Consultation seeks peace, humanitarian aid in North Korea
6/19/2003
Chaplain
Mitchell Lewis conducts a worship service in the desert for soldiers of
the Army's Third Infantry Division during Operation Iraqi Freedom. A
UMNS photo courtesy of Chaplain Mitchell Lewis. Photo number 03-409,
Accompanies UMNS #327, 11/5/03
No Long Caption Available for this Story
Chaplain
Mitchell Lewis conducts a worship service for soldiers of the Third
Infantry Division in a maintenance tent in Kuwait before the war with
Iraq. A UMNS photo courtesy of Chaplain Mitchell Lewis. Photo number
03-408, Accompanies UMNS #327, 11/5/03
No Long Caption Available for this Story
United
Methodist Chaplain Jerry Sieg, with the Army's Third Infantry Division
in Ft. Stewart, Ga., left his wife Karlyn and their four children on
Jan. 25 to serve in Operation Iraqi Freedom. "Prior to my going, there
was assurance I would come back," he says. "All the time I was over
there, seeing all the violence going on around me, Psalms 91 the verse
'you will only see it with your eyes but it will not come near you,
'kept coming back to me." A UMNS photo by Mike DuBose. Photo number
03-404, Accompanies UMNS #327, 11/5/03
No Long Caption Available for this Story
WASHINGTON (UMNS) - Participants in a consultation
on the Korean crisis have called for immediate negotiations to find a
peaceful solution.
Religious leaders from South Korea and the
United States joined with humanitarian workers June 16-18 to seek
immediate, international conversation focusing on a nonviolent
resolution of the crisis with North Korea - a crisis fueled both by that
country's pursuit of nuclear weapons and by the need of its people for
humanitarian aid.
"A clear statement from the White House that
North Korea will not be attacked will establish a political climate for
progress in negotiations," the group said in the consultation's message.
The approximately 80 participants included many staff members
of United Methodist Church agencies and those of other denominations.
Hosted
by the National Council of Churches of Christ in the USA and Church
World Service, a U.S.-based international relief organization related to
more than 30 denominations, the event included participation of the
Korean National Council of Churches. But the North Korean delegation was
prevented from attending when the SARS crisis halted flights to Asian
capitals, where the North Koreans had planned to obtain visas to visit
the United States.
"We have been concerned that (U.S.) foreign
policy has moved from diplomacy to pre-emptive strikes," said the Rev.
Bob Edgar, NCC president and a United Methodist, at the conclusion of
the consultation.
The people of faith have a vital role to play
in concluding a non-aggression pact and speeding humanitarian aid to the
people, he asserted, echoing the consultation's statement.
"The
military solution is no solution at all!" declared the Rev. Syngman
Rhee, a former NCC president and past head of the Presbyterian Church
USA. He said this was the collective opinion of the consultation.
Rhee
emphasized the consultation was a significant event in 20 years of
cooperation on peace and unification issues between the National Council
of Churches of Christ USA and the Korean National Council of Churches.
The
Rev. Jong-Hwa Park, an officer of the National Council of Churches in
Korea, said that South Koreans have been living in an inter-Korean peace
that was fragile but much better than an atmosphere of confrontation
and hostility. The Koreans' peaceful co-existence is being threatened by
the nuclear crisis of North Korea and the pre-emptive attack policy of
the United States, he said.
His people desire a nuclear-free
Korea, he said. He expressed the hope that a three-way negotiation among
North and South Korea and the United States could achieve this goal.
The people of both countries do not want a repeat of the Korean War,
which devastated the peninsula between 1950 and 1953, he attested.
The
Rev. Victor Hsu, a senior adviser with Church World Service and
organizer of the consultation, described the "ongoing humanitarian
crisis" in North Korea he had seen on a trip there in April.
"I can testify to the deteriorating health (and) malnutrition among the North Korean people," Hsu said.
He
noted that Church World Service was among the first to respond in 1995,
at the beginning of the current Korean crisis. During this period, the
organization with the help of the churches has provided $4.3 million in
assistance. With each shipment, a CWS delegation went to North Korea to
see the distribution of the relief supplies, he noted.
"The
contribution of Church World Service has helped reverse the trend in
stunted growth and in wasting among children," Hsu said, referring to a
nutrition report issued by UNICEF and the World Food Programme in March.
With his input and that from other participants, and citing
reports from United Nations officials, the consultation strongly
encouraged the international community and churches to provide health
and agricultural assistance to the people of North Korea, and
particularly asked the U.S. government to be generous in its aid.
Edgar
said the consultation was part of an NCC emphasis on peacemaking that
began last year and initially dealt with trying to avert a war in Iraq.
"What
we've discovered over the last nine months is that there are two
superpowers: One is the United States and the other is world opinion,"
he said. "Government needs to do its role, but the people of faith need
to stand up and do their role" - to cut across boundaries and work for
peace and reconciliation.
Korean News
