October 23, 2006VOL. 44, NO. 18Oakland, CA

South Korean bishops urge dialogue, patience

By Catholic News Service

SEOUL, South Korea (CNS) -- Catholic bishops in South Korea have insisted that peace in the Korean peninsula can be achieved only through dialogue and patience, after North Korea announced it had conducted a nuclear test Oct. 9.

The bishops issued their Message for Peace and Reconciliation Oct. 13, after discussing the nuclear test during their Oct. 9-12 general meeting. In their message, they said they “cannot but feel deep sorrow” at the North’s decision to conduct the test, and they stressed that North Korea “must cooperate with us to maintain peace.”

The bishops also said that having a nuclear weapon “cannot be justified in any way,” even if it is for self-defense, reported UCA News, an Asian church news agency based in Thailand.
“Peace can be achieved only through incessant forgiveness and reconciliation,” the bishops said, urging the international community to walk the path of reconciliation and peace through dialogue and negotiation.

The message, published in Korean and English, was signed by Auxiliary Bishop Lucas Kim Woon-hoe of Seoul, president of the bishops’ Committee for the Reconciliation of the Korean People, and Bishop Boniface Choi Ki-san of Inchon, president of the bishops’ Committee for Justice and Peace.

Nonetheless, they acknowledged that for peace to take root in Korea an agreement on the denuclearization of the Korean peninsula must be effectively practiced. North and South Korea agreed in 1991 on the Joint Declaration on Denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula.

In recent years, the bishops said, both North and South have maintained peaceful exchanges, through which the two Koreas have come to recognize each other not as enemies but as one people.

In light of this, “no one should block the way of reconciliation that the South and the North have paved,” nor should anyone “turn back” the tide of “peace and unity in the Korean peninsula,” the bishops said. Furthermore, no one should make use of this situation to provoke hatred and confrontation, they added.

South Korean soldiers in Paju patrol Oct. 9 along barbed-wire fences facing North Korea near the demilitarized zone that separates the two Koreas. The same day, North Korea said it had safely and successfully carried out an underground nuclear test, despite a warning from the U.N. Security Council.
CNS PHOTO/KIM KYUNG-HOON/REUTERS

North Korean leader
Kim Jong-Il
CNS PHOTO/KOREA NEWS SERVICE/REUTERS

On Oct. 14, the U.N. Security Council unanimously approved a resolution to impose sanctions on North Korea, including ship searches for banned weapons, an assets freeze and a travel ban on people related to the nuclear arms program.

The resolution demands that the communist country abandon its nuclear weapons program and that all other countries prevent North Korea from importing or exporting any material which could be used to make weapons of mass destruction, including ballistic missiles.

Bishop Kim told UCA News Oct. 16 that the Korean Church opposes any form of violence, including the use of nuclear weapons.

“In my personal view, I question how much the international community’s sanctions on North Korea would help the reconciliation and reunification of our country,” he said.

“North Korea’s nuclear test was definitely wrong,” the bishop said, but “we must try to solve this situation, not through imposing sanctions, but through dialogue and civilian exchanges.”

“It is more important to persuade the North not to use the nuclear weapons” than to ask it “to abandon already developed weapons,” Bishop Kim added, emphasizing that this is his “personal opinion.”

The Lay Apostolate Council of Korea observed in a statement it issued Oct. 14 that North Korea had broken the joint agreement on the denuclearization of the Korean peninsula, which the council said both Koreas should uphold.

The statement, titled “Let’s Build the Culture of Peace, Human Rights and Life,” urged North Korea’s leaders to use their resources to create a better living standard for their people, rather than to build nuclear weapons.

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