Unification Church eyes new engagement with NK

A billboard for Pyeonghwa Motors, a joint venture between the Unification Church foundation in South Korea and North Korea, is seen in this undated photo. / Yonhap

The Unification Church Foundation in South Korea has told the government that it intends to fold its joint auto-venture in North Korea, an official said Wednesday, confirming earlier reports.

But the church founded by the late Rev. Sun Myung Moon, appears to want to continue its engagement with Pyongyang, one of the legacies of the reverend.

A source with knowledge of the situation said the foundation was eyeing the distribution sector there after competition with Chinese firms has made its current venture, Pyeonghwa Motors, difficult to sustain.

The church “has expressed its intent to terminate the business,” a unification ministry official said on condition of anonymity.

The deal to sell the Pyeonghwa factory in the city of Nampo is worth some $20 million. Pyeonghwa Motors president Park Sang-Kwon is expected to discuss the details during a visit to the North in mid-December, to be made on the first anniversary of the death of the late North Korean leader Kim Jong-il.

The firm began operations in 2002 and had been producing some 2,000 vehicles annually. Billboards by the auto company are an ultra rare example of advertising in the isolated state.

The source said nothing had been decided yet, but that president Park was mulling the move to the distributing sector.

Despite his staunch anticommunist stance, Rev. Moon offered the North a channel to the outside. The connection gave his church a foothold in the isolated state. <The Korea Times/Kim Young-jin>