[KS] Koreanstudies Digest, Vol 99, Issue 21

[Yong-ho Choe]

I suspect (though not confirmed) this Chilgol Church may be the one that Kim Il-Sung once attended in his early ages. As I wrote some years ago ("Asian Survey" 26:19, Oct 1986), Kim Il-Sung has a very strong root in Protestant church in the Pyongyang area, and Kim himself acknowledges his ties with church in his own autobiography. In the second volume of "Segiwa deobureo," Kim devotes a chapter on Rev. Son Jeong-do thanking how Rev. Son helped him in his youth. (He does not say that he attended the church but went there to practice organ.) But Dr. Son Weon-tae, one of Rev. Son's sons and a boyhood chum of Kim, told me that Kim was a Sunday school teacher at Rev. Son's church in Jirin, Manchuria. When Dr. Son visited Kim in Pyongyang about 1990 (?), "Rodong shinbun" carried a big head-line article about it.

Yong-ho Choe

At 03:34 ¿ÀÈÄ 2011-09-11, Donald Clark wrote:
>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:
>
>> Send Koreanstudies mailing list submissions to
>>    koreanstudies at koreaweb.ws
>>
>> To subscribe or unsubscribe via the World Wide Web, visit
>>    http://koreaweb.ws/mailman/listinfo/koreanstudies_koreaweb.ws
>> or, via email, send a message with subject or body 'help' to
>>    koreanstudies-request at koreaweb.ws
>>
>> You can reach the person managing the list at
>>    koreanstudies-owner at koreaweb.ws
>>
>> When replying, please edit your Subject line so it is more specific
>> than "Re: Contents of Koreanstudies digest..."
>>
>>
>> <<------------ KoreanStudies mailing list DIGEST ------------>>
>>
>>
>> Today's Topics:
>>
>>   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
>>
>> -------------- next part --------------
>> An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
>> URL: <http://koreaweb.ws/pipermail/koreanstudies_koreaweb.ws/attachments/20110911/bacd5298/attachment-0001.html>
>>
>> End of Koreanstudies Digest, Vol 99, Issue 21
>> *********************************************

Yong-ho Choe, Professor Emeritus
Department of History
University of Hawaii at Manoa
Honolulu, HI  96822

Tel: 808 956-6699
Fax: 808 956-9600
E-mail: choeyh at hawaii.edu