Faith leaders tout citizen outreach to DPRK

• Tweet

WASHINGTON, March 1 (UPI) -- Korean faith leaders arrived in Washington to promote citizen engagement with North Korea, which has agreed to suspend its nuclear activities.

Venerable Young Dam of the Jogye Order, Korea's largest Buddhist group, led a multi-faith delegation to North Korea in September, the first visit approved by the South Korean government since the 2010 shelling of Yeonpyeong Island by Pyongyang.

The Rev. George Rhee, a Christian minister, runs the Love North Korean Children, a U.K. charity. Since 2001 he has set up bakeries in North Korea that feed 9,000 children daily with plans to expand into 26 cities.

They are to outline their work at a forum Thursday on Capitol Hill with bipartisan congressional sponsorship that will discuss multi-faith engagement and Track II diplomacy on the Korean Peninsula.

The U.S. State Department announced Wednesday today that "the United States is prepared to take steps to increase people-to-people exchanges," in its relations with North Korea.

The Global Peace Festival Foundation, one of the co-sponsors of the forum, is founded by Hyun Jin Moon who is also chairman of News World Communications, which owns UPI.