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'Honoring Otto Warmbier
How should the United States respond to the detention and subsequent death of an American student who visited North Korea? By John Feffer, July 3, 2017
http://fpif.org/honoring-otto-warmbier/'

'CANADA DAY CELEBRATIONS TAKE PLACE IN PYONGYANG
by Miranda Weingartner, CanKor, 5 July 2002

Pyongyang must surely rank as the most unlikely place for an official celebration of Canada Day. Yet seven Canadians and some 400 North Koreans attended a function in this North Korean capital to do just that. For the first time since the founding of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) and Canada’s participation on the opposite side in the Korean War, representatives of the two countries attended a “mass rally” to celebrate their new relationship.
“Today we are celebrating Canada Day, the holiday of the Canadian people, together with our close Canadian friends at a time when understanding and friendship between the peoples of Korea and Canada are being strengthened,” said Mrs. Hong Son Ok to a packed theatre in Pyongyang’s House of Culture.
Hong, acting as the meeting’s host, is Vice-Chair of the Korean Committee for Cultural Relations with Foreign Countries. Last September she visited Canada as head of a delegation of DPR Korean women attending an international women’s conference in Canada.
In her speech she also expressed “our deep thanks to the Government and the people of Canada for their donation of much humanitarian cooperative material to our people, who suffered great natural disasters, for the stabilization of their lives and the removal of the aftereffects of the disasters.
With Hong on the podium were Mr. So Ho Won, Department Director of the Committee for Cultural Relations with Foreign Countries and Vice-Chair of the Korea-Canada Friendship Society, and Mr. Kim Jong Nam, General Secretary of the Korea-Canada Friendship Society.
The Canadians on the podium were Mr. Sven Jurschewsky, Senior Counsellor at the Canadian Embassy in Beijing, Ms Joanne Khouryati, Desk Officer for DPRK at the Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade (DFAIT) in Ottawa, and Mr. Erich Weingartner, General Secretary of the Canada-DPR Korea Association. Behind them were mounted side-by-side the Canadian and DPRK flags. The meeting opened and closed with the playing of both national anthems.
Preceding this formal event, Korean and Canadian participants viewed a display of Canadian books in the lobby. Language and reference works, historical and art books with photography of Canadian scenery, and a selection of novels by Canadian authors were eagerly thumbed through by Koreans in attendance. The books are a donation of the Canadian Government, and will be formally presented to the Grand People’s Study Hall in Pyongyang by Canada’s Ambassador Joseph Caron later this summer.
“It is clear that our hosts wished the event to be significant,” says Dr. Don Rickerd, Acting Director of the Asian Business Studies Program at the Universities of Toronto and York, who joined the Canadian delegation as Vice-Chair of the Canada-DPR Korea Association. "Inviting such a large group of people to the celebration was perhaps not without risks for them. Although the interactions between ourselves and the DPR Korean public were severely circumscribed, the presence of Canadian books and persons was itself a message of new openings and the possibility of change.”
In his speech responding to that of Mrs. Hong, Weingartner reiterated the same theme.
“We still have a long way to go for a more complete mutual understanding,” he said to the assembled audience. “Our two societies are very different from each other. Our systems of governance, of economics, of politics, of the way we look at the world, are very different. It will take much patience and good will for our people to grow closer to each other. In order to fill our relationship with real and solid content, we will need much mutual education and the building of trust.”
The five-member delegation of the Canada-DPR Korea Association spent the week from 25 June to 2 July in Pyongyang and Mt. Myohyang, discussing future cultural and other exchanges with their hosts.'

'FIRST EVER CANADA DAY CELEBRATIONS TO BE HELD IN DPRK
by Miranda Weingartner, CanKor, 13 June 2002

The Pyongyang-based Korea-Canada Friendship Society will host a series of informational events on Canada Day, 1st July 2002. The idea for such an event surfaced when Canada’s envoy to the DPRK, Ambassador Joseph Caron, presented his credentials in December last year.
It is the first time the Canadian holiday has been observed in the DPRK, and the first public event relating to Canada to take place there since normalization of relations between the two countries in February 2001.
DPR Korea’s Ambassador-designate Pak Gil Yon will present his credentials to Governor General Adrienne Clarkson in Ottawa exactly one week earlier. Ambassador Pak is also Permanent Representative of the DPRK to the United Nations in New York.
Heading to Pyongyang for Canada Day is a five-member delegation of the recently founded Canada-DPR Korea Association, under the leadership of its General Secretary, Erich Weingartner. It is the first time that the Association will meet with DPR Korea counterparts to discuss proposals for people-to-people cultural and sporting exchanges, opportunities for Koreans to study in Canada, and other projects of mutual interest.
Also expected to attend the celebrations are diplomats from the Canadian Embassy in Beijing and staff of the Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade in Ottawa. Exhibits at the Canada Day events will represent Canadian cultural, artistic and commercial interests, with special emphasis on the multi-cultural nature of Canada, which includes a large Korean-Canadian community.'

'2017 Easter Joint North-South Prayer

Both the National Council of Churches in Korea (NCCK) of the South and the Korean Christian Federation (KCF) of the North worked together to prepare this Joint Easter Community Prayer.

Lord, you who have defeated death and risen,
In this season where we remember the joys of resurrection,
Thank you for showing the marvels of life this spring through the vitality of green life.
Yes Lord!
This world was created beautifully in God’s eyes,
Who also sent his one and only Son, Jesus,
To save those who have sinned against You.
Lord, You have shown us how to live as God’s children,
And Your Spirit has led us not only through life,
But also through history.
But Lord,
The sorrows of the 70-years ethnic separation,
Still lingers since the time of our North/South division.
We have lost the hopes of ‘becoming one with God’,
And have sought after earthly goods instead of peace.
Pity us, Lord.
Clear away the pain-filled memories of separation,
And also the rusty barbed-wires.
Help the North and the South fulfill a life of harmony and peace,
As the farmer readies himself to till new land and plant new life,
Prepare us Lord.
Lord,
Help us first open our firmly closed hearts,
So that we can embrace each other with tenderness.
Let us sow the seeds of tolerance, love and service,
And with God’s blessings,
May that land bear much fruit,
And bless our people with a life full of joy and harmony.
God of life,
Help the churches of the North and the South,
To defeat this cold death-like reality.
God of peace,
Help us work together with one united mind,
To fulfill the dreams of unification.
Help us remember the days when the North and the South once were one,
To better live into a world of harmony and peace.
God of life,
In this season of resurrection where we await the signs of spring,
Help us see the hopes of new life,
Sprouting in the cold barren land.
God of justice,
In this land where Your glory awaits,
Let the rivers of justice flow,
Bringing forth Your plans for us.
In Jesus name, the one who has defeated death and is risen again,
Amen
April 16, 2017'

'Letter from Rev. Ri Jong Ro, Vice-Chairman of the (North) Korean Christian Federation to Rev. Dr. Chris Ferguson, General Secretary of the World Communion of Reformed Churches:

Dear Rev. Dr. Chris Ferguson,
Warm greetings from Pyongyang.
We received a copy of the letter which you sent to the Secretary of U.S. Department of State on March 3, 2017.
You mentioned in your letter to the Secretary of U.S. Department of State that you witnessed personally the gravity of the situation prevailing on the Korean peninsula due to the U.S. hostile acts against the DPRK during your Pyongyang visit in September last year, and strongly urged the U.S. Administration to end its provocative DPRK-targeted military exercises destabilizing the situation on the Korean peninsula and take decisive steps towards replacing the Armistice Agreement by a peace treaty and lift the unreasonable sanctions imposed upon the DPRK.
We highly appreciate your righteous activities for opposing the U.S. anachronistic hostile policy towards the DPRK and achieving peace and reunification on the Korean peninsula as well as peace and security in the world.
We will strive harder to intensify the ecumenical solidarity movement for Korea’s reunification among churches in south Korea and various countries, keeping close contact with you in future too.
For the present time, we sincerely hope that you would significantly arrange the events for Korea’s reunification during WCRC’s 26th General Council meeting to be held in Leipzig Germany in June 2017 and adopt the final declaration of WCRC’s 26th General Council meeting clarifying the realistic issues to be able to contribute to peace and reunification on the Korean peninsula, and thus make your 26th General Council meeting an important occasion in encouraging the ecumenical solidarity movement for Korea’s reunification to be more vigorously staged throughout the world.
We will send our KCF delegation to your WCRC’s 26th General Council meeting.
Taking this opportunity, we would like to express our deep thanks again to your energetic activities for peace and reunification on the Korean peninsula and sincerely pray that the special and great grace of our Lord would be upon your work for preparing the WCRC’s 26th General Council meeting.
With the best wishes in Christ.

Ri Jong Ro
Vice-Chairman
Korean Christian Federation
March 16, 2017'

Notes

Do YOU know the answers?February 7, 2011
What could we be missing by focusing on the succession issue?September 29, 2010
CanKor editor interviewed on Cheonan incidentAugust 4, 2010

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