Reunification and the Church

Key Issues

Since the division of Korea, the Korean church has long prayed for reunification. Opinions differ, however, on what should come first. There are two main points of contention. The first is whether the reunification movement should aim primarily at peace and reconciliation or at bringing the gospel to the people of North Korea and restoring their religious freedom. The second is whether to recognize the Korean Christian Federation (KCF), the Protestant body officially sanctioned by North Korea, as a partner in dialogue. Since the late 1980s, officially recognized places of worship such as Bongsu Church and Chilgol Church have been built in Pyongyang, and whether these churches should be regarded as genuine communities of faith is also disputed. The subject is often discussed under the heading of "North Korea missions."

The Position Emphasizing Peace, Reconciliation, and Exchange

• Claims: This position regards the division and the hatred it has produced as sins of which the church must repent. Because the church has been entrusted with a mission of reconciliation, it argues, the church should build trust through dialogue, exchange, and humanitarian aid. It accepts the KCF as a partner in dialogue.
• Supporting passages: Proponents cite Ephesians 2:14, which says that Christ "hath made both one, and hath broken down the middle wall of partition"; 2 Corinthians 5:18, which speaks of "the ministry of reconciliation"; Matthew 5:9, which blesses "the peacemakers"; and Ezekiel 37:17, with its vision of two sticks becoming one.
• Tradition and proponents: This position has been led by the tradition of the ecumenical movement (the movement for church unity across denominational lines). At its center are the National Council of Churches in Korea (NCCK) and its member denominations.
• In October 1984, the World Council of Churches (WCC) held an international consultation on peace in Northeast Asia at Tozanso, Japan.
• In 1986, at Glion, Switzerland, Christians from North and South Korea met together for the first time since the division.
• On February 29, 1988, the NCCK General Assembly issued the "Declaration of the Churches of Korea on National Reunification and Peace" (the 1988 Declaration). The declaration confessed the church's responsibility for the division and for the hatred it had engendered, and it proclaimed 1995 a Jubilee Year for reunification.
• The 1988 Declaration is regarded as the first full-fledged reunification declaration to come from civil society and as having influenced the government's reunification policy.

The Position Emphasizing Evangelism and Religious Freedom

• Claims: This position holds that there is no religious freedom in North Korea and that underground believers who keep their faith in secret are persecuted. It regards the KCF as a state-controlled organization that takes orders from the Workers' Party and is therefore concerned that treating it as a dialogue partner could allow the regime to exploit such contact for propaganda. It sees the ultimate goal of reunification as the proclamation of the gospel to the people of North Korea and the rebuilding of the church there, and it places great importance on North Korean human rights and ministry to North Korean defectors.
• Supporting passages: Proponents cite Matthew 28:19–20, the command to "teach all nations"; Acts 1:8, the call to be witnesses "unto the uttermost part of the earth"; and Hebrews 13:3, "Remember them that are in bonds, as bound with them."
• Tradition and proponents: Conservative evangelical churches hold this position. It is rooted in the experience of Christians who suffered persecution under the Communist regime around the time of the Korean War and fled to the South. Conservative church circles criticized the 1988 Declaration for downplaying the realities of the North Korean regime, and some observers regard this backlash as one of the factors behind the founding of the Christian Council of Korea in 1989.

The Situation in the Korean Church

In actual church practice, the two positions are not sharply divided. When famine struck North Korea in the 1990s, many churches, progressive and conservative alike, took part in aid to the North. As the number of North Korean defectors grew, churches emerged in which defector believers worship alongside others. The WCC asks its member churches to observe the Sunday immediately preceding August 15 each year as the "Sunday of Prayer for the Peaceful Reunification of the Korean Peninsula." Many Korean churches likewise observe Liberation Day Sunday at this time and pray for reunification. The NCCK and the KCF met at a WCC consultation in Bossey, Switzerland, in 2014 and issued a joint statement. In recent years, however, as inter-Korean relations have hardened, exchanges between the churches have effectively ceased.

Points for Further Reflection

• Can the pursuit of reconciliation be carried out alongside raising concerns about human rights and persecution?
• How should one distinguish between evaluating the KCF as an institution and relating to the individual believers who worship within it?
• There is concern that, when the North Korean church is rebuilt after reunification, the divisions among South Korean denominations may simply be transplanted there.
• How should judgments based on political allegiance be distinguished from judgments based on faith? For further discussion, see Church and Politics.