SEOUL (UCAN) - South Korean religious leaders have urged North and South Korea to resolve heightened tension through dialogue and cooperation.
Retired Cardinal Stephen Kim Sou-hwan of Seoul, Reverend Kang Won-yong, president of the Christian Academy, and Venerable Song Wol-ju, a monk and former chief executive of the Chogye Order, the country's largest Buddhist denomination, were among those making the call June 29 in Seoul.
Leaders of other religious communities and of civic groups also attended the press conference organized by the Korea Sharing Movement.
"Current tension and confrontation between the two Koreas should be resolved through dialogue, or else we will all end up being losers," said their joint statement, read out by Cardinal Kim. Inter-Korean relations worsened recently amid a series of incidents including naval clashes in the Yellow Sea and North Korea's detention of a South Korean tourist in North Korea on June 20.
The religious and civic leaders called on North Korea not to break off the ongoing inter-governmental dialogue and asked the South Korean government to stick to its policy of engagement with the North despite the recent incidents. "We cannot agree with criticism from certain groups that President Kim Dae-jung's engagement policy poses a threat to national security," they said. The religious and civic leaders asserted that peace in the Korean peninsula cannot be secured without dialogue and cooperation. "We hope the North and South Korean authorities will exert their utmost efforts to advance cooperation and that the South Korean people would support the government's reconciliatory policy toward the North," the statement added.
Conservative groups in South Korea and the former ruling Grand National Party have insisted that the government suspend aid to North Korea and tours by South Koreans to Mount Kumgang in the North.
Meanwhile, as a vice ministerial-level meeting between the two Korean governments in Beijing ended July 3 without reaching any agreement, Seoul sent a signal that its policy of engagement had limits. The South Korean government made clear that it would not send any more fertilizer to North Korea unless the North keeps its promise to allow families separated by the North-South division to be reunited. Before the meeting South Korea had sent 100,000 tons of fertilizer to the North, with another 100,000 tons to be sent if the meeting was successful.
Seoul also said that if the North could not guarantee the safety of South Korean tourists visiting Mount Kumgang, a historical site just north of the Demilitarized Zone separating the two countries, the tours would be stopped.
The site was opened to South Korean tourists last year for the first time since the Korean War. More than 10,000 South Koreans have visited it since, bringing famine-hit North Korea much needed cash. The 36-year-old South Korean housewife detained June 20 on suspicion of luring a North Korean guide to defect was released six days later. Disputes and detention of South Korean tourists have also occurred after they used newspapers carrying pictures of the North Korean leader for toilet purposes or even just creased the papers.
UCAN 8. juli 1999