Ecumenical delegation visits North Korean churches

The delegation is being led by Rev Dr Samuel Kobia, general secretary of WCC, whose pastoral visit is at the invitation of the Korean Christian Federation (KCF) of North Korea.

"We will be meeting with the churches, government officials and learning about the life and witness of churches in North Korea,” said Dr Mathews George Chunakara, director of the WCC Public Witness programme and the Commission of the Churches on International Affairs,and a member of the delegation travelling with Kobia.

The four day visit begins on Saturday and includes a worship service at Bong Soo Church in Pyongyang, where the WCC general secretary will preach.

The World Council of Churches has been supporting the KCF in its social development and humanitarian work for several years.

The KFC is a state-controlled Protestant Church that was founded in 1946. It is one of only three official Protestant Churches recognised in the country and reportedly has about 12,000 members.

The visit, which starts on Saturday, takes place at a time when intense multilateral diplomatic efforts and negotiations are under way on issues related to the denuclearisation of North Korea and the resumption of Six Party talks, which were stalled for some time after North Korea's withdrawal.

Although North Korean leader Kim Jong Il is said to have told Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao last week that North Korea would return to the talks, he has also reportedly conditioned the return on the progress of its planned bilateral talks with the US.

The WCC has been building relationships with the churches in North Korea for the past 25 years, with the first official visit having taken place in 1985. In the early 1980s the WCC Commission of the Churches on International Affairs initiated a process aimed at peace, reconciliation and reunification on the Korean peninsula and bringing church leaders from North and South Korea together.

This is the second visit of a WCC general secretary in the last decade. In 1999, then general secretary Rev Dr Konrad Raiser visited North Korea.

According to WCC, after the visit to North Korea, the delegation will travel next week to Hong Kong to participate in an international consultation on peace, reconciliation and reunification of the Korean peninsula.

The WCC general secretary will be accompanied by WCC staff members Mathews George Chunakara, Christina Papazoglou, Mark Beach and Peter Williams, as well as the general secretary of the Christian Conference of Asia, Dr Prawate Khid-arn.

The announcement comes within a few days of US Evangelist Franklin Graham's visit to the country and meeting with North Korea's foreign minister on Wednesday. The evangelist planned to present $190,000 worth of equipment and supplies for a new dental centre being built in Pyongyang.

North Korea has been ranked the worst persecutor of Christians for seven years in a row in the annual Open Doors Watch List.

Open Doors believes that tens of thousands of Christians are currently suffering in North Korean prison camps and the regime is suspected of detaining more political and religious prisoners than any other country in the world.