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| Rev. Cho Bong-hee / Korea Times photo by Shim Hyun-chul |
By Kim Tae-gyu
Throughout his life, Rev. Cho Bong-hee has shown great interest in helping marginalized people around the world. In particular, he has cared much about poor people in North Korea.
Rev. Cho, who has visited North Korea six times, has a strong belief that the two Koreas should unify as soon as possible so impoverished Northern neighbors can get help.
"Rather than economic considerations after unification, we are required to put the fact first that we are of the same descent and, accordingly, we have to come together once again," Rev. Cho, 60, said.
"Then, the unified Korea, with a population of some 80 million, would give economic benefits to us including huge opportunities for infrastructure investment in the less-developed North."
In achieving unification, Rev. Cho warned against the rising Cold War mentality of pitting the two Koreas against each other. He stressed that the South has to embrace the North.
"That is what true love means," he said.
Along the same lines, Rev. Cho supports the so-called "sunshine policy" of engaging North Korea, not because of its political implication but because of humanitarian concerns.
"The government needs to encourage nongovernmental exchanges between the two Koreas, especially religious ones," he said. "Brisker civilian exchanges would greatly help speed up unification.
"Plus, cultural works are very efficient to bridge the gaps between the two nations. For example, experience tells us that movies involving North Korea affect people there so much."
Rev. Cho noted that the South must prepare for unification in meticulous ways to help children north of the 38th parallel.
"We should develop educational materials to assimilate Northern children," he said. "The tailor-made materials would be very different from those for Southern students.
"‘Hardware' would be unified relatively easily but that is not the case for ‘software.'"
With third-generation dictator Kim Jong-un ruling Pyongyang with an iron hand, there is pessimism about any improvement soon in the South-North relationship.
But Rev. Cho's patience and determination for unification seem never to abate. He believes unification may be an imminent issue, not a faraway dream, with so many putting efforts into the goal.
"Many experts have predicted that it would take two or three decades for the two Koreas to become one again," he said. "But that might happen much earlier than most expect."
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