International Campaign for the Signing of a Peace Treaty:
2015 First Korea Peace Day Peace Announcement
The year 2015 is the 70th anniversary of conflict and liberation. We can no longer find discourse for peace between South and North, and conservatism is having us regress to the Cold War. Moreover, the issue of peace on the Korean peninsula has been used, regardless of the interests of the citizens of North and South, as a means to strengthen the hegemonic international political order.
This ‘KOREA Peace Day’ was created to inform civil society of the war on the Korean peninsula that has only gotten worse, and it was created to appeal for efforts to participate in bringing a complete end to the war and establishing a permanent regime of peace. The ‘KOREA Peace Day’ is to put an end to the Armistice Agreement, and it is to affirm a path for achieving a regime of peace on the Korean peninsula, making peace in East Asia, and peace for our global civil society by signing a peace treaty. This cannot happen only through the efforts of South and North Korea; so we also urgently request a vision of peace from an East Asian dimension, and international solidarity and cooperation. The ‘KOREA Peace Day’ began in 2013 when we marked the 60th anniversary of the Armistice Agreement and Korean Christians pushed ahead with promotion of the ‘Signature Campaign Urging the Signing of a Peace Treaty’, and with the ‘DMZ Peace Camp and Peace Prayer Service on Cheorwon’s Soisan Peak.' Every year on the Saturday immediately preceding July 27th, on behalf of the creation of a peace treaty, we will create prayers and actions through the ’KOREA Peace Day’ and international actions.
God has commanded us, “let them turn away from evil and do good; let them seek peace and pursue it” (1 Peter 3:11). We believe that God will, “guide our feet into the way of peace” (Luke 1:79), and as a Peace Treaty will be a huge step toward a permanent peace settlement on the Korean peninsula and we urge you to carry this out.
1. We strongly urge our South Korea, North Korea, USA, and China, these four countries and their governments to embark on negotiations for a peace treaty and to implement a lasting peace settlement for the Korean peninsula.
2. We urge the governments of South and North to stop mutual antagonism and confrontation, and to independently work toward taking the lead in signing a peace treaty.
3. We request that the World Council of Churches (WCC) and United Nations (UN) and other organizations, churches, and citizens around the world working for peace, as we pray together for a peace agreement on the Korean peninsula, to support the ‘KOREA Peace Day’ and to participate along with us in each of your countries.
4. We urge young adults, women, and youth of the Korean church to lean into our work in order to grow a cultivated peace on the Korean peninsula and in East Asia.
5. We will endeavor to realize the ‘Peace of God’ through achieving active cooperation and solidarity with those suffering under the hegemonic international political order.
We will not stop our prayer marches until a peace treaty is signed, and we will be in solidarity with the peace-loving global civil society.
July 25, 2015
Participants of the ‘International Campaign
for Signing a Peace Treaty and KOREA Peace Day’
International Campaign for the Signing of a Peace Treaty.pdf
Declaration of the Foundation of the Council of Peace and Reunification Movement of YMCA Korea, 'Walk Together to Peace' (클릭)
