Pope Prays for Reunification of North and South Korea

Pope John Paul II prayed for reunification of the bitterly divided Korean peninsula here Sunday in a plea for peace to members of one of the fastest growing Roman Catholic churches in the world.

A colorful and disciplined sea of worshipers, more than 600,000, gathered in bright sunshine for a papal Mass on an island in the middle of the Han River, which bisects this capital of nearly 10 million people.

“The Korean nation is symbolic of a world divided and not yet able to become one in peace and justice,” said the Pope at the Mass climaxing an international Eucharistic Congress.

On his second visit to South Korea in five years, John Paul also challenged President Roh Tae Woo, an army general when the Pope came in 1984, to extend democratic reforms that are the fitful counterpoint to rapid economic development in a nation of 42 million.

“You are confronted with the challenge of seeking peaceful and just pathways toward a national life and reunification based on authentic justice, freedom and inalienable human rights,” the Pope told Roh in public remarks that papal aides said were echoed in a 35-minute private meeting.

His return visit to South Korea, the Pope told the Korean leader, “enables me to note the strong desire of all your people to proceed along the way to full democracy, a prosperous and tranquil civic life.”

Capitalist South Korea and Communist North Korea have been armed and angry neighbors along the 38th Parallel since armistice ended the Korean War in 1953. Such division is a microcosm of tensions around the world, the Pope said.

“East is divided from West, North from South. These divisions are the heritage of history and of the ideological conflicts which so often divide peoples who otherwise would wish to live in peace and brotherhood with one another,” John Paul told the respectful crowd in his homily at the island Mass. “Korea, too, is marked by a tragic division that penetrates ever more deeply into the life and character of its people.”

The way forward, the Pope said, is clearly marked: “True peace--the shalom which the world urgently needs--springs eternally from the infinitely rich mystery of God’s love.”

Democratic reforms born of street protest have changed the face of South Korean political life since the Pope’s first visit, but authoritarian practices persist. National and international human rights groups deride South Korea for arbitrary arrests and a crackdown on political dissidents that has intensified in recent months.

In particular, the Roh government has no patience with South Koreans who seek reunification with the north through private initiatives; a Protestant minister who visited hard-line North Korea was recently sentenced to 10 years in jail.

Vietnamese Bishops

Catholics from all over the world attended the Eucharistic Congress, including two elderly Vietnamese bishops whom the Pope had never met. No Catholics came from North Korea, despite an invitation that was directed to them.

John Paul continued his trip today with a flight to Jakarta for a six-day visit to Indonesia.