hankyoreh

It was around 10 a.m. on March 25, 1989, when Reverend Mun Ik-hwan and I boarded a special plane waiting for us in Beijing, guided by Chu Chang-jun, then the North Korean Ambassador. Thanks to our discreet actions, neither the Korean Embassy in Tokyo nor even Chongryon (General Association of Korean Residents in Japan) central headquarters got wind of it; We were able to depart safely for Pyongyang and we breathed a sign of relief. Once on board, a crew member immediately came over to let us know that a group of North Korean and foreigners were waiting for our party at the Sunan International Airport in Pyongyang, and inquired if we could prepare a statement to deliver upon our arrival.

We had the one and a half hours of flight time between Beijing and Pyongyang to draft an outline, and that responsibility naturally fell on me, as I was serving as Rev. Mun’s secretary. Why was Rev. Mun heading to Pyongyang? Wasn’t he moving closer every second to Golgotha, the site where Jesus was crucified, to carry the cross in resolving the division that imprisoned the Korean people?

As I picked up the pen, images flashed before my eyes of Kim Koo and Jang Jun-ha, men who had followed the same path and ended up sacrificing their lives. And their voices seemed to ring in my ears. Kim chastising the tail-wagging opportunists during the Japanese occupation, Jang railing against the toadyists kneeling before the powerful nations who imposed division upon the peninsula thinking only of maintaining power.

So we stated the purpose of the visit by saying that the roots of the suffering of our people lay in the division of the peninsula and including the words, “What can I, Mun Ik-hwan, do on behalf of the South Korean people so that the 38th Parallel can be removed? I am going to Pyongyang to meet with Chairman Kim Il-sung to share opinions with him.” We then concluded the statement with the words, “All unification is good.” Rev. Mun read the first draft, but there was no time to reflect before the plane landed, and so he recited the entire statement without changing a word.

The part that tormented Rev. Mun as he stood handcuffed in the courtroom in his later days was that last line about “All unification is good.” South Korean authorities had picked up on that line and browbeat him, asking, “So does that mean unification under Communism is good too?” But the reality was that I, Chung Kyung-mo, was the one who drafted that sentence, and had merely faithfully quoted the words of Jang Jun-ha, who had written in the September 1972 edition of Ssial-ui Sori the words, “Is all unification good? Yes. For us, there is no higher imperative than unification.”

As it happened, the next day of our Pyongyang visit was Easter Sunday. In front of a congregation of followers attending the Easter service who had packed Pongsu Church to the rafters, Rev. Mun roared, “Democracy is the resurrection of the people, and unification is the resurrection of the race,” causing the people gathered there to weep burning tears. I, too, wept. Did this not mean that until the day of unification, the Korean people are merely a body lying asleep in its tomb?

Kim Koo, who risked his life crossing the 38th Parallel recited the words, “The snow-covered field path I walk today shall become the distance marker for those who come after.” Jang Jun-ha had unreservedly declared that “All unification is good.” And Rev. Mun Ik-hwan, who stood in Pyongyang's Pongsu Church shouted, “Unification is the resurrection of the race.” Symbolically speaking, these three pioneers embodied the spirit of the Shanghai provisional government. However, their attempts to carry on the mantle of the provisional government were persecuted by authorities of the Republic of Korea.

The government of the Republic of Korea is in a position to solidify the legitimacy of the state by washing away the mistakes that have been committed in the past and by upholding the spirit of these three men. Yet a look at the current situation of inter-Korean relations leaves me wondering if it is not instead moving backwards.