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Pyongyang “opens” to Protestant pastors
A group of South Korean clergymen visit North Korea for a prayer meeting with North Korean pastors. They also visited two churches. As phony as northern clergymen may have been, the meeting “could still produce unexpected outcomes,” sources say.
Seoul (AsiaNews/Agencies) – A group of South Korean Protestant church leaders made an official visit to North Korea. The group held a joint prayer meeting for "peace on the Korean Peninsula" with their North Korean counterparts from the Korean Christian Federation.
The South Korean pastors visited Pongsu Church and Chilgol Church, two of the Communist country's rare publicly accepted churches.
However, few believe that these buildings are actual places of worship since the only religion allowed in the country is that of Dear Leader Kim Jong-il and his father, Eternal President Kim Il-sung.
No North Korean church has free pastors, but only members of patriotic religious associations.
Yet as phoney as such a meeting may have been, some believe they “represent an opportunity to see the situation and open up to outsiders. They are a way to convince Seoul to start again providing humanitarian aid. They could still produce unexpected outcomes.”
This visit is the second of its kind in ten years. In September, Seoul allowed a group of Buddhists, including the head of the Jogye Order, to visit temples in North Korea and meet locals who claimed to be “monks”.