북한불교의 이해와 남북 불교 교류의 과제

Abstract

With the Korean Peninsula frozen over the North Korean nuclear issue, the North’s Korean Buddhist Federation sent a “congratulations.” Under the situation on the Korean Peninsula, the North’s Buddhist Federation’s move was enough to draw attention. Expectations were high that the move would serve as a springboard for boosting inter-Korean exchanges in the future. However, so far, there have been no moves by the North Korean authorities for talks. This is why it is necessary to take a cool-headed look at the nature of the North Korean Buddhist group first and seek a direction for future development of inter-Korean Buddhist exchanges. For one thing, the North Korean Buddhist group has a character as a business unit for the South. The other is an outside organization of the Workers’ Party of Korea, which promotes the party project through a committee scattered across the country and at the same time manages Buddhist-related cultural assets across the country. Until now, exchanges of Buddhist organizations between the two Koreas began in earnest in the 1990s and have reached the present stage. Buddhism has been recognized as a special area of inter-Korean exchanges that can achieve very significant results depending on the efforts of the two Koreas, apart from political interests, because Buddhism has the cause of traditional culture of the people before religion. In fact, the Korean Buddhist Federation was the first of its kind among religious organizations in North Korea and was mainly involved in anti-South Korean affairs in the early days of its foundation, but it has expanded its scope to include the Unification Foundation Law as inter-Korean activities to include the Unification Foundation Law. It is true that Buddhism in North Korea is still far from being recognized as a pure religion. However, there have also been changes, including the fact that the North Korean authorities have been conducting research on Buddhism, although it is perfunctory. North Korean Buddhism had already lost much of its religious character as the North Korean regime went through a period of socialist transition. So far, none of the religious groups operating in the North have been purely political. Until now, inter-Korean Buddhist exchanges have consisted of almost one-sided support from the South or visits to the North. The one-way nature of future inter-Korean Buddhist exchanges should be corrected and the path to integration should be explored considering diversity. At this point, the Korean Buddhist community should further expand its scope of activities, including the study of Buddhist doctrines and proclamation activities for North Korean defectors.