 
|
|
|
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
Monday, June 19, 2000
By Steve Levin, Post-Gazette Staff Writer
Yesterday was the Korean United Presbyterian Church's annual picnic, and the four dozen or so attendees were forced to enjoy the grilled pork and beef, rice and vegetables while jammed inside a North Park shelter on the rainy afternoon.
One topic at the once-a-year gathering was last week's once-in-a-lifetime summit in Pyongyang, North Korea, between Kim Jong Il of that country and South Korean President Kim Dae-jung. As a result of the three-day summit, the two countries agreed to discuss allowing the reunions of millions of families separated by more than five decades of enmity as a possible first step toward unification.
"We believe it's a very big step, not in terms of unification but in terms of peaceful existence between the two nations," said Young J. Park, a church member who is a professor in the business and economics department at California University of Pennsylvania.
But, Park, added, "while I'm supporting this gesture, I still don't trust Kim Jong Il. All of a sudden he's acting as if he's a really good guy."
The Rev. Sang Wan Chun, the Ross church's pastor, led a service at the picnic site before the picnic. His topic was not the summit, but he plans to speak about it the next time he is in the pulpit, on July 2.
"My sermon will be called 'God's Way of Unification,' " said Chun. He planned to adapt it from the prophecy of Ezekiel, which foretold the unification of Israel after its Babylonian exile.
"The two countries should be united together," he said. "God will unify them."
No estimate of the Korean-American population in Pittsburgh was available, but according to a 1995 study by the Center for Multiethnic and Transnational Studies, there are more than 54,000 in Pennsylvania.
Nearly a third of South Korea's 45 million people -- an estimated 14 million people -- are Protestant and Catholic. The remainder of the population practices Buddhism or one of several other religions including Confucianism, Unification, Baha'i and Shamanism.
Locally, Korean-Americans attend a variety of churches, including Catholic, Methodist and Lutheran, in addition to Presbyterian. The Ross Park Drive church's services are conducted in Korean, with a simultaneous English translation for the benefit of non-Korean spouses.
Gary Blackburn, who married Kim, a Korean, after his U.S. Air Force duty in South Korea in the mid 1970s, said he thought the general feeling among the Korean community was that rapprochement between the two countries should be approached slowly to avoid the type of resentment and difficulties faced by West Germany after it reunified with East Germany in 1989.
"West Germany is still choking on East Germany," said Blackburn, who lives in Wexford.
The prospect and process of improved relations between the countries is significant, he said, "because it's the psychological importance of knowing that we can meet without political ideology and barbed wire between us."
Others, however, were less sanguine or less interested. While the majority of the Korean United Presbyterian Church's members are first generation Americans, many of their children have little knowledge of the Korean War, and less of the Russian-U.S. standoff in 1948 that led to the original division of Korea into two countries.
"Personally, I don't care that much," said Brian Lee, 20, a junior at Carnegie Mellon University. "I do care, but I don't pay attention to it."
"My mom has family there. ... They can't see each other," said Liz Cho, 19, a student at Penn State University. Cho said she had never seen a photograph of her relatives.
"I don't think [unification] would affect us," she said. But, she added, "I would love to have them reunited."