Resolution of the 19th General Assembly of APAY On the outcome of the Cheorwon International Peace Conference Held September 4–6, 2015
At Border Peace School Cheorwon County, Gangwon Province, South Korea
Prior to the 19th General Assembly of the Asia and Pacific Alliance of YMCAs (APAY), 70 participants from ten countries and territories attended the Cheorwon International Peace Conference from September 4 to 6, 2015, at the Border Peace School (BPS) in the demilitarized zone, or DMZ, separating North and South Korea. The program was hosted by the National Council of YMCAs of Korea (NCYK) and BPS.
Among the participants were Peter Posner, President of the World Alliance of YMCAs (WAY); Mr. Choi Moon Soon, Governor of Gangwon Province; Rev. Kim, Young-ju, General Secretary of NCCK; three Vice Presidents of APAY; and the YMCA National General Secretaries in Australia, Bangladesh, Hong Kong, Japan, Myanmar, the Philippines and Sri Lanka, USA as well as Korea. In addition, the former President of WAY, Dr. David Suh Kwang-sun, and the current and former Presidents of NCYK, the Rev. Lee Shin-ho and Dr. Ahn Jae-woong respectively, also took part in the program along with ecumenical partners from the National YWCA of Korea (NYK) and the National Council of Churches in Korea (NCCK), and government officials from Gangwon Province and Cheorwon County.
Through the presentations, sharing of the Korean members of the program and a visit to an observation center in the DMZ that overlooked North Korea, the pain and suffering of the Korean people due to war, the division of the nation and the separation of families for 70 years was unmistakable. When the nation was divided in 1945, the people believed that the partition would be temporary. After the Korean War ended in 1953 with an armistice and not a peace treaty, the people realized, however, that after three years of fighting the division would not be a short-term separation. The deep aspirations of the Korean people to be reunited, to be reunified as one nation, was thus one clear message of the Cheorwon International Peace Conference.
Another distinct message of the conference was that peace on the Korean Peninsula is interconnected with peace in the region and, indeed, the world. The tensions and periodic violence between North and South Korea are ongoing concerns of the U.N. Security Council, and the world powers of China, Japan, Russia and the United States all have their own geo-political interests in how the problems of the Korean Peninsula will be resolved.
The participants also stressed that governments around the world should give more importance to people’s security and place less emphasis on national security. To achieve this aim, defense budgets should be reduced, the participants concluded, with the funds that are saved allocated to government policies and programs that support the security of people, such as education, health care, housing, social welfare, etc.
It is in light of these realities and this context that the participants of the Cheorwon International Peace Conference call upon the delegates of the APAY 19th General Assembly to make realizing peace between North and South Korea and the reunification of the nation a priority agenda during the next quadrennium in connection with Interfaith Cooperation Forum (ICF), a joint program of APAY and the Christian Conference of Asia (CCA), which will play a leading role in this process.
In addition, and more specifically, the participants of the Cheorwon International Peace Conference ask APAY to support the Peace Treaty Petition Campaign, an ecumenical initiative of NCYK, NYK and NCCK, that calls for the armistice signed after the Korean War to be replaced with a peace treaty. Launched in June 2013, the campaign has collected more than 20,000 signatures in Korea in two years. With the support of APAY, it is hoped that the solidarity of the YMCA movements in the Asia and Pacific region can be expressed through adding the signatures of national movements, local YMCAs and individual YMCA members to this petition. Replacing the armistice with a peace treaty is viewed as a first step toward attaining sustainable peace between the North and the South and the reunification of Korea.
Other aspects of this peace program initiative proposed to APAY for the next quadrennium are workshops to train YMCA peacemakers, especially its youth, peace camps in, for example, the DMZ or Hiroshima and peace pilgrimages to past and present areas of conflict both inside and outside of the region. Another important component of this program is offering ways to use social media for peace. Other aspects of the program can include jointly working to build YMCAs in North Korea in cooperation with the North Korean churches, exchange letters between North Korean Christians and YMCA members in the region and provide humanitarian aid to North Korean children in need.
Lastly, this program could foster the creation of the Ecumenical Peace Congress (EPC), an autonomous body, comprised of like-minded ecumenical organizations, that would promote peace, develop policies that foster peace, strengthen ecumenical peace activities, offer peace education programs, coordinate peace-related exchanges and contribute to a theology of peace.
As proposed above, we, participants of the Cheorwon International Peace Conference, sincerely invite all of you to endorse our recommendations and to work together in one spirit towards peace-building, not only on the Korean Peninsula, but also in Asia and the world as well.
Adopted by the Council Meeting of the 19th GA of APAY
7th September 2015
At Border Peace School Cheorwon County, Gangwon Province, South Korea
Prior to the 19th General Assembly of the Asia and Pacific Alliance of YMCAs (APAY), 70 participants from ten countries and territories attended the Cheorwon International Peace Conference from September 4 to 6, 2015, at the Border Peace School (BPS) in the demilitarized zone, or DMZ, separating North and South Korea. The program was hosted by the National Council of YMCAs of Korea (NCYK) and BPS.
Among the participants were Peter Posner, President of the World Alliance of YMCAs (WAY); Mr. Choi Moon Soon, Governor of Gangwon Province; Rev. Kim, Young-ju, General Secretary of NCCK; three Vice Presidents of APAY; and the YMCA National General Secretaries in Australia, Bangladesh, Hong Kong, Japan, Myanmar, the Philippines and Sri Lanka, USA as well as Korea. In addition, the former President of WAY, Dr. David Suh Kwang-sun, and the current and former Presidents of NCYK, the Rev. Lee Shin-ho and Dr. Ahn Jae-woong respectively, also took part in the program along with ecumenical partners from the National YWCA of Korea (NYK) and the National Council of Churches in Korea (NCCK), and government officials from Gangwon Province and Cheorwon County.
Through the presentations, sharing of the Korean members of the program and a visit to an observation center in the DMZ that overlooked North Korea, the pain and suffering of the Korean people due to war, the division of the nation and the separation of families for 70 years was unmistakable. When the nation was divided in 1945, the people believed that the partition would be temporary. After the Korean War ended in 1953 with an armistice and not a peace treaty, the people realized, however, that after three years of fighting the division would not be a short-term separation. The deep aspirations of the Korean people to be reunited, to be reunified as one nation, was thus one clear message of the Cheorwon International Peace Conference.
Another distinct message of the conference was that peace on the Korean Peninsula is interconnected with peace in the region and, indeed, the world. The tensions and periodic violence between North and South Korea are ongoing concerns of the U.N. Security Council, and the world powers of China, Japan, Russia and the United States all have their own geo-political interests in how the problems of the Korean Peninsula will be resolved.
The participants also stressed that governments around the world should give more importance to people’s security and place less emphasis on national security. To achieve this aim, defense budgets should be reduced, the participants concluded, with the funds that are saved allocated to government policies and programs that support the security of people, such as education, health care, housing, social welfare, etc.
It is in light of these realities and this context that the participants of the Cheorwon International Peace Conference call upon the delegates of the APAY 19th General Assembly to make realizing peace between North and South Korea and the reunification of the nation a priority agenda during the next quadrennium in connection with Interfaith Cooperation Forum (ICF), a joint program of APAY and the Christian Conference of Asia (CCA), which will play a leading role in this process.
In addition, and more specifically, the participants of the Cheorwon International Peace Conference ask APAY to support the Peace Treaty Petition Campaign, an ecumenical initiative of NCYK, NYK and NCCK, that calls for the armistice signed after the Korean War to be replaced with a peace treaty. Launched in June 2013, the campaign has collected more than 20,000 signatures in Korea in two years. With the support of APAY, it is hoped that the solidarity of the YMCA movements in the Asia and Pacific region can be expressed through adding the signatures of national movements, local YMCAs and individual YMCA members to this petition. Replacing the armistice with a peace treaty is viewed as a first step toward attaining sustainable peace between the North and the South and the reunification of Korea.
Other aspects of this peace program initiative proposed to APAY for the next quadrennium are workshops to train YMCA peacemakers, especially its youth, peace camps in, for example, the DMZ or Hiroshima and peace pilgrimages to past and present areas of conflict both inside and outside of the region. Another important component of this program is offering ways to use social media for peace. Other aspects of the program can include jointly working to build YMCAs in North Korea in cooperation with the North Korean churches, exchange letters between North Korean Christians and YMCA members in the region and provide humanitarian aid to North Korean children in need.
Lastly, this program could foster the creation of the Ecumenical Peace Congress (EPC), an autonomous body, comprised of like-minded ecumenical organizations, that would promote peace, develop policies that foster peace, strengthen ecumenical peace activities, offer peace education programs, coordinate peace-related exchanges and contribute to a theology of peace.
As proposed above, we, participants of the Cheorwon International Peace Conference, sincerely invite all of you to endorse our recommendations and to work together in one spirit towards peace-building, not only on the Korean Peninsula, but also in Asia and the world as well.
Adopted by the Council Meeting of the 19th GA of APAY
7th September 2015
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