Five South Korean bishops have paid a visit to Gyodong Island, just across the border with North Korea, where they met North Korean refugees and prayed for peace on the Korean Peninsula. Source: UCA News.
The April 2 visit was part of the Church’s renewed efforts for peace and reconciliation on the 80th anniversary of the separation of South and North Korea, according to a Catholic Bishops’ Conference of Korea (CBCK) statement released on April 3.
The bishops’ delegation included Bishop Kim Ju-young of Chuncheon, Bishop Cho Kyu-man of Wonju, Bishop Jeong Jin-cheol of Incheon, Bishop Son Hee-song of Uijeongbu, and Auxiliary Bishop Moon Hee-jong of Suwon.
Four priests involved in Korean Church peace and reconciliation efforts, including Jeong Su-yong, secretary general of the bishops’ conference’s Committee for National Reconciliation, accompanied the bishops.
During the trip, the bishops visited the Reconciliation and Peace Centre operated by the Missionary Sisters of Our Lady of the Martyrs.
The centre’s director, Sr Mary Yohan Kang Min-ah, told the bishops how Gyodong Island became a haven for displaced North Koreans after the Korean War.
She said the centre was founded with the hope that the island would become “a bridge for peace” and explained that the centre and their convent conduct education and welfare activities among the displaced people.
The centre has some residents, mostly displaced North Koreans, who can see North Korea from a close distance, she added.
At the centre, the bishops met and talked to some elderly North Koreans displaced by the Korean War before heading to the nearby Gyodong Public Office to pray for peace.
The bishops walked along a coastal barbed wire fence stretching five kilometres from Gogu Reservoir toward Manghyangdae and looked out at North Korea, and contemplated the reality of the division on the peninsula.
Bishop Kim Ju-young expressed his hope that “the very act of praying along the barbed wire fence and hoping for unification will disappear and the day will come soon when we can freely travel back and forth.”
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Korean bishops visit border island, pray for peace (UCA News)
