NORTH KOREA TO INVITE CARDINAL AND ARCHBISHOP BEFORE POPE

SEOUL (UCAN) - Cardinal Stephen Kim Sou-hwan and Archbishop Nicholas Cheong Jin-suk of Seoul "can soon visit" North Korea, a South Korean government official said upon returning from Pyongyang. Culture and Tourism Minister Park Jie-won told media Aug. 14 in Seoul that North Korean government officials expressed a positive response to the two Catholic prelates in South Korea. Park, a Catholic, and 46 heads of South Korean news media visited North Korea Aug. 5-12, upon the invitation of North Korean leader Kim Jong-il.

The minister made the comments while announcing that the North Korean leader had invited South Korean religious leaders to visit the North during a luncheon meeting with the news media delegates on Aug. 12. "I asked Kim to invite representatives of South Korea's seven religions, including Catholicism, Protestantism and Buddhism during the meeting and Kim expressed his willingness to do so," Park said. Park revealed that the South Korean Catholic Church and his ministry had been pushing for Cardinal Kim, retired archbishop of Seoul, to visit North Korea since May, but the move was stopped because of South Korean President Kim Dae-jung's visit to Pyongyang in June. At the June 13-15 historic summit, the North Korean leader expressed his willingness to invite Pope John Paul II to visit North Korea. Archbishop Cheong, who is also apostolic administrator of Pyongyang diocese, however, said in a June 26 interview with the Seoul archdiocese-run Pyonghwa (peace) Broadcasting Corporation that before the pope could visit Pyongyang, the archbishop of Seoul would have to go there to prepare for a papal visit.

Among the media delegates were Father Raphael Park Shin-un, president of Pyonghwa corporation and Father Gabriel Kim Bu-ki, president of the Taegu archdiocese-run secular daily "Maeil Shinmun."

The heads of South and North Korean media agreed to stop slandering and condemning each other, saying it undermines national reconciliation and unity. They also agreed to make every effort to promote national reconciliation and to expand journalistic exchanges. North Korean leader Kim asked the media of both North and South to play a conducive role in implementing the agreement of the June summit, which is to promote reconciliation.

"The South and North Korean press should stop their old confrontational posture against each other, and contribute toward the implementation of the joint declaration," Park quoted Kim as saying during the Aug. 12 luncheon.

Meanwhile, Cardinal Kim told "Pyonghwa Shinmun" (peace weekly) on Aug. 16, "I always pray for national reconciliation and peaceful reunification, waiting for the day when all the people of South and North can freely visit each other."

Archbishop Cheong told the same weekly that he personally hopes to confirm the fate of priests and sisters who lived in the North before the outbreak of Korean War in June of 1950. "I also wish to know how North Korean Catholics have kept their faith if I could visit North Korea," the archbishop added.

UCAN 18. august 2000