wfn.org | Former ambassador urges bishops to seek Korean peace

[NewsDesk <NewsDesk@UMCOM.UMC.ORG>]

March 17, 2000  News media contact: Joretta Purdue ·(202)
546-8722·Washington     10-21-35-71BP{148}

NOTE:  A photograph is available with this report.

WASHINGTON (UMNS) - A former ambassador to South Korea has encouraged United
Methodist bishops to continue seeking a change in U.S. foreign policy toward
North Korea.

"There is no problem that can't be worked out if you sit down and talk long
enough; and no problem that can be worked out without talking about it," the
Rev. James Laney told a group of United Methodists on Capitol Hill.

The former ambassador participated in a March 15-16 briefing for United
Methodist leaders. Participants included a six-member delegation from the
Council of Bishops, which had passed a resolution in the fall calling for
continued humanitarian aid to North Korea and initiatives for communication
and peace; several members of the Committee on Reunification of the National
Association of Korean-American United Methodist Churches; and staff members
from several church agencies.

Communicating with North Korea has been difficult because the United States
is one of several countries technically still at war with the Democratic
People's Republic of Korea, following the conflict waged on the Asian
peninsula from 1950 to 1953. 

Laney experienced a call to the ministry while serving as a soldier in Korea
from 1947 to 1948, and later returned as a Methodist missionary after
completing college and seminary. He was named an ambassador in 1993, while
president of United Methodist-related Emory University in Atlanta, and
served in South Korea until early 1997.

As ambassador, Laney arrived in Seoul shortly before an international crisis
related to the North Koreans developing a plutonium-based nuclear program.
With no hot line or any direct communication, messages were passed through
other parties and were open to misunderstanding, he said. The situation was
tense.

The United States was determined not to have North Korea develop into a
nuclear power, Laney said. Kim Il Sung, the longtime dictator in North
Korea, had said that he would regard any embargo as an act of war and
threatened to turn Seoul into a sea of fire, Laney recalled. North Korea had
enough long-range artillery pointed at Seoul to do that, he said. Two
senators sought permission to visit North Korea to negotiate but could not
get visas.

However, former President Jimmy Carter had been invited to North Korea two
years earlier, and the invitation was still open. Three days of hard
negotiating brought about a deal. North Korea would freeze its nuclear
program if the United States dropped a request for a United Nations embargo.
Other compromises were also reached related to the United States providing
energy to North Korea.

Laney stressed the importance of face-to-face negotiations. Carter was able
to give a face to the U.S. government and its people, he said.

In 1998, North Korea sent a missile over Japan. Although many experts now
believe it was a failed satellite launch, the event led to much talk about
installing a missile-defense system, which would have led to an arms race
throughout Asia.

"We are so strong," Laney commented. "Our power is enormous. I'm talking
about our destructive capacity. We don't need to bang around. We don't need
to be truculent or belligerent. We need to be firm and patient."

He praised the 1999 report by William Perry, a special adviser to President
Clinton, as an opportunity to move U.S. policy beyond a "Cold War
mentality."  

Laney said that when he went to Korea, he thought reunification was the
answer to the problems there. Then he came to believe that Korean Americans
want reunification more than the people in South Korea. He hopes now to see
help flowing from South to North Korea as a brother-to-brother arrangement
between equals, he said.

"We've got to get away from demonizing," he insisted. "The Cold War is
over." It is important to treat other nations with dignity, he said.

The North Korean version of history is different from that of the West, said
Eric Weingartner, who lived in North Korea for 26 months as the World Food
Programme's liaison. It is a closed community shaped by its experiences,
including the Japanese occupation at the beginning of the 20th century,
carpet bombing of its cities during the Korean War and separations that
remain 47 years later in 10 million families, he said.

Dramatic food and energy shortages there threaten the people's health and
welfare, Weingartner said. He cited a nutritional survey that showed 30
percent of the children between 12 and 24 months old were malnourished.
This, at a time in life when the brain is still developing and the immune
system is emerging, could leave some permanently disabled, he added.

He cited three major causes of North Korea's difficulties: loss of trade
partners due to the breakup of the Soviet bloc; the death of Kim Il Sung in
1994, leaving many important government posts vacant for the three years of
mourning; and devastating natural disasters, beginning with a series of hail
storms in 1994, floods in 1995 and 1996, and drought in 1997. In addition,
much of the agricultural land and equipment is worn out; many factories have
closed; and roads and other infrastructure are in need of replacement.
 
"Economic recovery requires a durable peace," he told the United Methodists.
"Food aid definitely saves lives" and is helping open the door to dialogue. 

Chong-Ae Yu, a consultant with the Carter Center in Atlanta, offered
recommendations for the future. She suggested that the Clinton
administration devise a comprehensive package for North Korea that includes
a multilateral approach focusing on normalization. 

Currently, North Korea is eligible only for U.S. humanitarian aid because it
is on the list of countries supporting terrorism. She said she would like to
see a peace treaty take the place of the armed truce implemented in 1953 and
to see U.S. troops in South Korea take on a peace-keeping role.

North Korea needs security and a small Marshall plan to help it recover, she
said. Estimates of those already dead by hunger-related causes range from
300,000 to 3 million, out of a population of only 23 million, she noted. If
the United States does not lead this effort, no other country will help, she
said.

David Shear, deputy director of the Office of Korean Affairs at the
Department of State, told the group that North Korea has become impossible
to ignore. It can destabilize Asia and threaten U.S. borders, he observed.
Congress has taken a strong interest and continues to explore the situation.
The U.S. bureaucracy is working on lifting the sanctions per President
Clinton's order last September, he explained.

Peter Brooks, principal adviser for East Asian affairs to the Republicans in
the House International Relations Committee, outlined a more pessimistic
view based on CIA reports. Emphasizing that he was voicing only his own
opinions, he expressed concern about North Korean missile-building
capability and noted that gas masks have been issued to U.S. personnel and
dependents in Seoul.

Miriam Young of the Asia Pacific Center for Justice and Peace encouraged the
bishops to continue their efforts to have the United States engage North
Korea in such a way as to hear what that country has to say. At some point,
she said, South Korea needs to set its own policy in regard to North Korea
independently of the United States.

After a day of briefing, the bishops spent several hours visiting their
senators and representatives to outline the content of the council's
resolution and share their hopes for a fresh and peaceful approach to the
needs of the Korean peninsula.

# # #

*************************************
United Methodist News Service
Photos and stories also available at:
http://umns.umc.org