South Korea considers restricting missionary work in Middle East

The South Korean government has said it is considering restricting the travel of Christian missionaries to the Middle East if their work puts them in danger of terrorist attacks.

Foreign Ministry officials said Thursday that the government may selectively impose restrictions because missionary work in some Middle Eastern nations threatens the safety of not only the missionaries themselves but other South Koreans as well.

“Their work goes against local sentiment and makes them targets of al-Qaida or the Taliban,” a ministry official was quoted as saying by the Associated Press on customary condition of anonymity, citing office policy. “There are also strong possibilities that the safety of ordinary citizens could be threatened.”

Officials from justice, foreign affairs, intelligence and other bodies met earlier this month to discuss the issue and will propose countermeasures shortly, the officials said.

South Korea is the second largest contributor of worldwide Christian missionaries, after the United States. The Korea World Missions Association said about 19,000 Koreans are doing missionary work around the world, with many of them in volatile regions.

Officials said in the past two months more than 80 Korean church workers have been expelled from Iran, Jordan, Yemen and other Middle Eastern countries, thus posing a real threat to all Koreans.

According to The Korea Herald newspaper, the government is also considering revising the passport law to restrict Christians from travelling to countries that they had been deported from for religious reasons.

Not all South Koreans have made it out of the Middle East. In 2007, 23 aid workers from a South Korean church were kidnapped in Afghanistan, accused of doing missionary work. The Taliban killed two of them and released the others after South Korea's government pledged to withdraw its troops from Afghanistan.

In March this year, four Korean tourists were killed by a blast in Yemen. Most recently in June, a female volunteer worker was abducted and killed by Islamic terrorists.

Moreover, Jordan recently informed Seoul that it had obtained intelligence about possible terror attacks against Korean missionaries in the country, as reported by The Korea Herald.

Some churches and civic groups are expected to protest the new measures taken up by the government. They claim such restrictions could violate the freedom of travel and religious liberties.