(Vatican Radio) Rising tension on the Korean Peninsula has many in South Korea worried
about a resumption of conflict in the region. In weeks of escalating verbal attacks,
North Korean leader Kim Jong Um has threatened nuclear strikes on his neighbor and
the United States. The Catholic sisters of Notre Dame have been present in South
Korea for many years. South Korean sister Emma Kim, now in Rome, told Tracey McClure
that her fellow sisters in Seoul are watching events unfold with some trepidation. “I’ve
been contacting our sisters in (South) Korea, in Seoul. They are safe, they feel
ok, but some anxieties are growing… you cannot hide it. But we have been living with
these threats for over sixty years so we are used to it. How many times has North
Korea bullied us, threatened us with possible war?” On the other hand, she reflects
that it’s a positive thing that people in South Korea are going on with their daily
routines as usual: “It’s a good sign as well.” Our sisters and people generally,
she says, view the latest violent rhetoric as “routine.” “This time,” she admits,
“it has escalated a lot of it, which causes some anxiety in South Korean people.” Sr.
Emma says she believes the young North Korean leader is upping the war rhetoric because
he’s a new leader who must show his muster to the military and to his population –
plus, he wants to test South Korea’s new leadership, for the first time in the hands
of a woman, President Park Geun-Hye. Listen to Tracey McClure’s interview with
Sr. Emma Kim who also speaks of how the Catholic Church collaborates with the South
Korean authorities to welcome refugees coming from the North: