Presbyterian Peace Network of Korea discusses faith-based peacemaking

Annual gathering focuses on North Korea’s nuclear status in historical context and moving forward

by Scott O’Neill | Presbyterian News Service

The Presbyterian Peace Network for Korea held its two-day annual gathering last week. (Screenshot)

LOUISVILLE — On the eve of the 79^th anniversary of Korea’s liberation from Japan (August 15, 1945), the Presbyterian Peace Network for Korea (PPNK), a mission network of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), kicked off its two-day annual gathering recently. Participants were invited to join via Zoom to learn more about North Korea’s (DPRK) status as a nuclear state and what it means for people of faith, peace activists, and people interested in peace to consider North Korea as a nuclear state.

The opening session featured Choon Sung Lim, who was born in North Korea, separated from his family during the war and served in the South Korean Army. In 1972, he came to the U.S., where he worked for a nuclear power plant design firm until 2017. His presentation, titled “Understanding North Korea as a Nuclear State” was facilitated by the Rev. Kurt Esslinger, a PC(USA) mission co-worker serving in South Korea.

Lim was a project manager who worked on building a light water nuclear reactor in North Korea, an initiative that came as a result of an “agreed-upon framework” signed in 1994 between the U.S. and North Korea as a way to “promote peace and stability on the Korean peninsula.”

The agreement’s key points included:

• North Korea freezing all nuclear activities
• The U.S. providing heavy fuel oil and two light water nuclear power plants to compensate North Korea for its cessation of nuclear activities
• Both countries agreeing to normalize diplomatic relations
• The U.S. assuring North Korea it would not use nuclear weapons against it
• Improving inter-Korean relations.

According to Lim, North Korea’s growing nuclear capabilities, its ability to extract large amounts of plutonium from its existing reactor, and the country’s withdrawal from the nuclear non-proliferation treaty prompted the U.S.  to seek the agreed framework, which ultimately resulted in the formation of the Korean Peninsula Energy for Implementation Development Organization (KEDO).

“Considering the political and economic situation that North Korea was in at the time, and because the Soviet Union had collapsed and Eastern European countries were in economic hardship, the White House’s thinking was that North Korea would collapse either abruptly of gradually,” said Lim. “So, the [agreed framework’s] goal was to freeze North Korea’s nuclear capabilities while waiting for its collapse. When that happened, South Korea would take over and assume most of the financial burden for building the reactor.”

The KEDO was formed in 1995, with most of the funding responsibility required from South Korea. Japan and European Union countries helped fund the balance to construct a nuclear plant in Kumho, Hamgyong province, near Sinpo. Nearly 5,000 workers were on site at peak construction, many of them working for South Korean subcontractors.

“The KEDO project had a significant impact on the tense, divided Korean peninsula,” said Lim. “It served as a catalyst for communications between the two Koreas.” He then listed several notable achievements that helped lessen tensions, among them, the Clinton administration lifting the travel ban to North Korea, a visit to North Korea by a U.S. Secretary of State, Korean Air’s first flight to Pyongyang since the war, and the first North-South joint team under the Korea peninsula flag at the opening of the Sydney Olympics in 2000.

The world changed after Sept. 11, 2001, however, and the Bush administration included North Korea in the “Axis of Evil” list of countries. In 2005, KEDO suspended construction and withdrew its workers from the construction site. In May 2006, the U.S. declared the KEDO project dead. North Korea followed with its first nuclear test in October.

“During the KEDO project from 1995 to 2002, no nuclear tests and only one intermediate range missile launched,” said Lim. “Post-KEDO, from 2003 through 2016, four nuclear tests and multiple missile launches occurred.”

Lim concluded his presentation noting that the Korean peninsula resumed its nuclear program after the collapse of the framework, which ultimately has exacerbated tensions in the region.

“In hindsight, the failure of the framework and KEDO can be attributed to a lack of trust and conflicting interests between the parties involved,” said Lim. “The U.S. and South Korea’s hardline stance towards the North, coupled with North Korea’s pursuit of nuclear weapons as a means of ensuring survival, has led to a cycle of hostility and distrust. The experience of KEDO demonstrates that dialogue and cooperation, even in challenging circumstances, are possible and can lead to significant breakthroughs. However, efforts must be sustained by genuine commitment and mutual trust, but the flame of peace must not be extinguished.”

The second session featured Jennifer Deibert, the DPRK Program Director for the American Friends Service Committee (AFSC). Her presentation, titled “Ways Forward for Faith Based Peacebuilding,” focused on possible directions for PPNK and like-minded organizations to foster peace building on the Korean peninsula.

For a list of resources and advocacy opportunities devoted to promoting peace on the Korea peninsula, visit the PC(USA)’s Korea Peace Resources page.

From Sept. 13 through Oct. 7, the Presbyterian Peacemaking Program will welcome 9 peacemakers visiting 38 presbyteries! They come from Costa Rica, Fiji, Hong Kong/Philippines, Moldova, Native Lands of the Southwest U.S. (Laguna Pueblo and Navajo Nation), Nigeria, Palestine, Puerto Rico and South Korea.  Follow the peacemakers and find out if they will be visiting near you by going here.