wfn.org | WCC NEWS: Korean reunification: churches to review prospects

["WCC Media" <Media@wcc-coe.org>]

World Council of Churches - News Release
Contact: + 41 22 791 6153 +41 79 507 6363 media@wcc-coe.org 
 
For immediate release: 13 October 2004

CHURCH REPRESENTATIVES FROM NORTH AND SOUTH KOREA TO REVIEW
PROSPECTS FOR KOREAN PEACE AND REUNIFICATION

Church representatives from North and South Korea as well as
from other parts of the world involved in the issue of Korean
reunification have been invited to a 17-21 October consultation
organized by the World Council of Churches (WCC) and the
Christian Conference of Asia (CCA) in Tozanzo, Japan. 

"Korean Peninsula - a flashpoint in North East Asia" is the
theme of the meeting, that will review and analyse present
developments in the Korean Peninsula, and is expected to produce
a common plan of action for advocacy at the national, regional
and international levels for peace and reunification of the
Peninsula.

The risk of nuclear proliferation, including its implications
for the region and its people, is on the agenda. Participants
will also discuss the prospects of the six-party talks between
North and South Korea, Russia, Japan, China and the US that
started in 2003 and are working towards a nuclear-free Korean
Peninsula. The meeting also aims at strengthening the churches'
commitment to peaceful reunification by improving their mutual
communication and opening possibilites of joint prayer,
reflection and action.

The WCC and CCA leadership is hopeful that the meeting will
contribute to defusing tensions and overcoming the present
stalemate in the Korean peninsula. The results of the meeting
will be widely shared with WCC and CCA member churches as well as
with governments engaged in the six-party talks.

At the meeting, former US ambassador to South Korea Dr James
Laney will offer an assessment of the six-party talks and the
possiblities of an amicable settlement. Former director of the
WCC Commission of Churches in International Affairs (CCIA) Prof.
Ninan Koshy will review the major geopolitical trends in Asia two
decades after Tozanzo, and Prof. Han Bae Ho will address the
prospects of bilaterial relations with North and South Korea. 

The WCC has had a strong involvement in Korean affairs, and
actively supported the development of human rights and
democratization during military dictatorship in the South. In
1984, as a result of a consultation organized by WCC in
cooperation with the CCA, an ecumenical initiative for peace and
reunification in Korea was put in place. The upcoming meeting
commemorates its 20th anniversary. 

In August this year, the WCC executive committee issued a
statement on Korea, and the CCIA recently decided to give
priority regional focus to the Korean Peninsula until the WCC's
9th Assembly in 2006. 

The executive committee statement on Korea is available at:
http://www.wcc-coe.org/wcc/press_corner/korea-korea.html

Press releases about the executive committee meeting in Seoul
and WCC general secretary's recent visit to Korea are available
at: 
http://www2.wcc-coe.org/PressReleases_en.nsf/exco-seoul2004 

Additional information: Juan Michel,+41 22 791 6153  +41 79 507
6363
media@wcc-coe.org 

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The World Council of Churches is a fellowship of churches, now
342, in more
than 120 countries in all continents from virtually all
Christian
traditions. The Roman Catholic Church is not a member church but
works
cooperatively with the WCC. The highest governing body is the
assembly,
which meets approximately every seven years. The WCC was
formally
inaugurated in 1948 in Amsterdam, Netherlands. Its staff is
headed by
general secretary Samuel Kobia from the Methodist church in
Kenya.