wfn.org | WCC NEWS: WCC delegation to visit North Korea

["WCC Media" <Media@wcc-coe.org>]

World Council of Churches - News Release

Contact: +41 22 791 6153 +41 79 507 6363 media@wcc-coe.org
For immediate release - 15/10/2009 13:55:07

>WCC DELEGATION TO VISIT NORTH KOREA

Amidst the growing tensions and diplomatic negotiations among
various countries within the Six Party Talks on peace and
security on the Korean peninsula, the general secretary of the
World Council of Churches (WCC), Rev. Dr Samuel Kobia, will be
making a pastoral visit to the churches in the Democratic
People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) this week.

The visit is at the invitation of and being organized by the
Korean Christian Federation (KCF) of North Korea and will take
place 17 to 20 October.

“We will be meeting with the churches, government officials and
learning about the life and witness of churches in North Korea,”
said Dr Mathews George Chunakara, director of the WCC Public
Witness programme and the Commission of the Churches on
International Affairs, who will be a member of the delegation
travelling with Kobia. “We will be participating in the worship
service at Bong Soo Church in Pyongyang, where the WCC general
secretary will preach.”

The churches in North Korea are involved in social development
and humanitarian aid assistance, and the members of WCC’s
ecumenical fellowship have been supportive to the KCF for the
past several years, said Chunakara.

The visit is taking place at a time when intense multilateral
diplomatic efforts and negotiations are under way on issues
related to denuclearization of North Korea and resumption of Six
Party Talks, which were stalled for some time after North Korea
withdrew from the talks.

Although North Korean leader Kim Jong-il is said to have made
the announcement to Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao in Pyongyang last
week during his three-day visit that North Korea would return to
the Six Party Talks, it is also reported that Kim Jong-il said
the return would be dependent on the progress of its planned
bilateral talks with the US.

The WCC has been relating with the churches in North Korea for
the past 25 years, with the first official visit having taken
place in 1985. In the early 1980s the WCC Commission of the
Churches on International Affairs initiated a process aimed at
peace, reconciliation and reunification of the Korean peninsula
and bringing church leaders from North and South Korea together.

This is the second visit of a WCC general secretary in ten
years. In 1999, then general secretary Rev. Dr Konrad Raiser
visited North Korea.

After the visit to North Korea, the delegation will travel to
Hong Kong to participate in an international consultation on
peace, reconciliation and reunification of the Korean peninsula,
which will be held from 21 to 23 October.

The WCC general secretary will be accompanied by WCC staff
members Mathews George Chunakara, Christina Papazoglou, Mark
Beach and Peter Williams, as well as the general secretary of the
Christian Conference of Asia, Dr Prawate Khid-arn.

>Media contact in Korea:
>Mark Beach, +41 (0)77 439 3492 (mobile)

Statement of the General Secretary of the World Council of
Churches on the Agreement Reached at The Six Party Talks (2007):
http://www.oikoumene.org/?id=3151

WCC programme on Public witness: addressing power, affirming
peace:
http://www.oikoumene.org/?id=2946

Commission of the Churches on International Affairs: 
http://www.oikoumene.org/?id=3610

Additional information:Juan Michel,+41 22 791 6153 +41 79 507
6363media@wcc-coe.org

The World Council of Churches promotes Christian unity in faith,
witness and service for a just and peaceful world. An ecumenical
fellowship of churches founded in 1948, today the WCC brings
together 349 Protestant, Orthodox, Anglican and other churches
representing more than 560 million Christians in over 110
countries, and works cooperatively with the Roman Catholic
Church. The WCC general secretary is Rev. Dr Samuel Kobia, from
the Methodist Church in Kenya. Headquarters: Geneva, Switzerland.