wfn.org | Korean-American Christians seek healing in wake of summit

[NewsDesk@UMCOM.UMC.ORG]

Nov. 21, 2000 News media contact: Linda Green·(615)742-5470·Nashville, Tenn.
10-21-33-71B{525}

By United Methodist News Service

In spite of the epoch-making event in August that brought Korean families
together after 50 years of separation, Koreans and Korean Americans continue
to live in the past and have not recognized that healing and reconciliation
are gifts from God.

That is the assessment of the Rev. Kil Sang Yoon, a Korean staff member of
the United Methodist Board of Higher Education and Ministry in Nashville,
Tenn. Yoon and a national Korean committee have worked for the past 10 years
to foster an exchange for North Korean Christians in dialogue and mutual
understanding.

"I am concerned about the wholistic health of Korean-American United
Methodists," Yoon said. "Most of them are not living in present because the
unfortunate past haunts them. They are influenced by the partition of the
country at the end of World War II, the three-year conflict (1950-1953) and
by  continued military tensions between North and South Korea. These people
need to have some healing from this past."

Yoon and members of the Committee of Reconciliation and Reunification are
seeking to address the hurts and begin the healing process at a Dec. 7-9
conference in Chicago. 

The conference will bring together Korean-American United Methodists, United
Methodists leaders and Korean Christians and other communions to provide a
new theological framework for Korean-American United Methodists to
understand  the changes taking place in Korea.

The conference is designed, Yoon said, to help participants realize that the
changes occurring are "gifts from God for the healing and reconciliation in
Korea, and for the peace and security of Northeast Asia and the world."

 Leadership will include the Rev. James Laney, a United Methodist clergyman
who served as  former U.S. ambassador to Korea, Bishops Sharon Rader of the
church's Wisconsin Area, Joseph Sprague of the  Chicago Area, Hae-Jong Kim
of the Pittsburgh and leaders from Germany and Seoul, Korea.

Advance material for the conference highlights the historical background of
why Koreans in general and Korean Americans in particular view Korea's new
reality with sarcasm and suspicion.  It notes that from 1945 to 1950,
numerous people in the southern part of Korea believed in national
independence and self-determination for rebuilding their nation after
Japanese colonial rule. But under the United States military rule, they were
labeled "communist by the few land-owning, rich and powerful minority and
former collaborators with the Japanese colonial authority."  

In the north, the advance material says, the revolution under socialism
began and those with land and former Japanese officers were labeled as
"exploiting class, reactionaries and national betrayers."

These tensions led many to flee to both sides of the 38th parallel, the
dividing line. "Since then, the remaining families and relatives of those
dissenters have been disenfranchised and discriminated in most segments of
national life, and they were under surveillance of the national polices on
both sides." 

In 1999, President Clinton commissioned William Perry as a United States
envoy to study US-Korean relations. According to Yoon, that report brought
changes in the country's policy on North Korea. "These changes mean moving
from deterrence to engagement." 

He said that in the Cold War era, the United States built military power and
thought that they could deter any war. He said the U.S came to realize that
it could no longer maintain the military tensions in the Korean Peninsula. 

"The Korean War was over with a cease-fire," Yoon said. "We are in a state
of war in North Korea. The fighting was stopped by cease-fire, not by a
peace agreement and this is why there has been military tension in the
Korean Peninsula for the last 50 years.

"Now, we United Methodist Christians welcome this change in our relationship
with North Korea. We pray that the United States and North Korea will end
the Korean War with a permanent peace mechanism and normalize our diplomatic
relations."

According to conference officials, the recent June 13-15 Pyongyang Summit
meeting of leaders of the divided Korea ushered in a lessening of
hostilities in the peninsula and offered hope for Korean people around the
world.  Within two months following the detente, positive changes arrived
and promises were made. 

At that summit, Yoon said leaders of North and South Korean met and made an
agreement to end the era of hostilities and to begin mutual exchange and
cooperation and peaceful reunification of the country. 

"After this kind of historical summit, the two Koreas, north and south, have
made a quantum leap in terms of exchanges and cooperation in economics,
cultures and reunion of separated families, some of who were separated for
50 years," Yoon said. 

The Aug. 14-18 family reunion became a catalyst for Koreans globally to
release pent-up emotions - psychological, spiritual, historical, social and
political. A half-century of enmity under Cold War conditions has made it
difficult for some Korean-Americans to fully accept the new reality, Yoon
said.  "Many people still carry suspicion, distrust and fear due to the
unfortunate past," he said. "The role and function of the church is to
minister to the needs of these people with a healing power of God in Jesus
Christ."

The reason for the Dec. 7-9 conference, whose theme is "The Role of the
Church for Healing and Reconciliation: Theological Reflection on the
Post-Summit Impact to Korean Reunification," is to look at the changes in
Korea from a Christian faith perspective, he said.

"I have been able to perceive that the wounds and hurts of the past are the
cause of many Korean-Americans to be unsettled because of their spiritual
and mental difficulties," Yoon said. "Because of this, we will try to
provide some type of leaders training for the healing ministry to help our
Korean people to experience healing and reconciliation with each other.

For more information about the Korean American United Methodist Conference,
contact Yoon by e-mail at ksyoon@gbhem.org or by calling (615) 340-7390.
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United Methodist News Service
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