03/08/2019 South Korea (International Christian Concern) – South Korean Cardinal Andrew Yeom Soo-Jung, archbishop of Seoul and apostolic administrator of Pyongyang, celebrated the 1,201st Mass for reconciliation and unity of the Korean people last Tuesday on the eve of Lent.

He addressed those in attendance during the liturgy calling for prayers for reconciliation and peace on the Korean Peninsula. Most importantly, he called for prayers for “our northern brothers and sisters” afflicted by “extreme poverty” and without any “freedom to serve God,” according to Asia News.

The Mass comes at a time after the recently concluded Trump-Kim Summit in Hanoi, Vietnam seems to yield no positive results towards denuclearization and reduction of tensions. It also commemorated the 10th anniversary of the death of Cardinal Stephen Kim Sou-hwan, who established the Committee for National Reconciliation and started the services for reconciliation and unity of the Korean people in 1995.

Cardinal Yoem shed light to the North Koreans during his speech, “My thoughts go to our northern countrymen who are denied justice and peace, under the yoke of nuclear weapons, afflicted by extreme poverty, and therefore unable to live a truly human life, in a way worthy of a human being. My thoughts go above all to the People of God in the North who have no freedom to serve God.”

North Korea is ranked top on the list by religious persecution watchdog as the most difficult place for Christians to live. Christians have to meet in secret in order to avoid surveillance that could subject them to arrest, hard labor, imprisonment, torture, or death.

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