S. Korean religious leaders to visit Pyongyang in May

Seoul, South Korea - A pan-religious group in South Korea said Tuesday it will send a delegation to North Korea in May to promote inter-Korean religious exchanges.

Forty officials from the Korean Conference on Religion and Peace (KCRP) will visit Pyongyang for four days from May 5. The Korean Conference on Religion (KCR), a religious body in the North, invited the group, the KCRP said.

The KCRP is a group of religious leaders representing seven of South Korea's religions: Roman Catholicism, other Christian denominations, Buddhism, Won Buddhism, Confucianism, the "Chondogyo" indigenous Korean religion, and a group of other indigenous religions.

The South Korean religious leaders are scheduled to visit a number of religious facilities in the North.

A small number of Christian churches and Buddhist temples exist in North Korea, but genuine religious freedom does not exist. The North Korean Constitution also stipulates that religion should not be used for the purpose of bringing in foreign powers or endangering public security.