A new Catholic "reconciliation" church and centre are to be
inaugurated next week near the border with North Korea to mark the
sixtieth anniversary of the armistice which ended the three-year Korean
War.
The dedication Mass will be celebrated by Cardinal Nicholas Cheong
Jin-suk, Archbishop emeritus of Seoul, on 25 June, the date when war
broke out in 1950.
According to the Korean bishops' conference, the
Penitence and Atonement Church and National Reconciliation Centre is
intended as a symbol of inter-Korean reconciliation, peace and
reunification.
Located in Paju, north-west of Seoul, the project was begun by a
group of North Korean Catholic defectors who purchased a plot of land in
1997.
The Archdiocese of Seoul later took over the initiative and
building started in 2006.
The church is modelled on two Catholic
churches that existed in North Korea before the war, the Seoul-based
Yonhap News Agency reported.