Martin Luther King gave me a dream for Korea

Syngman Rhee

I was born and raised in Pyong Yang, now the capital city of North Korea. At that time, the early 1930s, the Korean people were under Japanese rule, which brought us great suffering and pain. It created a deep sense of hostility and enmity towards the Japanese. The cooperation between Korea and Japan, as co-hosts of the soccer World Cup, shows that there is always hope of reconciliation between former enemies.
Soon after our liberation from Japaneseoccupation at the end of the Second World War, Korea was divided by the AlliedForces, for the purpose of disarming Japanese troops. In the North, the DemocraticPeoples' Republic of Korea (DPRK) was inaugurated with the Communist Party atits centre. Those who had resisted oppression under Japanese rule began to chal-lenge Communist control in North Korea.

Foundations and footsteps

The political authorities in North Korea recognised the churches as a major opposi-tion force. My father was a Christian minister. By the time of the Korean War in1950, he had been imprisoned along with other Christian leaders. When he was 49and I was 19, he was killed in prison.
    As I stood before my father's body athis funeral, I cried out to God in grief and anger: "If God is truly a God of loveand justice, why do the innocent suffer and the evil seem to prosper?" In thosemoments of anguish, I heard a still small voice asking, "Shouldn't you follow yourfather's footsteps in ministry in order to continue what he was unable to finishbecause of his untimely death?" I have not forgotten that voice. The motive formy life lies in that call of God.
    After my father's death, my motherdecided to send my younger brother and me to the South, to ensure our safety andsurvival. The decision was not an easy one for her, or for us. We fled on a snowy Sunday morning, 3 December 1950.Because of the cold and danger, only young and strong men dared to ventureon the long walk towards the South. So my mother and four little sisters, aged 14,10, 8 and four months, stayed behind.
    At the gate of our house, my mothersaid to us, "We do not know what may happen to us once we are apart from eachother. But pray to God wherever you go and we will see each other through ourprayers." We never saw her again. Her words have been the sure foundation forour lives all these years.
    Soon after coming to South Korea, wejoined the South Korean Marine Corps and served for five years during the Kore-an War. In 1956, with the help of many friends, I came to the United States tostudy. I was ordained as a Presbyterian minister in 1960. I often thought of howhappy my mother would have been.

Freeing the oppressors

The early part of the 1960s marked a time of intense struggle for AfricanAmericans. At that time I was a university pastor and professor at the Universityof Louisville in Kentucky. I joined with black and white church leaders and withAfrican American students in the civil rights movement.
    The African American students of the university wanted to organise a BlackStudents' Union on campus. They asked me if I would be their faculty advisor, asrequired by university regulations. "You know I am not black," I said. "Yes," they replied. "But we saw you in the streetsdemonstrating with us for our civil rights." It was my honour and pleasure toaccept their invitation.
    I remember vividly Dr Martin LutherKing's frequent visits to Louisville. His conviction that the key to creating a newhistory lies in the hands of the oppressed, not the oppressor, was a new and inspir-ing insight for me.
    In a relationship between the oppressorand the oppressed, the oppressed has a choice--either to carry out revenge, or toforgive and create a new beginning. Dr King called this "vicarious suffering". Heinsisted that the civil rights movement was not only a movement to free theoppressed, but also a movement to free the oppressors.
    Through my involvement with the civil rights movement, I learned that jus-tice and peace must go hand in hand. At one point, a white man challenged me,"Why are you, an Asian, a yellow person, involved in the black and white issue?"My answer was then, and is now, that the issues of human rights and racial justiceand reconciliation are not black and white issues alone. When the basic rights of anypeople are trampled upon, it is an issue for all of us.
    One day during a demonstration, the police arrested us. We spent a night inthe city jail. When I returned to my office at the university, someone hadplaced a dish of jellybeans on my desk. There were some white jellybeans andsome black jellybeans--and one yellow jellybean, a symbol of our unity for jus-tice and peace.

On the other side

These experiences led me to look at the Korean situation in a new way. When Ileft home as a refugee, I was full of hostility and enmity. I saw myself as one of theoppressed. Martin Luther King's ideas on the key to history made me begin to see anew role for myself.
    In the spring of 1978, I had the chance to make my long-dreamed-of visit backhome to North Korea. The opportunity arose through a contact in the NorthKorean Embassy in Cairo, while I was visiting Egypt. I had to decide on thespot, without previous planning and without consulting my family in theUnited States. My visit might cause problems for my younger brother who was inSouth Korea.
    I was filled with both excitement andanxiety as I boarded a plane from Cairo to North Korea via East Germany andMoscow. When I arrived, two of my sisters were at the airport to meet me. It was28 years since we had seen each other. I cannot begin to describe the emotions oftearful joy we shared. I learnt that my mother had passed away eight yearsbefore. She had waited in vain for 20 years, longing to hear something abouther two sons.
    The hours I spent with my sisters onthat visit were a dream fulfilled for me-- a dream which has been denied to count-less others. Today there are some 10 million people still separated by the divisionbetween North and South Korea. These people live each day knowing nothingabout their loved ones on the other side.

Ministry of reconciliation

This concern for reuniting separated families is the first thought which emergeswhen I think about the ministry of reconciliation in Korea. Korean political reali-ties have made it almost impossible for families to seek information about thosethey are separated from. This intense longing is a tangible bond between Kore-ans on both sides of the demilitarised zone. The agony of not knowing, yearafter year, what has happened to those we love, is one of the supreme humantragedies of our time.
    There are only 150 miles between thecapital city of North Korea, Pyong Yang, and the capital city of South Korea, Seoul.In a world where we can pick up a telephone and call any place at any time, it isalmost unthinkable that such a tragic situation still exists.
    Secondly, I have long wondered how we can reduce tensions, avoid war, andfind a peaceful resolution to the hostilities between North and South Korea. Havinggone through the Korean War and seen its tragedy, I am convinced that theremust never be another war in Korea.
    Deeply broken relations on the Koreanpeninsula have caused alienation and estrangement, which has been costly forall Koreans. At the same time, there have been earnest efforts to build bridges ofreconciliation and peace. The power of the desire to be reunited as one peopleshould not be underestimated.

Seeking peaceful engagement

Since my unexpected visit to North Korea in 1978, I have made 23 visits to North and South Korea. Many peoplehave contributed to opening up contacts in North Korea, through visits andthrough relief donations, as the people there have faced desperate food shortagescaused by floods and drought.
    The ministry of reconciliation is oftencostly, difficult and risky. And yet, through our efforts, new relations becomepossible. We have come a long way from those days of intense hostility and enmi-ty, and yet we still have a long way to go. Two years ago, in June 2000, we werejubilant to witness the summit meeting of President Kim Dae Jung of SouthKorea and Commander Kim Jung II of North Korea, and their resolve to re-establish relationships between North and South Korea.
    There is also an urgent need to normalise diplomatic relations between theUnited States and North Korea. The previous US administration made strongefforts to open up new channels of communication with North Korea and hadbegun to build a new relationship of cooperation between the two nations.
    The current administration has not continued on this path. President Bush'sremark on "the axis of evil" in his State of the Union speech was truly unfortunate.His negative rhetoric and open hostility set back the improved relationshipbetween the United States and North Korea. It is critically important that theUnited States return to a policy of peaceful engagement, rather than seeking a militarysolution in dealing with North Korea.

The importance of dreams

The Confession of 1967 of the Presbyterian Church (USA) stated, "The Church,in its own life, is called to practise the forgiveness of enemies and to commendto the nations as practical politics, the search for cooperation and peace. Thissearch requires that the nations pursue fresh and responsible relations across everyline of conflict, even at a risk to national security, to reduce areas of strife and tobroaden international understanding."
This vision presents us with two important tasks:

Our continuing commitment and struggle for racial justice and reconciliation.
Our continuing commitment and struggle for peace and reconciliation individed, war-torn regions and countries, like Korea.

I have a dream that some day a delegation from North Korea and a delegation from South Korea will gather together in a spirit of true reconciliation and peace.

Syngman Rhee is a Professor at the Union Theological Seminary and Presbyterian School of Christian Education in Richmond, Virginia. He has served as President of the National Council of the Churches in the USA (1992-94) and Moderator of the Presbyterian Church (USA) (2000-2001).
This text first appeared at http://www.forachange.co.uk/oct02/firstperson.htm and is reproduced here with permission from the author.