August 11, 2024
North and South Korean Christians gathered in 2017, along
with ecumenical colleagues and supporters as part of the
Ecumenical Forum for Korea. (Photo credit: Kurt Esslinger,
mission co-worker)
In recent years, news from the Korean peninsula has tended to focus on the North. Nuclear capabilities and missile tests, famine and poverty, and the political turmoil that marked Kim Jong Un’s ascendance following the death of his father, Kim Jong-Il, have all captured headlines. Added together, these headlines can give the misimpression that the barriers to peace and reunification on the Korean peninsula are largely parochial affairs to which those of us in far flung places can only look in on. But because today is set aside as a chance for us to reflect on and hope for peace, reconciliation and reunification on the Korean peninsula, it’s also worth remembering that the current situation is deeply indebted to U.S. interference and a longstanding U.S. foreign policy that puts militarism first.
As the Korean War came to a close in 1953, the major parties signed the Korean Armistice Agreement, itself the culmination of back-and-forth wrangling between officials from the U.S., North and South Korea, China, the former Soviet Union and the U.N. The armistice included promises to have a political conference to further negotiate questions of how and when foreign forces would withdraw from Korea. Instead, the U.S. pushed for a unilateral U.S.-South Korea Mutual Defense Treaty that same year which enabled it to indefinitely retain a military force on the Korea peninsula. This move foreshadowed the heavy-handed and self-interested nature of the U.S.’s foreign policy toward South Korea, which continues to today.
During the same time, the U.S.’s continued military presence in South Korea contributed to the deterioration of South Korea’s security. North Korea aggressively pursued a nuclear arsenal in large part because it saw nuclear weapons as a defensive necessity, the only military response capable of countering the nearby American presence which often included U.S. nuclear weapons deployed to South Korea. Escalation begets escalation, and the cycles of further militarization continue to this day. Just last year, South Korea’s government agreed not to develop its own nuclear weapons if the U.S. promised to deploy nuclear submarines to South Korea.
Much more could be said about the state of things today and the long history which has gotten us here. But already we outside of the Korean peninsula have much to consider as we recommit ourselves to peace, reconciliation, and reunification on the peninsula. What can we do to encourage a U.S. foreign policy that treats our international neighbors as equals rather than as vassal states confined to serving our own interests? What can we do to combat own home-grown militarism and the military industrial complex, which we export in ways that entrench and escalate military tensions around the world? And what can we as Christians do to build relationships of solidarity and mutual aid that will serve as an example of a better way?
Dr. Andrew J. Peterson, Associate for Peacemaking, Presbyterian Peacemaking Program
Today’s Focus: Day of Prayer for the Peaceful Reunification of the Korean Peninsula
Let us join in prayer for:
PC(USA) Agencies’ Staff
Dawn Nashid, Administrative Assistant II, Faith Based Investing & Corporate Engagement, Presbyterian Mission Agency
Mary Nebelsick, Mission Associate, Interpretation Assignment Support, World Mission, Presbyterian Mission Agency
Let us pray
God of one and all, you shower rain on the righteous and the unrighteous; you make the sun rise on the evil and the good. In your Son, we have seen another way — a life free from violence and fear, a life free from greed and domination, a life open to the beauty and goodness of the peace we can share with one another. Today that life seems at once crucial and compelling and also distant and long delayed. Give us hope and determination to pursue it, nonetheless. Amen.
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