Vatican's line on North Korea: Protect the vulnerable

By JOHN L. ALLEN JR.
Rome

A senior Vatican official on Thursday outlined the Holy See’s diplomatic position on North Korea in the wake of its recent nuclear test, as well as ongoing negotiations involving the United States, China, and other global powers on implementation of United Nations-approved sanctions upon the isolated Pyongyang regime.

Building on earlier statements of John Paul II and Benedict XVI, the Vatican’s position was expressed in three points by Monsignor Pietro Parolin, Undersecretary for Relations with States:

•t“Seek a solution to the crisis by peaceful means and, hence, the encouragement of negotiations (either the multilateral Peking ones – the so-called six party talks – which could be resumed, or new types organized within the ambit of the UN by the Security Council)”;
•t“Respect the commitments undertaken by all parties to achieve the denuclearization of the Korean peninsula (a goal which, for the security of South Korean and Japan, cannot be abandoned)”;
•t“Guarantee access to international humanitarian aid for the most vulnerable members of the North Korean population, independently of the kind of sanctions which one may decide to impose on Pyongyang to force it to return to the negotiating table.”

Parolin spoke to an Oct. 19 Rome meeting of the "North Korea Country Group" of Caritas Internationalis, a Vatican-based confederation of 162 Catholic relief, development, and social service organizations worldwide.

Parolin told the group that the Holy See intends to place special emphasis on “defending the access of the North Korean people to humanitarian aid from the international community.”

Fr. Paul Hwang, National Director of Caritas Corea, a Catholic relief agency based in Seoul, South Korea, who has traveled in North Korea ten times in the last four years, said hunger is an especially urgent problem.

"Most North Koreans have only breakfast and dinner, while lunch may be no more than a bowl of water with some salt," he said. "The people I see are constantly tired."

Maryknoll Fr. Edward Hammond, an American priest who has lived in South Korea for 46 years, and who has traveled in North Korea 16 times, said his experience in the countryside confirms that there is "entire generation stunted by hunger."

Parolin also offered a brief overview of recent attempts by the Vatican to establish contact with the notoriously insular North Korean government.

Since 1987, he said, the Vatican has worked through its representative at the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization, or through the Italian Foreign Ministry, to open lines of communication. Initially those efforts seemed to bear fruit, Parolin said, as Vatican delegations visited North Korea six times. The last such visit, however, took place in 2002, and they have not resumed.

In talks with the North Koreans during these visits, the Vatican pressed for authorization of the presence of a Catholic priest in Pyongyang to provide pastoral care for foreign Catholics, as well as the tiny local Catholic population. The request was rebuffed, and has not since been reviewed.

After 2002, the only formal contact with the Vatican came via the North Korean embassy to Italy, which relayed a note of congratulations upon the election of Benedict XVI in April 2005.

“It is a pity that the web of relations which had been woven thanks to the visit of the six successive Vatican delegations has been interrupted, and that up to now it has not been possible to renew these relations,” Parolin said.

“This is the desire of the Holy See, which will not fail to avail itself of the occasions which arise to do this,” he said.

Recently, Parolin said, Vatican officials had hoped to meet with North Korean representatives who were scheduled to come to Rome for a seminar on nuclear energy sponsored by the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, but it was suspended following the nuclear tests.

Parolin asked the Caritas experts on North Korea to lend whatever assistance they could in helping to restore contacts.