Join Korea Peace Advocacy Week

The Office of Public Witness is currently participating in Korea Peace Advocacy Week, advocating for an end to the Korean War with our faith and secular partners. This July marks the 70th anniversary of the signing of the armistice agreement that paused open warfare on the Korean Peninsula. Although negotiators met for peace talks, no treaty was ever signed, and the Korean War has never officially ended. In the United States, the war is often forgotten, but Koreans have lived with the threat of violent conflict for decades. In honor of Korea Peace Week, please contact your representative and tell them to support The Peace on the Korean Peninsula Act, H.R. 1369.

Contact Your Representative!

The United States plays a leading role in perpetuating the Korean conflict because it exercises wartime command authority (OPCON) over the South Korean military.  The ongoing state of war has led to continuous suffering throughout the peninsula as millions of families remain separated, resources are directed to tools of destruction, and human rights are sacrificed in the name of security in both South and North Korea.  As the US and South Korea have expanded joint military drills that promote hostility in the name of defense, North Korea has responded with the resumption of missile tests. The outbreak of COVID infections in North Korea further threatened the stability of the entire region.  Humanitarian cooperation would otherwise have addressed the problem, but humanitarian projects are hampered by US and UN sanctions.  The 2018 and 2022 General Assemblies directed the offices of the PC(USA) to communicate with domestic and international governments and agencies to encourage the peaceful resolution of the divisions on the Korean Peninsula, lift sanctions threatening the lives of North Koreans, and seek expansion of people-to-people exchanges across the divide. A bill has been introduced in the House of Representatives by Rep Brad Sherman (D-CA) that would  further these initiatives.  The Peace on the Korean Peninsula Act, H.R. 1369 calls for serious, urgent diplomacy in pursuit of a binding peace agreement to formally end the Korean War;  It is critically important that the U.S. government and the international community commence a new process of peace-building across the Korean peninsula.   With so many lives at stake, the United States, as a major party to the ongoing war, has a moral imperative to proactively seek a peaceful resolution to the conflict. Please contact your member of Congress and urge them to cosponsor HR 1369.

Contact Your Representative!