Here we introduce an interview with *Kang Hui Nam, a noted south Korean priest who is concurrently chairman of south Korean headquarters of Pomminryun (Pan-National Alliance For the Reunification of the Fatherland), which was carried by south Korean monthly magazine Mal (January 1999 issue).
Imprisoned five times for his pro-reunification activities, priest Kang reaffirms his belief in One-Korea and once again speaks out against the U.S. presence on the Korean Peninsula.
Below excerpts:
Pardoned free on parole last October, two month after since his arrest on Aug. 18, 1998 for attending the Aug. 15 grand reunification gala, Mr. Kang greeted this interviewer at his apartment in Chonju city, North Cholla Province, which had a floor space of 13 pyong (a pyong is 3.954 square yards.)
Jailed Five Times for Serving as God's Guardian Dog Q: Why were you arrested under the regime of Kim Dae Jung, with whom you marched side by side for decades for democracy?A: “Because the political forces were left untouched when the regime was changed. I see no changes in public security organs such as, prosecution, National Intelligence Service (formally Agency for National Security Planning) and the secret task force.”
Up until now, Mr. Kang was arrested five times in his life. You cannot tell about Kang's life and philosophy without referring to his prison life as he was jailed a couple of times whenever the regime was changed, except for Roh Tae Woo's.
Q: What motivated you to wage a democracy movement?
A: “Nobody influenced my democracy movement. Upon my conscience as a priest, I only tried to play a role of Isaia, (an outspoken prophet described in The Old Testament) who spoke out against the power.”
The outspoken Kang was given a 10-year sentence after he was arrested in 1977 in accordance with the “Emergency Measure No. 10” (Actually, Mr. Kang served for three years as he was freed after Pak's assassination in 1979.)
When Kang was serving at Kwangju Prison, his eldest son Se Hyon was imprisoned in Chonju Prison. Strange coincidence, they shared the same prison No. 1967. In November 1986, Mr. Kang was again thrown behind iron-bar after he gave a lecture at Chonju University.
Detained at Chonju Prison, Mr. Kang waged a 40-day hunger strike against then president Chun Du Hwan who tried to perpetuate his presidency by fiddling with the constitution.
“Having seen Chun Du Hwan making his last-ditch effort to cling to power, I was ready to risk my life. I waged my hunger strike praying to God -- This prison chamber was given me by the history of the Korean nation. I will make this place the room of democracy at the cost of my life. Please help me. It was a miracle that feeble man like me survived for 40 days without food.”
Released again after the victory of the “1987 June Struggle,” (which brought the first direct election to south Korea) Mr. Kang narrowly escaped imprisonment under the regime of Roh Tae Woo, but arrested in July 1994 as he tried to go to Pyongyang to pay respect to the late President Kim Il Sung.
On July 16, 1994, Mr. Kang went to Panmunjom holding a paper reading: “Get out of my way! I must go to the north to make a call of condolence.” He was arrested on the spot.
Mr. Kang was freed on probation at the first trial but detained on Nov. 30, 1995 along with 30 officials of Pomminryun. They were sentenced to three years.
God Will Help Us If We Act Now It was quite unusual that a man of over 60 should have been sent to prison.
Q: Aren't you afraid of being imprisoned?
A: “It is not the imprisonment that I fear but the shadow of myself. I also fear the pen points of historians. I wonder if there is a place other than prison where the scholars out of office can settle down. This is my conscience.”
The “fear of shadow” means that Mr. Kang is fear of God and his own conscience that he can never betray.
“There are many shadows which make me ashamed ? a shadow of renegade, a shadow of just talk, and a shadow of self-indulgence.”
Mr. Kang fears the “pen points of historians” more than his own shadow. He used to tell his comrades fighting for democracy that “People should not be afraid of gun points but pen points of historians, who, though hiding now, are recording the history of the Korean nation.”
Because Mr. Kang well fears the pen points of historians, he can take pains to leave a true history to posterity. For that purpose, he accepts prison life and chooses the arduous road.
“I don't think reunification comes soon. How can I expect it as long as Yankee devils stay here? However, I do fight for reunification as it is the ultimate goal of the Korean nation. Even though I could not give my sons and daughters reunified Korea, I could leave them my thoughts and spirits as well as true history.”
I wonder if Mr. Kang is fighting only out of his faith in God?
“Immediate reunification, of course, is impossible. But reunification comes true at the moment when the people's wish reach its zenith. This is expressed in four Chinese characters -- `Che Tak Tongshi'
Deriving from a Buddhism thought, this refers to a chick and a chicken cooperating each other to help a chick break its egg open.
`Che' indicates a 20-day-old chick trying to break the egg open with its tiny yellow bill. `Tak' describe a chicken helping its chick get out of the egg with its strong bill. `Tongshi' means acting simultaneously.
In this sense, we are likened to a chick fighting a uphill battle for reunification, and God is a chicken helping us get united as one for the reunification cause.”
These days, however, Mr. Kang feels very lonely as many of his comrades left him one by one. Behind the scene is the former Kim Yong Sam regime which outlawed Pomminryun as “enemy-benefiting.”
Q: Some point out that Pomminryun's line is not people-oriented. What do you think?
A: “Originally, Pomminryun had many activists. As the crackdown on us intensified, they left us. We could always change our line so that the Seoul authorities might ease its suppression upon us, and the people would rejoin us. But we can't. We can't abandon our principle simply because people don't follow us. I believe that people will someday return to us. A regime is shortlived but the nation moves on continuously.”
Q: what is Pomminryun's key demand?
A: “It is quite common, that is, to reunify Korea independently, peacefully with nation united as one on the basis of the July 4 1974 North-South Joint Statement for Reunification. We also urge the regime to uphold the confederal reunification formula and the pullout of the U.S. troops.”
Not until the start of the Kim Dae Jung regime, priest Kang did not admit the “Republic of Korea” and its “Presidents” by throwing away his resident registration card since 1961 when Pack Chung Hee took power by a coup, according to the magazine.
In his book published in 1989 under the title of “So-Called Resident Registration Card,” priest Kang wrote as follows:
“It is 28 years since I gave up my so-called resident registration card. Why? Because I have no `President' in this country nor any `government.' As for me, only `Korean nation' exist in this country. I am a people of stateless. In a democratized society, the President is elected in accordance with the constitution which is made by the people.”
Released from jail in the Mar. 13 amnesty last year, Mr. Kang, after 37-year-long rejection, finally admitted the Kim Dae Jung regime as “people's regime” and had his resident registration card issued, but only found himself betrayed when he was arrested last August.
U.S. Presence in South Is Obstruction of Reunification Mr. Kang calls the U.S. “Yankees” with no hesitation even in mass rallies. To him, who often uses the word “Yankees”, the ROK is still a colonial state. Up until 1980s, lots of activists had regarded south Korea as a colonial state, but in the 1990s, very few insisted on that.
“As long as the Yankees are stationed in south Korea, the country is not a true sovereign state. When talks with the north were held at Panmunjom, the Stars and Stripes was always raised, not Taeguk flag (south Korea's flag). North Korea deals with the U.S. and not with the south,” Mr. Kang said.
“I think south Korea is still under military neo-colonialism. It is my opinion that the condition of the 36 year-long Japan’s colonial rule and the present situation of south Korea are essentially the same.”
He thinks that the Kim Dae Jung administration would not have been established without the support of the U.S.
“Kim Dae Jung knows well that he can't keep his presidency without close intimacy with America. Therefore, he shows a pro-American character more than anybody else. I can see it in the fact that he made a speech in English in the U.S. Congress. I regard him as the most innovative man among former south Korean's rulers, but I think it is impossible for Kim Dae Jung to become the first president of a reunified Korea. It is because the reunification of Korea can't come true so long as the U.S. troops stays in the country.”
Real Christian Should Leave Bible Mr. Kang likes to break with the mannered Christianity. He does not carry the Bible and not go to the church. He does not use the word, “Jehovah” which appeared in the Bible.
Mr. Kang, who bade a farewell to Jehovah, also threw the Bible away after he resigned as a pastor ten years ago.
“As a university student, I studied the reason why Jesus didn’t use the name ‘Jehovah.’ Jehovah is the name used by the Jews to call their god.While I was reading the Old Testament, I came to call Jehovah ‘God’ or ‘Lord.’”
“Unless we dismiss the Bible, we can't become true Christians. It is foolish to look for true Christ of two thousands years ago Bible
in the Bible two thousand years ago. One will be a true Christian at the moment when he became a Christian due to the Bible.”
“In my Bible, I only believe the things I can see with my eyes. Everything I can hear is the voice of God. My God speaks to us anytime anywhere beyond the time and exists in love, truth and sympathy.”
Mr. Kang is free from the restraint by the Bible and the church. He believes that, outside the church, there is the real Bible as well as the real Christians. He puts importance on preaching outside the church rather than inside. His radical faith eventually got over Christianity.
“Our God is not the God of Christianity but the God of the universe. He is not only the God of Islam but also the God of Buddhism. Peoples just call him in their own languages.”
With such viewpoints unique to him, Mr. Kang might be seen as heretic. Mr. Kang, however, does not care at all.
“Though I don't read the Bible, my faith is not strange at all. I am continuously talking with God who exists in history. I can't live a single day without God.”
“Those who cry “Oh, God!” or “Lord!” are not true Christians. Those who tread a thorny path are true Christians, and this will be the only way to build God's country. But people often try to take a easy way in life.”
A Lonely Pilgrim Looking for Freedom “I always pray to God that God's country be realized in the country, and I also pray for Pomminryun. In order to realize the God's country, national reunification should be achieved, and in order to achieve the national reunification, we have to push ahead with the Pomminryun activities.”
As Kang’s “innovative” social viewpoints and religious faith is yet to be accepted at home, loneliness always follows him whenever he goes.
“I am a natural-born solitary man. But I also think that solitude is necessary for a man looking for God. Man’s freedom comes true after going through solitude.”
“In that point, I can say that a long-term prisoner who have been jailed in solitary confinement for scores of years is freer than other men.”
Mr. Kang has a pen name “White Stone.”
The name came from a phrase of Revelation to John, Chapter 1, Paragraph 17 in the New Testament, “To him who conquers I will give some of the hidden manna, and I will give him a white stone, with a new name written on the stone which no one knows except him who receives it.”
He is like a pilgrim walking solitarily along the desert road of divided Korea in the twilight years of his life just before his eighties.
He said, “Even if I become a loser before authority, I will be a winner before God, and even if I become a criminal before authority, I won't be a criminal before history, it is my faith.”
Copyright © 1998 The People's Korea. All rights reserved.