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UNCLAS SEOUL 001294 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SIPDIS 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PGOV PREL KS
SUBJECT: ROK'S RELIGIOUS LEFT/RIGHT/CENTER AND NORTH KOREA 
 
REF: A. SEOUL 55 
 
     ¶B. 05 SEOUL 5300 
 
SUMMARY 
------- 
 
¶1.  (SBU) Korea's religion-based organizations have played a 
supporting, yet often critical role at key junctures in the 
nation's modern political history, from lending its 
organizational structure to farmers' uprisings in the 1800s 
to adding moral weight to the cause of democracy in the 
1980s.  Today's religion-based organizations appear to be 
maintaining that tradition.  Armed with sizable bank accounts 
and extensive networks, organizations such as the National 
Council of Churches in Korea (NCCK), the Christian Council of 
Korea (CCK), and the Jogye Buddhist Sect have been active in 
shaping public discourse and policy on issues such as 
North-South engagement, North Korean human rights, and 
U.S.-ROK relations.  END SUMMARY. 
 
A HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVE 
------------------------ 
 
¶2.  (SBU) Religious Studies Prof. Ryu Sung-min of Hanshin 
University explained to poloff that Buddhism, Confucianism, 
and Christianity were the main streams of belief shaping 
Korean culture and politics.  At critical junctures, 
religion-based groups came to the fore of Korean history, 
such as the Donghak Movement (1800s) and the Pro-Democracy 
Movement (1960s-1980s).  The leaders of Donghak -- an 
indigenous religion promoting a liberation theology based on 
Buddhism, Taoism, Confucianism, and Christianity -- mobilized 
tens of thousands of peasants around the country to protest 
aristocratic exploitation, and the movement is credited as 
the beginning of anti-Japanese/anti-foreign nationalism, 
which led to the birth of the March 1 Independence Movement 
of 1919.  In the Pro-Democracy Movement, students, many of 
whom were Christian, led the charge against Korea's military 
dictatorships.  Catholic and Protestant church groups avoided 
direct involvement in student activities but provided 
critical support by allowing their churches to be used as 
sanctuaries for dissidents.  They also provided financial and 
legal assistance for many imprisoned students and their 
families and backed the popular culture movement, in which 
radical intellectuals published "subversive" literature, and 
artists created work filled with progressive political 
content. 
 
RELIGIOUS ACTIVISM AND INFLUENCE TODAY 
-------------------------------------- 
 
¶3.  (U) Recent surveys show that among the ROK's population 
of 48 million, there are 15 million Christians (12 million 
Protestants, 3 million Roman Catholics), 10 million 
Buddhists, and 0.4 million others.  Twenty-two million said 
they practiced no religion.  Korea's numerous Catholic, 
Protestant, and Buddhist organizations span the political 
spectrum, depending on a given church/temple's history and 
leadership.  However, religious doctrine per se does not 
appear to dictate political behavior.  Gallup Korea's Chief 
of Election Research Heo Jin-jae told us that Gallup had, in 
the past, asked voters their religious affiliations during 
exit interviews but stopped this practice after the 1992 
presidential election because there was no discernible 
correlation between a person's religion and voting patterns. 
Rather, it remained the case that regional affiliation, 
followed by age, was the best predictor of voting behavior, 
Heo said. 
 
¶4.  (SBU) Notwithstanding that Korea's religious communities 
do not exercise the same degree of political cohesiveness or 
clout as America's "Christian Coalition," they do constitute 
a respectable political force.  According to Prof. Kang 
Won-taek of Soongsil University, churches were able to play 
an important supporting role in the Pro-Democracy Movement 
because Christians were ubiquitous, cohesive, organized, 
well-funded, and respected throughout Korean society.  Thus, 
the authoritarian governments were reluctant to interfere 
with church activities for fear of a middle class backlash, 
which viewed the church as a symbol of moral respectability. 
Using their unique status, Korea's Christian community 
weighed in for freedom and democracy.  Indeed, Cardinal 
Stephen Kim Sou-hwan is credited with having been 
instrumental in the democracy movement because he not only 
spoke out against human rights and other abuses during the 
Park Chung-hee regime (1961-79), he also decreed that 
Catholic churches would give sanctuary to fugitive 
pro-democracy activists. 
 
¶5.  (SBU) Although the Catholic Church in Korea has receded 
into the background of the political landscape in recent 
years, Cardinal Nicholas Cheong Jin-suk stated that the 
Korean Catholic community would continue to provide 
humanitarian aid to North Korea.  (NOTE: As the Archbishop of 
Seoul, Cheong is automatically the apostolic administrator 
for Pyongyang. END NOTE.)  The Diocese of Seoul has been 
providing over USD 1 million in food and humanitarian aid 
annually for more than ten years.  The Cardinal, however, 
expressed reservations about the one-sided aid provisions. 
Korea's Protestant churches, in contrast, have been even more 
active over the years.  In 2005, Korean Protestant churches 
sent more than 14,000 missionaries abroad, making the ROK the 
second largest source of missionaries after the United 
States.  Moreover, a number of these churches have ventured 
beyond mere proselytizing in order to advance their agendas 
for two distinctly political missions: North-South 
reunification and North Korean human rights. 
 
CHRISTIAN LEFT 
-------------- 
 
¶6.  (SBU) Among the most politically active religion-based 
groups is the National Council of Churches in Korea (NCCK). 
Founded in 1905, the NCCK is the largest progressive 
Christian umbrella group and claims that its member churches 
account for 5 million of the ROK's churchgoers.  (NOTE: Our 
sense is that this number is exaggerated. END NOTE.) NCCK 
Secretary General Rev. Paik Do-woong said the organization 
 
SIPDIS 
was well-known for working among Korea's urban poor, farers, 
and laborers during the 1960s and 1970s and for fighting the 
military dictatorships.  Conscientious Christians had formed 
the group, Paik said, and claimed among its numbers dissident 
leaders (and later presidents) Kim Young-sam and Kim 
Dae-jung.  Today, the NCCK continued its human rights work by 
advocating labor rights, gender equality, and, most 
importantly, Korean reunification. 
 
¶7.  (SBU) A strong and early supporter of the North-South 
engagement policy, the NCCK actively supports the ROKG's 
position that North Korea's human rights situation is best 
addressed through practical measures such as food aid and 
economic cooperation.  Like other progressive elements 
supportive of engagement with the DPRK, the NCCK believes 
that those calling for more vocal criticism of North Korea 
are politicizing human rights in order to bring about regime 
change.  It is highly critical of the USG's "hardline" 
approach to the DPRK nuclear issue and actively seeks to sway 
public opinion through demonstrations, op-ed pieces in 
newspapers and on the Internet, and educational seminars. 
 
¶8.  (SBU) Progressive religion-based organizations target 
North Korea through indirect methods such as organized 
prayers.  Since 1988, the NCCK and the Korea Christian 
Federation (KCF), the NCCK's partner in North Korea, have 
observed the annual joint "South-North Common Prayer Sunday 
for Peace and Unification" on the Sunday preceding the August 
15 National Independence Day.  The KCF is one of four members 
of the DPRK's Korean Religionist Council, which also includes 
the Korea Buddhist Federation, Korean Catholic Association, 
and Korean Cheondoist Association.  The Korean Religionist 
Council was founded in 1989 under the pretext of peaceful 
reunification but most critics believe the DPRK government 
formed it as a means to secure foreign aid. 
 
CHRISTIAN RIGHT 
--------------- 
 
¶9.  (SBU) Christian Council of Korea (CCK) leads Korea's 
Christian right.  Established in 1989, CCK Human Rights 
Committee Chairman Rev. Soh Kyung-suk claimed the CCK 
accounted for 80 percent of Korea's Protestant churches. 
(NOTE: As with figures provided by the NCCK, a likely 
exaggeration. END NOTE.)  He regretted the conservative 
churches' silence during the military dictatorships, but 
stated the organization was now actively pursuing issues from 
the center.  One of its goals, Soh said, was to organize a 
Christian-based voter awareness group that was as active as 
the U.S. Christian Coalition, but different in that it would 
focus on social and economic issues, not moral issues. 
 
¶10.  (SBU) The CCK and other conservative religious groups 
represent a counterbalance to far-left ideologies, Rev. Soh 
stated.  For example, concerned that the new Roh 
Administration was anti-American, the group organized a 
peaceful 100,000-person-strong demonstration in 2004 to show 
support for the U.S.-ROK alliance.  It was the largest 
pro-American gathering Korea had seen in decades.  More 
recently, the CCK flexed its muscle in response to the 
government's passage of a law that would create greater 
external oversight of private schools, many of which are 
affiliated with Christian churches (REF A).  Working in 
conjunction with the conservative Grand National Party (GNP), 
the CCK organized numerous mass demonstrations in Korea's 
major cities to demand that the government retract the law. 
Although the government ultimately prevailed, observers 
pointed out that the episode demonstrated anew the religious 
right's ability to mobilize its forces.  It also reaffirmed 
the CCK's alliance with the GNP. 
 
¶11.  (SBU) Rev. Soh asserted the CCK and other conservative 
Christian groups forced the North Korean human rights 
situation into the public spotlight through vigils and 
large-scale international conferences.  CCK recently worked 
with the Freedom House to organize last year's "Seoul Summit: 
Promoting Human Rights in North Korea" (REF B).  Funded by 
the USG per the North Korea Human Rights Act, the conference 
attracted thousands of international human rights 
campaigners, Christian activists, politicians, and North 
Korean defectors.  By contrast, progressive religious and 
civic groups such as the NCCK studiously avoided, if not 
outright condemned, the conference as unhelpful to 
North-South reunification.  Critics have accused conservative 
Christians of using North Korean human rights to evangelize 
and of sending converted North Koreans back to the DPRK to 
secretly proselytize. 
 
SIPDIS 
 
¶12.  (SBU) Religion-based organizations operating at the 
grassroots level in China are almost all conservative 
Christian groups, said Prof. Kang.  An estimated 1,500 South 
Korean missionaries are deployed evangelizing secretly and 
illegally among the Han Chinese, ethnic Korean Chinese, and 
North Korean border crossers in China.  (NOTE: 
Korean-American missionaries are also very active in China 
and sometimes work in concert with Korean missionaries. END 
NOTE.)  Missionaries and religion-based organizations have 
helped North Korean border crossers with food, shelter, and 
transit to South Korea via third countries at a cost of 
approximately USD 2,000-3,000 per beneficiary.  (NOTE: Many 
missionaries absorb the entire cost while some professional 
brokers can charge as much as USD 10,000. END NOTE.)  In 
South Korea, religious groups run social welfare programs 
targeting resettled North Koreans.  Jayoutuh ("Freedom 
Place"), for instance, a Christian affiliated educational 
organization, offers academic and social assistance for 
resettled North Korean students who face unique educational 
challenges due to lost classroom time while living in China 
and third countries or difficulty adjusting to a South Korean 
curriculum. 
 
BUDDHIST CENTRISTS 
------------------ 
 
¶13.  (SBU) Korean Buddhists generally maintain the most 
centrist political and social positions.  Of the 28 Buddhist 
sects, the Jogye Order is the wealthiest and largest.  It 
controls a yearly budget of about USD 23.3 million and 
oversees 15,000 monks and nuns affiliated with 3,000 temples 
across the country.  The Jogye Order contributed USD 145,000 
to the ROKG's Hurricane Katrina relief package and, because 
of its influence, its leaders are sometimes seen in the 
company of senior Korean politicians.  (NOTE: The Venerable 
Bubjang (1941-2005), head of the Jogye Order from 2003-2005 
and responsible for getting the first nun on the Jogye 
Council, called on former Special Envoy for the DPRK nuclear 
issues Joseph DeTrani and EAP A/DAS David Straub to discuss 
North Korea.  When he passed away last fall, President Roh 
Moo-hyun stated that Bubjang had "contributed greatly to 
North-South reconciliation and cooperation through his visits 
to North Korea." END NOTE.) 
 
¶14.  (SBU) The Venerable Hae-yong, Deputy Director of Social 
Affairs for the Jogye Order of Korean Buddhism, explained 
that Buddhists were less vocal compared to their Christian 
counterparts and thus were viewed as being apolitical. 
Although Korean Buddhism had become a "quiet" religion with a 
focus on lifestyle, Buddhists were also a force to contend 
with because of its potential to mobilize. 
 
¶15.  (SBU) In recent years, Buddhist activism has increased. 
Good Friends is a Buddhist-based NGO committed to promoting 
North-South reconciliation and refugee assistance.  It 
assists North Korean defectors in the ROK and North Korean 
border crossers in China with humanitarian aid.  In addition, 
Good Friends publishes reports based on its own independent 
research in China conducted along the PRC-DPRK border to 
assess the realities of life in North Korea and the North 
Korean displacement situation in China.  The ROK National 
Assembly has called on the group to testify on the status of 
North Koreans in China. 
 
COMMENT 
------- 
 
¶16.  (SBU) A usually quiet, but often potent, presence in 
Korean politics, Korea's religion-based organizations -- 
especially evangelical Christians and the Buddhists -- have 
emerged as stakeholders in the debate over North-South 
relations, North Korean refugees, and North Korea human 
rights.  As these issues assume greater prominence in the 
public consciousness, Korea's religion-based communities hope 
to seek a higher profile in Korean politics and expand their 
assistance to North Korean border crossers.  They are also 
likely to intensify their outreach to like-minded 
organizations in the United States, China, and elsewhere. END 
COMMENT. 
VERSHBOW