lot of
twists and turns. But we should never think it is the wrong road. Sitting
back and doing nothing is the wrong road. Bringing Korea to the brink of war
is the wrong road."

He noted that many South Koreans remain skeptical of Kim and his attempts to
heal the wounds resulting from the belligerence between North and South.
Some believe the North should have to pay for any help from the South, or
think that the North is simply bluffing and cannot be trusted, he said.
However, Laney urged Koreans to move beyond hesitation and suffering and to
focus on faith.

"It's easy to have an enemy," he said. "It's easy to have a friend. But it's
hard to move from having an enemy to coexistence to reconciliation. It takes
courage. Not political but Christian courage. 

"The church has a Gospel that speaks of reconciliation," Laney continued,
citing the Beatitudes' "blessed are the peacemakers" and the words of Jesus:
"Love your enemies."

He said the church's task during this process its to be thoughtful,
forbearing, courageous and reconciling, to help Koreans break through their
suffering, which he said can only truly be done with faith - "venturing
forth like Abraham or like Jesus going to Jerusalem."

Laney said the church has been brought "to this hour" to help Koreans around
the world "find themselves and become the people God is calling them to be.
Koreans need to keep pressing forward on that road that eventually, some
day, will lead to reconciliation and a unified people," he said to
thunderous applause.

Laney spoke at the end of the second day of the conference, which had as its
theme, "The Role of the Church for Healing and Reconciliation: Theological
Reflection on the Post-Summit Impact to Korean Reunification." The Rev. Kil
Sang Yoon, a Korean staff member of the United Methodist Board of Higher
Education and Ministry in Nashville, Tenn., and members of the Committee of
Reconciliation and Reunification organized the conference.

The event brought together Korean-American United Methodists, United
Methodist leaders and Korean Christians from other communions.

Earlier in the day, the Rev. Byung Koo Song, a United Methodist minister
stationed in Bochum, Germany, spoke of lessons Koreans can learn from the
reunification of Germany.

He said the most important lesson to learn is that the people must be
prepared to embrace and make changes.

"Unification is not a product. It is a process," he said. "We Koreans have
the emotional capacity for reunification, but we are not prepared."

He said churches, which have been long on making statements about
reunification of North and South Korea but short on actions, need to change
their approach and become community leaders, not only pointing the way
forward but taking the steps necessary for reunification.

The Rev. Tai Joon Chong, a United Methodist minister from Seoul, added that
churches can do what governments cannot - namely making contacts with
"ordinary" people in North Korea and learning how to do business with them.

Tai himself has established a "business" by traveling to the North, buying
goods from people he has partnered with, returning to the South and selling
them. He said the most important part of the business was sharing, not
helping.

"North Korean people like that," he told the group. "It's why they've
accepted me as a partner."

Tai warned that churches should not be in the business of building churches
or imposing Christian values on North Koreans because they are not ready for
that kind of contact.

"Our mission activity should be sharing what we have, not church building,"
he said. "North Korean people really do not want churches. If we insist on
building churches, they will stop the dialogue with us."

He suggested following the example of missionaries from earlier times and
places, who built hospitals and schools - "the things the people needed."

Another United Methodist minister in Seoul, Rev. Kyung Soo-Lee, spoke about
Korean reunification in the context of Korean history. He added that if
Koreans trust in God's sovereignty, He will build the churches in the North.

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*Crawford is a free-lance writer based in Wheaton, Ill.

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United Methodist News Service
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