Rev. Olav Fykse Tveit, the secretary-general of the World Council of Churches, led the delegation on a mission to mediate peace between North Korea and the outside world. In Pyongyang, they met with Kim Yong-nam, the president of the Supreme People’s Assembly’s Presidium serving as the ceremonial North Korean head, as well as the North’s Christian leaders.

The North Korean side had “great awareness or responsibility that this process must be Korean-led in order to focus on the Northeast Asian regional context and in order to make (an) impact on peace and denuclearization of the whole world,” the Rev. Ferguson said, referring to the delegation‘s meeting with Kim.

Peter Prove, WCC’s director for international affairs, echoed the view.

North Korea’s “completely unified commitment to implementing the Panmunjom Declaration” was communicated to the delegation during their meeting with Kim, Prove noted.

“President Kim also remarked, agreeing (with) us on the issue of denuclearization, that denuclearization that started and stopped with the Korean Peninsula would not work, but it must be a global process for denuclearization,” he said, citing the North Korean parliamentary leader.

In addition, Kim also pointed to his understanding of “the church’s commitment to peace and reunification” of the Koreas, affirming that the church will continue to be very important in the process of promoting and implementing the inter-Korean declaration, according to Prove.

President Moon Jae-in and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un jointly adopted a set of historic agreements, labeled the Panmunjeom Declaration, in their summit on April 27 to end hostilities on the peninsula and work together toward a peace treaty to formally end the 1950-53 Korean War and attain the denuclearization of the peninsula.

The Christian leaders said the North Korean capital is now in a festive mood in the wake of the April summit’s results.

“When I visited two years ago, the atmosphere in Pyongyang was (of) great fear and concerns because of fears about possible United States military attacks and concerns that they were in a situation where things were spiraling out of control,” Ferguson noted. “And today, the atmosphere of hope and thanksgiving and yearning for reunification is live, and you can feel it everywhere.”

Prove added, “We all could perceive distinctively more positive feelings in all of the contacts we had in North Korea, whether with our church partners or with other representatives, including President Kim.”

Their trip did not involve any specific discussion on food assistance or other humanitarian support for North Korea, the church officials said. But “there’s a clear mutual commitment to increasing cooperation in the area between the (two Korean) governments and through Red Cross families, and also through other relationships,” Prove said.

“One of the big obstacles to increasing support has been the increasingly strengthened sanctions regime,” he said. “We hope and pray that with this new moment for peace ... that the sanctions regime can be reduced and eliminated and this form of cooperation, along with all other forms of inter-Korean or international engagement with North Korea, can flourish.” (Yonhap)