The National Council of Churches in Korea has expressed its “strong support” for the declaration signed by the leaders of North and South Korea at last Friday’s historic summit in which they agreed to work for complete denuclearisation of the peninsula and for “permanent” peace.
In a statement issued late last week, the NCCK said they “strong supported” the agreement to replace the armistice treaty by a peace treaty by the end of the year and to build a “long-lasting and stable” peace on the peninsula through complete denuclearisation. The NCCK also declared support for the agreement to transform the demilitarization zone into a peace zone, a commitment to cease “all hostile acts” and the agreement to ensure the participation of civilians in the reunification process.
“The NCCK hopes that the agreements are thoroughly enforced to ensure the end of the 70-year-old separation and conflict, and in their stead to bring long-lasting peace in the Korean Peninsula,” the statement said. “Furthermore, we hope that through the North Korea-US Summit next month, there will be permanent peace in the peninsula and we ask that all countries, civil societies and churches actively cooperate.”
Meanwhile, Rev Dr Olav Fykse Tveit, general secretary of the World Council of Churches, said in a statement that the organisation and worldwide ecumenical movement joined with “all people of good will” in celebrating the “historic contributions” made at the summit to the growing movement for peace and reconciliation on the Korean Peninsula.
“The reported commitment by both leaders to actively pursue the replacement of the Armistice Agreement with a Peace Treaty this year – thereby formally ending the Korean War – would, if achieved, be the realisation of a call promoted by the National Council of Churches in South Korea, the Korean Christian Federation in North Korea, and the World Council of Churches for many years, but long dismissed as impossible by political ‘realists’,” he said. “But peace is possible.”
Rev Dr Tveit said that a peace treaty would be only the start, not the end, of “work for a sustainable and secure peace for current and future generations of people in the region”.
“We call for all governments and all people to join in encouraging and strengthening the momentum for peace that today’s events have helped build.”
