Two Koreas' Buddhists urge Japan to return historic relics

SEOUL, May 22 (Yonhap) -- Buddhists leaders from South and North Korea jointly
called on Japan on Friday to return historic relics that were taken away during
the Japanese colonial occupation of the peninsula, Pyongyang's media said.
The Buddhists adopted a joint statement at a religious service in Pyongyang's
Kwangbop Temple, in which they "strongly urged Japan to ... unconditionally
return Korean historic relics it had looted away," the Korean Central News Agency
said.
South Korean Buddhists from the major Jogye Order, led by the Venerable Hyemun,
are visiting Pyongyang as part of their regular trips to discuss ways to locate
and bring back historic relics taken away during Japan's 1910-45 occupation.
The communist North has Buddhist temples and Christian churches in Pyongyang, but
outside watchers question its claim of religious freedom.
Japan returned a historic stone monument it had looted a century ago to South
Korea in 2005, and the South transferred it to its original home in North Korea's
town of Kilju.
The monument named "Bukgwandaecheopbi," honoring a Korean general who defeated
Japanese invaders in the 16th century, had been left unattended at the Yasukuni
Shrine, a sanctuary in Tokyo dedicated to Japan's war heroes.
hkim@yna.co.kr
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