National Council of Churches in Korea (NCCK)

Letter to President Trump on March 9, 2017

Dear Mr. President,

On behalf of the National Council of Churches (NCCK). I bring the warmest greetings to you in the name of God of Peace.

The National Council of Churches in Korea wishes to express our concern with the growing tensions on the Korean peninsula. For over sixty years since the Signing of the armistice agreement, the people of the Korean peninsula have lived in fear of war breaking out again in an instant. Where President Obama had failed using "strategic patience" you have the chance to either succeed in negotiation or on the other hand to bring disaster upon us.

Especially we worry now as the THAAD missile defence system has arrived in SOUTH Korea, and North Korea has fired off four missiles in response. We fear the tensions have risen higher than they have been in decades. We ask you to move now. Tum back these steps toward war, and take up a successful strategy for denuciearizing the Korean peninsula.

We have heard your administration is considering a preemptive strike on North Korea as one of your options. We urge you to take this off the table, as it would guarantee an all out war. In this current situation of upheaval around South Korea's presidency and impeachment process, ruling party members are clamoring more loudly for South Korea to obtain its own nuclear weapons. All of these actions take us closer to open battle. Turning the Korean peninsula into a battlefield again would ensure our annihilation.

We ask you to seek dialogue with North Korea immediately to decrease tensions. Dialogue is the only way toward de-escalation and convincing the North that their immediate survival is not at stake and does not depend on military defense.

For the sake of our continued existence we call upon you to enter into dialogue and turn Northeast Asia away from what might begin a new world war. ...

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