hankyoreh

2014

A group representing seven of South Korea’s major religious groups plans to hold an inter-Korean meeting of religions for peace in North Korea during the second half of 2015.

The event by the Korea Conference of Religions for Peace (KCRP) is being staged to mark the 70th anniversary of Korea’s liberation from Japanese colonial occupation.

“We‘ve finished sharing our ideas with the Choson Conference of Religions, a group representing the five major religious groups in North Korea,” explained Kim Kwang-jun, the Anglican priest who serves as the conference’s secretary general, at a Jan. 26 meeting with reporters at a restaurant near Gwanghwamun Square in central Seoul.

“KCRP plans to hold the event between August and September,” Kim continued. “We‘re considering Mt. Keumgang and Pyongyang for the venue, although Pyongyang appears more likely, and leaders from all seven groups will attend.”

Kim also said preparations were under way for a music recital for peace at the Korean Workers’ Party Headquarters in Cheorwon County, Gangwon Province, or Mt. Dora in Paju, Gyeonggi Province, around the Liberation Day holiday on Aug. 15.

“We’re also attempting to have South Korea chosen as host for the tenth congress of World Conference of Religions for Peace (WCRP) in 2018,” Kim said, adding that the final decision would be made in October. Around 1,500 religious leaders from South Korea and abroad are expected to attend the WCRP congress, along with senior UN officials and current and former heads of state.

The KCRP is also planning a Jan. 29 seminar for dialogue between South Korean and Iranian religious scholars at the Memorial Hall for the History and Culture of Korean Buddhism in Seoul’s Gyeonji neighborhood. The event is being organized to combat misunderstandings about Islam in the wake of rumors that a South Korean teenager who recently disappeared in Turkey went to join the Sunni extremist group Islamic State (IS).

By Cho Yeon-hyun, religion correspondent

Please direct questions or comments to [english@hani.co.kr]