[KS] Koreanstudies Digest, Vol 99, Issue 21

Donald Clark dclark at trinity.edu
Sun Sep 11 18:34:05 EDT 2011


My experience attending the Chilgol church several times over the
years is that it is typically Protestant, not Orthodox, that the
people attending are perhaps a few of what might be termed a
"congregation," and the minister appears to have a steady appointment
as the person in charge, albeit with no badge. The choir and music are
traditional and would be familiar in South Korea; however, the hymnal
is South Korean, a gift I imagine.  The order of service is likewise
normal--nobody has to leave after 15 minutes, unless maybe they're
literally on a tour and their minders are trying to keep them on
schedule.
     There's not much in my limited experience to suggest freedom
of religious expression in the DPRK. The Chilgol church, built as a
nod to the story that KIS's mother was a deaconess in a church in the
same neighborhood, is a state enterprise under the Kidokkyodo
yonmaeng, or Christian League, once directed by Kang Yang'uk, as has
been stated.
     Korean Christians whom I've interviewed (and Korean relatives in
my family) who originated in North Korea, tell of tolerance for
Christian churches before 1950, though of course they couldn't
organize anything political and as one Korean uncle told it, a
professing Christian would never hold a government job or be something
like a teacher. Beyond that, fending for themselves on the margins
they could at least survive.
     This ended when the Christians of Pyongyang rose to welcome RoK
and UN forces in October 1950, when the exiled Sinuiju pastor Han
Kyongjik and assorted American missionaries held a triumphal service
in the big Changdaehyon  Church on the text "Arise, shine for thy
light is come!" When the KPA and Chinese returned some weeks later,
the remnants of Pyongyang's famous Christian community survived only
by running for their lives to the South.
     Versions of this story are well known to list members. And of
course there's Richard Kim's novel "The Martyred."
Don Clark


Sent from my iPhone

On Sep 11, 2011, at 11:01 AM, <koreanstudies-request at koreaweb.ws> wrote:

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> Today's Topics:
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>   1. Koreanstudies Digest, Vol 99, Issue 7 (Frank Hoffmann)
>
>
> ----------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> Message: 1
> Date: Sun, 11 Sep 2011 04:02:04 -0700
> From: Frank Hoffmann <hoffmann at koreaweb.ws>
> To: Korean Studies Discussion List <koreanstudies at koreaweb.ws>
> Subject: [KS] Koreanstudies Digest, Vol 99, Issue 7
> Message-ID: <p06240601ca9226418118@[192.168.1.218]>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1"; Format="flowed"
>
> Fine. Thank you, for that info -- both very interesting.
>
> Churches: So there are now four churches. To
> summarize, and to correct my earlier note:
>
> (1) Pongsu kyohoe P'y?ngyang (Protestant Church P'y?ngyang), build 1988
> (2) Changch'ung s?ngdang (Changch'ung Roman Catholic Cathedral), build 1988
> (3) Ch'ilgol kyohoe (Ch'ilgol Eastern Orthodox Church), build 1989
> (4) Life-Giving Trinity church (a Russian
> Orthodox church), opened August 13, 2006
>
> Should we not try to put things into a historical
> perspective? Please think of other dictatorships
> in history, the Nazi regime or Stalin's Soviet
> Union. There were also churches, there were also
> organizations that seemed independent from the
> state (keyword Benedictine order). But even in
> those dictatorships there was more religious
> freedom than in North Korea -- no, do you really
> doubt that? Maybe not such a good comparison as
> Balazs Szalontai already pointed out in his very
> educational Buddhism/Mongolia/NK reply. But there
> are no Buddhists or 'shamans' allowed either.
> Just think of the role that the culture of
> Buddhist lower level strata of society (minjung)
> or 'shaman' culture, or Christian beliefs
> (modelled after South America) played for the
> 1980s nativist Minjung cultural movement in South
> Korea. In North Korea you ONLY see the modernized
> socialist version of HIGH culture, of court
> culture, yangban culture of the past, mixed with
> strong influences from Soviet and Chinese
> socialist culture. Lower culture has not be
> incorporated and modernized. I mean, there is
> neither any sort of role of native believe
> systems like shamanism or Buddhism nor of the
> newer Christian religions. Religion has no role
> in North Korea, and if you look at specific
> culture--e.g. the fine arts or literature--you
> can very clearly see that. The Kim cults are an
> replacement for this. Religious believe systems
> would offer an alternative, would get to the root
> of the "people's" needs and desires, would offer
> alternative 'paradises' and of course, and such
> parallel worlds would weaken the Kim cults, the
> Kim system. There is a reason why a country like
> Cuba was the favorite place for tourists in
> eastern Europe before 1990, and why today it is
> one of the top locations for West European
> tourists also--and why it is not a place like
> North Korea. Strolling down Cuba Tac?n towards
> the Castillo in Havana today, you will see plenty
> of Picasso's "Guernicas" in all possible formats,
> materials, colors and interpretations, even on
> busses or as murals, serious ones and rather
> playful interpretations, state commissioned ones
> and private works, and of course also abstract
> paintings for sale and sometimes works in montage
> or pseudo-montage techniques and prints that may
> be called communist versions of Pop Art by local
> Cuban artists. You will see private sales shops,
> artists studios, pretty girls with micro-mini
> skirts, churches, etc. Now, please, stroll down
> T'ongil Street in P'y?ngyang to visit that new
> Russian Orthodox church (or whatever other
> destination). What will you see on your way?
>
> Below is what others observed about the churches,
> and I find that very telling as regards to the
> issue of "theatrical production." (Of course,
> yes, one has to be careful with any such
> 'sources'--but I just find it hard to find an
> alternative interpretation that in the end tells
> me there is anything undecided, liberal, or
> complicated.)
>
>
> (3) Ch'ilgol kyohoe:
>
>>> We arrived around 10, there were 50 believers
>>> in the church, singing and praying. Then after
>>> 15 minutes, they invited us to leave the place.
>>> (...)
> North Korea already has a Catholic church, which
> for many seem to be 'showcases' built for the
> visits of foreigners since they do not offer
> regular liturgical service.<< (Eric Lafforgue)
> http://www.flickr.com/photos/mytripsmypics/2609230523/
>
>
> (4) Russian Orthodox church:
>
>>> (...) quoted Ho Il Jin, chairman of the Korean
>>> Orthodox Church Committee as saying, "The North
>>> Korean government will successfully manage and
>>> operate the church." (...) Reuters news agency
>>> gave some background on how the church came to
>>> be built. / "... in North Korea, freedom of
>>> religion exists only in name, and the reasoning
>>> behind Kim's current favoring of the Orthodox
>>> religion remains unclear. What is known is that
>>> the dictator first came up with the idea of
>>> building the church on trip to Russia in a 2002
>>> during which he visited an Orthodox house of
>>> worship. / The next year, he sent four young
>>> men from the newly established North Korean
>>> Orthodox Committee - all of whom had worked for
>>> the North Korean intelligence service - for
>>> spiritual training at the Orthodox Seminary in
>>> Moscow. During a crash course, the men were
>>> taught to become servants of the Church. There,
>>> they exchanged their dark suits with Kim's
>>> insignia for priests' robes. / Following their
>>> visit to the seminary, the freshly baptized
>>> Christians, who had previously known nothing
>>> but the personal ideology of Kim Jong-Il and
>>> his father, were sent to the far eastern
>>> Russian city of Vladivostok for practical
>>> experience. / Fyodor Kim, one of North Korea's
>>> new Orthodox deacons, admitted that it had been
>>> 'very difficult' to adopt the Orthodox
>>> religion. But he didn't have much choice: the
>>> 'Dear Leader' had already made the decision to
>>> build the church. (...)
>
> http://www.eagleworldnews.com/2006/08/22/russian-orthodox-church-opens-in-the-north-korean-capital-of-pyongyang/
>
>
> (1) Pongsu kyohoe P'y?ngyang:
>
> Report from a North Korean defector to the South:
>>> "I had lived in Pyongyang from 1996 to 1998.
>>> During that time, my cousin introduced me Mr.
>>> Hong, a forty two-year old official in the
>>> Foreign Ministry. (...) Hong was a graduate of
>>> North Korea's most prestigious Mankyongdae
>>> Revolutionary Academy and studied French at KPA
>>> Security College. Since then, he had been
>>> assigned as a National Security Agency liaison
>>> officer to the Foreign Ministry. (...) In
>>> February 1997, Hong was appointed to the Bongsu
>>> Church. At that time, I thought the 'Church'
>>> was a type of state-run trade company, because
>>> Hong had been expressing his interest in
>>> working at trade department. (...) the fellow
>>> 'Christians' in Bongsu Church are, in reality,
>>> sent by the North Korean government authorities
>>> such as United Front Department of KWP and
>>> National Security Agency. It is not probable at
>>> all for the state-run Bongsu Church to have a
>>> true believer, whether of Christianity or any
>>> other kind of religion except for the Kim Il
>>> Sung/Kim Jong Il cult."
>
> http://orientem.blogspot.com/2006/11/pyngyangs-potemkin-church.html
>
>
>
> Best wishes,
> Frank Hoffmann
>
>
>> Prof. Dr. Eckart Dege wrote:
>>
>> ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
>>
>> For a long time I also wondered how Chusok is observed in North Korea.
>> Last time I visited North Korea during Chusok. Knowing that our
>> interpreter was the eldest son, I asked him who would do the ancester
>> rites on this day. He answered that his younger brother had to do them
>> since he was on duty translating for us. Then I asked how the rites are
>> performed in Pyongyang (where you don't find any graves). He explained
>> that all people are cremated and the urns are stored in special buildings
>> (one in each city precinct). On Chusok people go there, show a special
>> identity card and get the urn(s) of their ancestor(s). These they take to
>> a park, where they perform the ancestor rites and have a picnic. After the
>> rites they return the urn. We observed many such family groups on
>> Moran-bong.
>>
>> Now to the churches: there are four in Pyongyang, the Changchung Cathedral
>> (Roman Catholic), the Pongsu Church (Protestant), the Chilgol Church
>> (Protestant) and a new Russian Orthodox church at Tongil Street. I took
>> part in Sunday services in two of these churches and did not have the
>> impression that these services were a theatrical production for foreign
>> tourists (in both cases I was the only foreigner). What struck me was the
>> fact that during the service they took off their Kim Il-sung badges. When
>> they went out after the service they put them back on.
>>
>> Happy Chusok,
>> Eckart Dege
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> --
>> Prof. Dr. Eckart Dege
>> Geographisches Institut
>> Universit?t Kiel
>> D-24098 Kiel / Germany
>> Phone (home): +49 4342 889695
>> Phone (mobile): +49 1717110654
>
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