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| AFSC has worked in Korea for over 65 years, and we know that, in the words of Nelson Mandela, "if you want to make peace with your enemy, you have to work with your enemy. Then he becomes your partner." |
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| To learn more go to https://www.afsc.org/engageNK |
1) It is consistent with our Quaker Peace Testimony.
2) Our Meeting already supports FCNL and this is an FCNL initiative.
3) At least six members of our Meeting have taken part in this campaign by visiting elected officials. These include Pat Wolff, Jochen Strack and Kwanghee Park, Edie Salisbury, Wyn Griffen, Sara Eggers and myself.
4) Our meeting has a "heart connection" with Korea through members that are currently residing there or have family members there.
5) We have made five lobby visits since January and are planning an event at Orange Grove Meeting called "Give Peace a Chance in North Korea" on May 6. Speakers include Shan Cretin, retired director of the AFSC, as well as Sue Park-Hur and Hyun Hur, Mennonite Pastors and founders of ReconciliAsian, a peace group that teaches conflict transformation skills.
6) Not only FCNL but also AFSC is actively engaged in trying to prevent war with North Korea.
Perhaps most importantly, I have felt a strong sense of the Spirit leading and guiding our work as we engage this issue at a time when the possibility for peace, and the threat of war, have never been greater in this region. Our team spirit is strong and loving, strengthened by the participation of non-Quakers like Sue Park-Hur and Hyun Hur and many others who are deeply committed to our campaign. We now have the support of organizations such as ICUJP, ReconciliAsian, Unity and Diversity Council, Montrose Peace Vigil, Women’s League for Peace and Freedom, Ban the Bomb—LA, Physicians for Social Responsibility, as well as the Peace and Social Concerns Committee of Orange Grove (Quaker) Meeting.
Our committee not only approved this minute, asking for it to be sent to be considered by Orange Grove Business Meeting, it also approved being a sponsor of the "Give Peace A Chance in Korea" event that will take place at Orange Grove Meeting on May 6, 2018. I am grateful for the loving support of our PSC Committee.
Proposed Minute of Concern: Led by Spirit and faithful to our Quaker
Peace Testimony, Orange Grove Monthly Meeting of the Religious Society of
Friends supports the FCNL Advocacy Team effort to avert war with North Korea by
urging Congress to pass S 2047 and HR 4837,
bills that would prevent the President from launching a preemptive
attack on North Korea without the authorization of Congress. Given that our
President and the leaders of North and South Korea have agreed to meet, we urge
them to do so without preconditions since preconditions have been a stumbling
block to past negotiations. We also support and encourage all those who are
working to build bridges of understanding and trust between North and South
Korea. We are called to love those who may seem to be our enemies, and to find
ways to turn them into our allies and friends.
Action: To share this minute with
Friends everywhere, through our website, and by sending it to Quarterly and
Yearly Meeting. We also authorize the clerk to write a letter to our Senators
and to our Representative Judy Chu, thanking them for their support of these
bills, and encouraging them to make public statements regarding the need for a
diplomatic, rather than military approach to the conflict on the Korean peninsula.
It was said by Jesus that “those that live by the sword, perish by the sword.”
Background: Here are talking
points that the FCNL Advocacy Team in the San Gabriel Valley has presented to
elected officials.
Why we want Congress to pass S
2047 and HR 4837 to avert a war with North Korea
Federal - S 2047:A bill to bar the executive branch from using
taxpayer money to launch a military strike against North Korea or introduce the
Armed Forces into hostilities in North Korea unless Congress explicitly
authorizes such actions or unless such actions are taken to rescue US personnel
or repel a sudden attack on the United States or its allies. Introduced
October 31, 2017 by Sen Christopher Murphy (D-CT).
Federal - HR 4837: A bill to prohibit the introduction of the
Armed Forces into hostilities in North Korea without a declaration of war or
explicit statutory authorization, and for other purposes.Introduced January 18,
2018, and supported by Rep Chu and Waters, along with 65 others.
War Is
Not the Answer. “A war
in Korea today — without the use of nuclear weapons — would kill up to 300,000
people in the first few days of fighting, according to the Congressional
Research Service. It
would affect upwards of 25 million people on either side of the border, including
at least 100,000 U.S. citizens. The full scale of destruction would be even larger, and
nearly unthinkable, if nuclear weapons were used either by North Korea or the
United States.
“And when
it comes down to it, there is no military option that would solve the problems
posed by North Korea.
“According
to the Pentagon,
securing all of the sites related to North Korea’s nuclear weapons program
would require a full-scale ground invasion. This means thousands of American
boots on the ground in another potentially long, bloody war of attrition on
foreign soil. The consequences of a war on the Korean peninsula would range
from humanitarian disaster to global economic instability to
the collapse of our alliance structures.”-—Op Ed by Abigail Stowe-Thurston and Erin Connolly (FCNL
Staff}
Nuclear scientists recently moved their Doomsday clock
closer to midnight than it has been since 1953, largely because of tensions
between North Korea and the US. The threat of war, either intentional or
accidental, is very real
It’s the job of Congress to stand up to President
Trump. “President
Trump has the nuclear codes, but Congress alone may authorize war. Congress
should pass legislation today reaffirming that the president may not start a
war on the Korean Peninsula without explicit authorization from Congress. The
Constitution demands it, and the American people deserve it. The Framers were
not immature or short-sighted. They knew that war is dangerous, destructive,
and corrosive. They wisely insisted that no one person should have the power to
start a war. Their foresight is only more relevant today, when the cannon and
the sail have given way to the thermonuclear warhead and the intercontinental
ballistic missile.” Anthony Weir (FCNL)
Peace negotiations are possible and needed. Foreign policy expert Hart-Landsberg: “We
don’t have to go down this road [to war]—we have another option—but it is one
that the U.S. government is unwilling to consider, much less discuss. That
option is for the U.S. to accept North Korean offers of direct negotiations
between the two countries, with all issues on the table.”
North Korea is reaching out to South Korea to
deescalate tensions, as
evidenced by their recent efforts to engage in Olympic Game diplomacy (“Olympic
games rather than war games”). This is not a time to threaten war, but to
encourage negotiations. If Congress passes this bill, it will send a strong
signal to North Korea that the US is serious about negotiations.
Dispelling myths about North Korea (based on an article by Dr. Martin Hart-Landsberg)[1]
Most Americans don’t know much about Korea and what
we think we know is mostly untrue. We need to educate ourselves. Here are some
important facts to help dispel dangerous myths.
Hart-Landsberg writes: “U.S. government and media
dismiss this option [of negotiations] as out of hand—we are told that (1) the
North is a hermit kingdom and seeks only isolation, (2) the country is ruled by
crazy people hell bent on war, and (3) the North Korean leadership cannot be
trusted to follow through on its promises. But none of this is true.
North Korea is not a “hermit kingdom,” it is willing to negotiate: According to Hart-Landsberg, “If being a hermit kingdom
means never wanting to negotiate, then North Korea is not a hermit kingdom.
North Korea has been asking for direct talks with the United States since the
early 1990s. The reason is simple: this is when the U.S.SR ended and Russia and
the former Soviet bloc countries in central Europe moved to adopt capitalism.
The North was dependent on trade with these countries and their reorientation
left the North Korean economy isolated and in crisis.
“The North Korean leadership decided that they had
to break out of this isolation and connect the North Korean economy to the
global economy, and this required normalization of relations with the United
States. Since then, they have repeatedly asked for unconditional direct talks
with the U.S. in hopes of securing an end to the Korean War and a peace treaty
as a first step towards their desired normalization of relations, but have been
repeatedly rebuffed. The U.S. has always put preconditions on those talks,
preconditions that always change whenever the North has taken steps to meet
them.
“The North has also tried to join the IMF and World
Bank, but the U.S. and Japan have blocked its membership. The North has also
tried to set up free trade zones to attract foreign investment, but the U.S.
and Japan have worked to block that investment.
So, it is not the North that is refusing to talk or
broaden its engagement with the global economy; it is the U.S. that seeks to
keep North Korea isolated.”
North Korea is not an outrageously militaristic country: According to Hart-Landsberg, “ N. Korea spends considerably
less on it military than does South Korea: the
media portray North Korea as pursuing an out of control militarism that is the
main cause of the current dangerous situation. But it is important to recognize
that South Korea has outspent North Korea on military spending every year since
1976. International agencies currently estimate that North Korean annual
military spending is $4 billion while South Korean annual military spending is
$40 billion. And then we have to add the U.S. military build-up. North Korea
does spend a high percentage of its budget on the military, but that is because
it has no reliable military ally and a weak economy. However, it has largely
responded to South Korean and U.S. militarism and threats, not driven them. As
for the development of a nuclear weapons program: it was the U.S. that brought
nuclear weapons to the Korean peninsula. It did so in 1958 in violation of the
Korean War armistice and threatened North Korea with nuclear attack years
before the North even sought to develop nuclear weapons.”
North Korea has been a more reliable negotiating partner
than the U.S.. Dr.
Hart-Landsberg shows that it is usually the US, not North Korea, that has
reneged on agreements. Furthermore, North Korea’s nuclear program is largely
for defensive purposes, to protect the North and to bring the US to the negotiating
table. “The North has tested a nuclear weapon 5 times: 2006, 2009, 2013, and
twice in 2016. Critically, North Korean tests have largely been conducted in an
effort to pull the U.S. into negotiations or fulfill past promises. And the
country has made numerous offers to halt its testing and even freeze its
nuclear weapons program, if only the U.S. would agree to talks.”
This is a good time to negotiate: Hart-Landsberg writes: “The outcome of the
recent presidential election in South Korea might open possibilities to force a
change in U.S. policy. Moon Jae-in, the winner, has repudiated the hard-line
policies of his impeached predecessor Park Guen-Hye, and declared his
commitment to re-engage with the North. The U.S. government was not happy about
his victory, but it cannot easily ignore Moon’s call for a change in South
Korean policy towards North Korea, especially since U.S. actions against the
North are usually presented as necessary to protect South Korea. Thus, if Moon
follows through on his promises, the U.S. may well be forced to moderate its
own policy towards the North. What is clear is that we in the U.S. have a
responsibility to become better educated about U.S. policy towards both Koreas,
to support popular movements in South Korea that seek peaceful relations with
North Korea and progress towards reunification, and to work for a U.S. policy
that promotes the demilitarization and normalization of U.S.-North Korean
relations.”
That’s why we need to support bills that reject war
and make diplomacy our priority.
[1] Dr. Martin Hart-Landsberg is Professor Emeritus of
Economics at Lewis and Clark College, Portland, Oregon; Adjunct Researcher at the Institute
for Social Sciences, Gyeongsang National University, South Korea; and a member of the Board of Directors
of the Korea Policy
Institute and the steering committee
of the Alliance of
Scholars Concerned About Korea.
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