A Message from the Presiding Bishop and Primate of the Episcopal Church, USA, to the Anglican Church in Korea on the Reunification of the Korean Peninsula:

My dear sisters and brothers in Christ: I address you today in the midst of my visit among you with deep gratitude for your warm hospitality. I am enormously thankful to Archbishop Matthew Chung for his invitation to visit you and to share in the ministry of this branch of the Anglican Communion.

While here, I have been deeply impressed by the Church's commitment to peacemaking in the midst of suffering and division. I commend the work done ecumenically over many years to promote democratic and civil society in the Republic of Korea (South Korea), stressing freedom, peace and human rights for the people of your country.

In more recent years, your Church, along with other denominations, has manifested a reconciling role through its work on behalf of the reunification of the Korean peninsula. I have heard many voices in my brief visit and have been made acutely aware of the pain that division causes. The stark reality of this division that divides this peninsula was brought home to me yesterday on a visit to the demilitarized zone (DMZ) at Panmunjom, which remains one of the few explosive flashpoints lingering from the end of the Cold War.

I have learned from you about hopeful contacts between the governments of the north and south. I note that both sides have made a commitment to reunification, called the Sunshine Policy, and a number of exchange visits have now taken place allowing families to make contacts and build positive relations for the future. Plans for rail and road links to increase communication are also hopeful signs. But I know much hard work remains to be done.

During these past years, the Episcopal Church in the United States has been a partner in supporting this process of reunification. At our General Convention in 2003, your sister Church in the United States adopted a resolution in support of reunification. It is my intention now to emphasize my Church's commitment to reunification by bringing before the United States government several concerns.

I will urge my own government to reject the policy of preemption that heightens tensions and threatens the well being of peoples both in the north and south. As the two Koreas move forward towards the goal of reunification, I will urge the United States to take the following further steps:

• support and promote a nonaggression pact that will move all parties toward a comprehensive peace formally ending the "state of war" that has existed since 1953 by following through in the current negotiations to pledge not to preemptively attack the DPRK in exchange for the DPRK's abandonment of its nuclear weapons program
• refrain from demonization of the DPRK in favor of supporting the building of relations between the north and south which hold the promise of peace and reunification
• make every effort to invite the DPRK into the international community as a full member so that the country can develop and pursue internationally recognized norms and standards for its people to enjoy, specifically to provide humanitarian relief and development assistance to the DPRK including poverty alleviation, food aid, energy development and transportation
• assure access to all mechanisms for redress of grievances between U.S. military personnel and Korean civilians in the ROK.

I am heartened at what appears to be a breakthrough in the impasse between the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (North Korea) and the United States and strongly urge both sides to find common ground on which to build future relations. The end of the Cold War has not yet produced the peace dividend that both peoples in North and South Korea deserve. My prayer is that the ongoing climate of hostility and the continuing division of the country will give way to a new day of cooperation, peace building and ultimate reconciliation.

I commend you for your unwavering leadership towards reunification and assure you of my Church's continuing partnership with you. We are told in Scripture that "In Christ, God was reconciling the world to himself." May we be a sign of that reconciliation achieved by Christ through the blood of the cross, a reconciliation of which we have all been made ministers by virtue of our baptism. God bless and sustain you in the days ahead.

The Most Reverend Frank T. Griswold
Presiding Bishop and Primate
The Episcopal Church, USA
October 25, 2005
Seoul, Korea

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