SEOUL (UCAN): The International Domestic Workers Federation was awarded the 20th Bishop Tji Hak-soun Justice and Peace Award at a ceremony in Seoul in South Korea on March 14.

Myrtle Witbooi accepted the award on behalf of the union of domestic workers at Sejong Centre for Performing Arts.

SEOUL (AsiaNews): South Korea has opened the process of beatification and eventual canonisation for two groups of martyrs; John Baptist Yi Byeok and his 132 companions; and Bishop Francis Borgia Hong Yong-ho, the first bishop of Pyongyang and his 80 companions.

Both groups have cleared the first hurdle and are at the servant of God stage.

SEOUL (UCAN): At the annual meeting held in Incheon, South Korea, the bishops of Japan and Korea expressed concern that a decision by Seoul to deploy a United States of America (US) anti-ballistic missile system and the political swing to the right in the Land of the Rising Sun presents a real threat to peace in northeast Asia.

SEOUL (UCAN): South Korea is currently going through a politically tumultuous time, with the long standing demand for the president, Park Geun-Hye, to step down.

A Hong Kong person named Ching resident in South Korea for some time, says in an article posted by UCAN that the darkness and distress Park brought with her in 2013 has worsened since a political crisis broke out in mid-October. In a televised address, Park said she is now permitting the National Assembly to decide her fate.

SEOUL (UCAN): An official delegation representing the French Catholic Bishops’ Conference visited South Korea from October 14 to 23 to pay homage to various holy places, including Galmaemot and Saenamteo, where nine French missionaries were beheaded during the 1866 Byeongin Persecution.

A total of 66 people, including Jean-Pierre Cardinal Ricard, from Bordeaux, and five other bishops made the trip to strengthen ongoing relations between the local Korean and French Churches.

Coadjutor named for troubled Guam

AGANA (CWN): Bishop Michael Byrnes, an auxiliary from Detroit, has been named as coadjutor of Agana in Guam; where Hong Kong-born Archbishop Savio Hon Tai-fai has been standing in for Archbishop Anthony Apuron, who has been charged with multiple sex-abuse complaints.

Seoul (UCAN): Around a hundred Catholic young people walked 248 kilometres through Korea’s demilitarised zone (DMZ) while also praying for reconciliation and peace between the North and the South.

Young people from Korea and around the world began the DMZ Peace Pilgrimage of Youth at Goseong on August 13 and finished at Imjingak Park in the city of Paju, on August 19.

SEOUL (AsiaNews): The Commission for Reconciliation between the Koreas to the north and south of the Demilitarised Zone has expressed its opposition to a proposed Terminal High Altitude Area Defence system being proposed as a joint project between the governments in Seoul and the United States of America.