Loading...
Loading...
Click here if you don’t see subscription options

 

A whistle-stop visit by North Korean leader Kim Jong Il to a church in China is not a sign that the secretive communist regime’s stance toward religion is softening, South Korean Catholics say. Kim visited a Catholic church in Jilin, in northeastern China, during his Aug. 26-30 trip to the country. The church visit immediately sparked speculation that North Korea might relax its rigid stance toward Catholicism and other religions. But Father Baptist John Kim Hun-il of the Korean bishops’ conference was quick to dismiss such speculation. It goes too far to say his visit has a hidden message, he said. “It seems the visit was just part of his trip. North Korea has not given any sign of improving its relationship not only with the Catholic Church but with other religions in South Korea.”

 

Comments are automatically closed two weeks after an article's initial publication. See our comments policy for more.

The latest from america

Los Angeles Archbishop José H. Gomez was one of several community leaders who joined to open the Family Assistance Program, aiding those affected by recent ICE raids.
On Friday, Pope Leo XIV issued a statement on the theme "Migrants, missionaries of hope."
In Steven Spielberg’s “Close Encounters of the Third Kind,” an ordinary electrician has a transcendent encounter—with U.F.O.s, not God.
John DoughertyJuly 25, 2025
A pair of hands opening a thick paperpack book. (iStock/LeoPatrizi)
Many of my acquaintances have given up “reading about something that didn't happen.” But fiction has long-term and concrete value, both mentally and socially.
Cam HealyJuly 25, 2025