wfn.org | WCC NEWS: Kobia and WCC delegation meet North Korean president Kim Yong-nam

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World Council of Churches - News Release

Contact: +41 22 791 6153 +41 79 507 6363 media@wcc-coe.org
For immediate release - 21/10/2009 15:35:38

KOBIA AND WCC DELEGATION MEET NORTH KOREAN PRESIDENT KIM
YONG-NAM

In a recent meeting with a delegation from the World Council of
Churches (WCC) visiting Pyongyang, North Korean president Kim
Yong-nam said a significant impetus to solving the nuclear
weapons stand-off in the region would be for North Korea and the
U.S. to meet “face-to-face with each other”.

Kim, the president of the Presidium of the Democratic People's
Republic of Korea (DPRK) Supreme People's Assembly, said the
region needs to be denuclearized. He alluded to a certain
unfairness within the Six Party Talks, saying that the members of
the talks are “all nuclear powers or enjoy nuclear protection by
the United States” with the sole exception of North Korea.

He also said that the armistice agreement which effectively
ended the Korean War but did not bring peace to the region
“should be replaced with a peace agreement between North Korea
and the United States”.

Kim's comments were made during his 70-minute meeting with the
WCC general secretary, the Rev. Dr Samuel Kobia, on Monday
afternoon 19 October in Pyongyang. 

Kim is one of the three principal leaders of North Korea along
with Kim Jong-il, the Supreme Leader, and Kim Yong-il, the
Premier. Kim Yong-nam is often described as the de facto leader
since he often represents the country on state visits around the
world and in the signing of treaties on behalf of the DPRK. 

Kobia and the WCC delegation were in North Korea at the
invitation of the Korean Christian Federation (KCF) visiting
churches and holding discussions with North Korean church leaders
in advance of a three-day consultation on the church and Korean
reunification being held in Hong Kong, 21 to 23 October.

Four North Korean church leaders were planning to attend the
consultation. There will also be nearly 50 South Korean church
leaders and another 80 church leaders from a dozen other
countries around the world, including delegations from the U.S.,
Canada, China, Australia, Cambodia, Indonesia, India, Thailand,
Great Britain, Germany, Japan and Russia.

The WCC has been instrumental in bringing representatives of the
two Korean church families together for more than 25 years in
what is called the Tozanso Process, in which WCC member churches
have joined Korean Christians to explore efforts at reunification
of the peninsula.

During his meeting with Kobia, Kim talked about how the North
Korean government has assisted over the years in rebuilding
churches that were destroyed during the Korean War and the
bombing of Pyongyang by the U.S.

He invited the WCC to continue its relationship with the Korean
Christian Federation through ongoing visits to the country.

Commenting further on the nuclear weapons situation of North
Korea, Kim said the solution was to denuclearize the entire
region. Creating a nuclear free Korean peninsula was “one of the
last instructions from the Great Leader”, former North Korean
leader Kim Il-sung, who is called the “eternal leader” of North
Korea and died in 1994.

Kobia said the position of the WCC is that “those who have
nuclear weapons should get rid of them and those wanting them
should no longer seek them”.

Kim pointed out that all of the other members of the Six Party
Talks were either nuclear powers (China, Russia and the U.S.) or
nations “under the nuclear protection policy of the U.S.” (Japan
and South Korea).

Kobia told Kim that from the perspective of the WCC and its
member churches, “we as Christians will continue to work for
peace, as Jesus Christ is the Prince of Peace and a peacemaker in
the world”, and that all in the WCC “look forward to the day when
the Koreas will be reunified and families will be reunited.”

Others present at the meeting were the Rev. Kang Yong Sop,
chairman of the KCF, and the Rev. Ri Rong Ji, director of KCF, as
well as WCC delegation members Mathews George Chunakara,
Christina Papazoglou, Mark Beach and Peter Williams.

Media contact in North Korea and Hong Kong: Mark Beach, +41
(0)77 439 3492 (mobile)

"Nurture our unity in Christ, Kobia tells North Korean
congregation":
http://www.oikoumene.org/en/news/news-management/eng/a/article/1634/nurture-our-unity-in-chri-2.html

"WCC delegation to visit North Korea":

http://www.oikoumene.org/en/news/news-management/eng/a/article/1634/wcc-delegation-to-visit-n.html

Photo gallery:

http://www.oikoumene.org/en/news/photo-galleries/wcc-visit-to-north-korea-and-china-october-2009.html

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

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.