The purpose of this study is to establish effective missions policies
for North Korea missions. The Korean church as an ethnic church must make
North Korea missions, which includes the unification of Korea and the
evangelization of North Korea, its...
The purpose of this study is to establish effective missions policies
for North Korea missions. The Korean church as an ethnic church must make
North Korea missions, which includes the unification of Korea and the
evangelization of North Korea, its first priority. The author has been aware
of problems due to the fact that various activities have been carried out for
North Korean missions, but because of differences in understanding of North
Korea, these activities have not gained synergy but have been disunited and
disorganized. Therefore, it is thought that in order to focus on the capabilities
of the Korean church and the global church for North Korean missions, the
first task is to make an integrated framework of understanding about North
Korea.
Unification cannot be missions itself. However, unification can give
the opportunity to spread the gospel all over North Korea. Therefore, the Korean
church taking a leading role for overcoming the division is an essential act of
Christian missions. With this conviction, the writer researched Konvivenz as
an alternative for achieving the unification of the Korean peninsula.
The word Konvivenz comes from a word in Spanish meaning "living
together (coexistence)", and is the basic structure and central principle of the missiology of the German missiologist Theo Sundermeier. Konvivenz is
characterized by a community that learns from each other, helps each other,
and celebrates together. Building this kind of Konvivenz community on the
Korean peninsula is the clearest goal, policy, and strategy for North Korea
missions in order to heal the people's wounds that have intensified in the midst
of the pain of division, and for the Korean people to complete Jesus' Great
Commission. If North and South Korea can build a Konvivenz community
together on the Korean peninsula, it will surely be a great opportunity and
blessing for the Korean people.
What must be resolved first in order to reach this objective is
overcoming the differences in understanding of North Korea that are deeply
rooted in the Korean church and society. This is the cognitive dimension of
Konvivenz . Understandings of North Korea divided into conservative and
liberal views have not been able to find points of agreement in approaches to
unification and mission strategies. Moreover, even though they have the same
objective of restoring North Korea with God's love, in reality hostility and
jealousy over strategies and methods have been repeated. The writer has
understood this as a chronic problem in the field of North Korea missions.
In order to solve this problem, this study has introduced the concept
of Hiebert's epistemological shifts. According to his definition, we can discover
that the existing external approaches to North Korea have been built upon the
foundation of the epistemology of positivism, which became the basis for
modernism, competitive individualism, and western colonialism through
insisting on the objectivity of truth. And intrinsic approaches are based on
the foundation of instrumentalism, which focuses on the relativity of truth,
challenges the arrogance of western thought and cultural egocentrism, and
easily accepts differences. This discovery shows the necessity of an
epistemological shift regarding North Korea in order to resolve conflicts within
South Korea.
Hiebert asserts the necessity of an epistemological shift in order to
witness to Christ effectively in the midst of a modern pluralistic world. He
compares how various epistemological methods show different responses to the
nature of knowledge and knowledge systems. As a result of his study, he
presents critical realism as the approach that should be taken to post-colonial
missions. Dealing with cultural, religious, and theological pluralism with a deep
conviction of the truth, but abandoning arrogance and paternalistic attitudes,
is the attitude of the critical realist sharing the gospel in the midst of a pluralistic
society. The critical realism rediscovered by Hiebert through missiological
insights is a foundation for a new approach to creatively integrate existing
approaches to North Korean society and resolve conflicts within South Korea,
and the present writer calls this mission anthropological alternative the
"hermeneutical approach".
The hermeneutical approach is an approach that allows North and
South Korea to be seen at the same time on the basis of the value and
appropriateness of unification, rooted in national consciousness which reminds
us that North and South are the same ethnic group. Therefore, this insight
can provide a useful framework for restoring the community of the Korean
people through understanding the North Korean society more objectively.
People who understand North Korea through the hermeneutical approach have
the tolerance to recognize the older generation who experienced the Korean war,
North Korean defectors' hatred toward the Kim Jong-Il regime, or left-leaning
progressive ideology as aspects for understanding North Korea more accurately.
Therefore, the hermeneutical approach makes possible a creative synthesis of
the understandings about North Korea of the South Korean society and church
that have been divided between the conservative and liberal viewpoints.
Also, a site where this cognitive dimension of Konvivenz can develop
into the practical dimension is economic cooperation between North and South
Korea, especially the Gaesong Industrial Complex. North Korean society on the whole is experiencing a paradigm shift in which economic factors are rising
to importance out of the existing serious political bias. This kind of change
in North Korea is being forced for the survival of the Kim Jong-Il regime rather
than from personal choice. And if we judge that North Korea's change is a
change from below through active unofficial economic activities using bribes,
and also that the North Korean authorities ar