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WCC Assembly Minute on Ending the War and Building Peace on the Korean Peninsula
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World Council of Churches
11th Assembly
31 August to 8 September 2022
Karlsruhe, Germany
Minute on Ending the War and Building
Peace on the Korean Peninsula
The 10th Assembly of the World Council of Churches (WCC) in 2013 in Busan, South Korea, drew the attention of the worldwide ecumenical movement to the ongoing search for peace, reconciliation and reunification of the divided Korean people, and adopted a Statement on Peace and Reunification of the Korean Peninsula. The WCC has intensified its engagement and undertaken many relevant initiatives and actions during the intervening period.
It is 77 years since the division of the Peninsula and its people under the global Cold War system. And despite the signing of an armistice agreement on 27 July 1953, the Korean War still has not been formally ended. Over the past forty years, the WCC has, together with the National Council of Churches in [South] Korea (NCCK) and the Korean Christian Federation (KCF) in North Korea, engaged in and supported dialogue and cooperation for peace, and promoted global ecumenical solidarity for peace on the Korean Peninsula and reunification of its people.
Following the Busan Assembly, a period of escalating tensions was followed by a moment of high hope for peace in the region. However, renewed tensions and increased risk of potentially catastrophic conflict once again prevail.
Carrying forward the heritage of the Busan Assembly in this time of renewed threats to peace in the region, and appreciating the important contributions made by the WCC to the search for peace, reconciliation and reunification on the Korean Peninsula during this inter-Assembly period, the 11th Assembly of the World Council of Churches meeting in Karlsruhe, Germany, therefore:
- urges WCC member churches and partners to renew their solidarity and to actively support and accompany the Korean churches in their advocacy through the Sunday of Prayer for the Peaceful Reunification on the Korean Peninsula, the Ecumenical Forum for Peace, Reunification and Cooperation on the Korean Peninsula (EFK), and the Korea Peace Appeal Campaign – a campaign for ending the war and replacing the 1953 Armistice Agreement with a peace treaty - which aims to collect signatures from 100 million people around the world by the 70th anniversary of the armistice agreement in 2023;
- prays for our Christian sisters and brothers in the Korean Peninsula, that the political reasons for their division from each other will be resolved, and that the peaceful reunification will be achieved.