S. Korean Buddhist leader to visit N. Korea

SEOUL, Jan. 28 (Yonhap) -- The leader of the Jogye order, South Korea's largest
Buddhist sect, will travel to North Korea this weekend to promote religious
exchanges amid sharpened military tension across the border, his office said
Thursday.

In the four-day trip to Pyongyang starting Saturday, Rev. Jaseung will meet with
leaders of the Buddhist Federation of Korea, the North's body of the religion, to
explore ways of "reinforcing Buddhist exchanges and other non-government
exchanges between the Buddhist sects of the two Koreas," the Jogye Order said in
a statement.
The main agenda includes how to operate the Singye Temple on Mount Kumgang on the
North's east coast. The temple reopened in 2007 after five years of renovations
supported by the Jogye order but soon became off-limits to South Korean tourists
because of a shooting incident at the mountain.
A South Korean female tourist was shot dead by a North Korean solider there in
July 2008, and Seoul promptly halted the Mount Kumgang tour program.
"Our initial idea was for monks from the South and the North to jointly reside
there and operate the temple, but there were differences between the two sides
and ultimately it became out of the question after the tourism was suspended," Yu
Chul-ju, a spokesman of the Jogye order said.
The visit comes as tensions have risen high across the western maritime border
after North Korea fired a barrage of artillery into seas near their maritime
border for two days despite warning shots from the South. North Korea said the
firing was part of a regular exercise and vowed to continue it.
hkim@yna.co.kr
(END)

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