N. Korean Christians protest U.S. denial of visas

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The Korean Christian Association, which represents Christians in the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK, or North Korea), has condemned the U.S. authorities for denying a KCA delegation entry into the United States.

The group had planned to travel to Birmingham, Ala., where its members had been invited to participate in the 217th General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church USA.

The PCUSA, with 2.4 million members in about 11,100 congregations, is the largest Presbyterian denomination in the U.S.

A spokesperson for the KCF issued the statement, published by the Korea Central News Agency, condemning the action as “a rude behavior disregarding international practice and etiquette” and a “suppression of religion, as it openly restricted and persecuted the legitimate religious activities of the Korean Christian Federation” and the PCUSA.

The statement continued, “We bitterly denounce the recent action taken by the U.S. authorities as a grave infringement upon the free religious life and rights of Christians and an inhumane behavior … and strongly demand they officially apologize for this.”

The PCUSA had lobbied with the Bush administration to let the North Koreans participate. “I called the State Department four times,” the Rev. Insik Kim, the PCUSA’s coordinator for Asian and Pacific Affairs, told the World. “I called until the last day of our conference.”

Kim said he was unsure as to why the State Department refused the KCA delegation entry. “Does the U.S. State Department ever give you an explanation why?” he asked. “Never.”

The KCA spokesperson said that he believes the denial was part of a campaign to keep up the image of the DPRK as a human rights abuser. “They took this action afraid of the fact that if the truth about the free religious activities of the Christians in the DPRK is known to the U.S. and other parts of the world,” he said, “it might bring to daylight the sheer hypocrisy” of U.S. criticism of North Korea’s human and religious rights record.

“They should not persistently pursue antipathy and confrontation,” he said, adding that such a stance goes “against the trend of the times when people are going for reconciliation and cooperation.”

The KCA, he said, would work with all Christian organizations internationally to build “a peaceful and just new world, and thus fulfill our mission as Christians.”

The KCA’s Central Committee issued a statement saying that it expected that Christians in all countries would not overlook U.S. human and religious rights abuses on other nations, but would fight against them, carrying out “their missionary work.”

dmargolis@pww.org