Six-Party Churches to Monitor Nuclear Talks
Churches from around the world accepted a proposal to organize the churches of six countries to monitor the next six-party talks on the Korean Peninsula nuclear issue.
The proposal was made by the Rev. Dr. Samuel Kobia, WCC general secretary, during his keynote address last week during a World Council of Churches conference in South Korea in which he called for churches in the United States, Russia, China, Japan and the two Koreas to persuade their governments to continue talks to resolve the conflict on the peninsula.
"We have come a long way since the epoch when discussion of reunification was considered an offense, and time has proved that the churches' principled stand on this issue was prophetic," said Kobia, according to WCC. "But today the struggle for peace and reunification has to continue in a much more complex geopolitical landscape."
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Churches from the six nations were encouraged to consider organizing a parallel forum of churches including those from Canada, Scandinavia and the European Union at the next round of six-party talks. The forum would serve as a "watchdog" of the talks.
The six-party talks began in 2003 with the aim of finding a peaceful resolution to the security concerns posed by the North Korean nuclear weapons program. The talks resulted from North Korea withdrawing from the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. There has been little progress until recently when North Korea agreed to shut down its nuclear facilities in exchange for much-needed fuel aid.
Korean churches have requested the WCC facilitate the parallel meeting of churches and asked churches around the world to "recognize that peace and unification in the Korean peninsula is a regional issue with global implications," according to WCC.
More than 300 participants from Korea and 27 countries in Asia and around the world attended the event last week. The Korean churches represented included those belonging to the National Council of Churches in Korea and the Christian Council of Korea.
In addition to discussion on the churches' role in the reunification of Korea, the WCC held another conference in Seoul during its weeklong visit to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the 1907 Pyongyang great revival – which is widely regarded to have established the base of Korean Christianity.
The WCC general secretary concluded his trip to Korea by visiting the families of the Korean hostages held by the Taliban in Afghanistan on Tuesday afternoon. He assured the families that Christians around the world were praying for the safe and quick release of the hostages.
