On September 15 2000, Korea was reunited.
Under a neutral white banner and wearing the same blue-beige kit, the North and South Korean teams marched into the Olympic stadium in Sydney, Australia.
"The delegations of the national Olympic committees from South Korea and North Korea," the stadium announcer said.
Then he delivered the punch line: "Together as Korea". 111,000 spectators jumped to their feet, cheering.
Outside the Olympic stadium, things may move more slowly, but they are moving. Park Seong-won, secretary of our department of cooperation and witness, reports.

Reconciliation is more than a religious concept. It takes us beyond political language. For more than half a century, Korea has been divided into two irreconcilable halves, locked in bitter enmity. But in June this year - the same month in which the Korean war broke out - the leaders of South and North Korea, Kim Dae-jung and Kim Chong-il, embraced each other in Pyongyang. And the North-South summit which took place at the 38th parallel has been rightly described as "a Korean drama" or "a Korean festival": the art-form in which the barriers of hostility are broken down and the barbed wire of division is cut. Reconciliation is an art.

The representatives of the two Koreas made history not only by meeting together, but also in reaching a number of practical agreements which are now being implemented. On August 15, Korea's day of national liberation, 200 families who for 50 years had been separated were reunited, both in Pyongyang and in Seoul. All Korea rejoiced with them.

The joint declaration agreed by Kim Dae-jung and Kim Chong-Il during the summit is a landmark event. It contains mutual commitments to easing tension and promoting peace in the Korean peninsula: common efforts towards reunification; shared agreement on elements in each other's reunification formulas; the reunion of separated families and the release of communist prisoners of conscience in the South, who are still held because they refuse to renounce their beliefs; confidence-building measures such as economic cooperation to promote the balanced development of the Korean economy, and exchanges in the social and cultural fields as well as in sports, health, and ecology; continued dialogue to implement the commitment agreed; and a return visit by Kim Chong-Il to South Korea in the near future. This significant declaration opens a new chapter in the history of the divided Koreas.

The WARC executive committee, during its July meeting in Bangalore, reacted to these developments by sending a letter of appreciation to Kim Dae-Jung and Kim Chong-Il, and by making the following statement on the promise and difficulties of Korea today.

Peace in northeast Asia and Korean reunification

The 23rd general council (Debrecen 1997) agreed to support the process of reunification of the Korean people, peace in the Korean peninsula and the work of diaconal mission of the Korean Christians Federation.

Recent political change in northeast Asia, as well as the globalization process, has caused a radical and unpredictable shift in the geopolitical situation. But the thawing of the last phase of the cold war in the Korean peninsula and particularly the summit meeting of the two leaders of North and South Korea are special signs of hope for the reunification of the Korean people and peace in northeast Asia.

Yet there is still deep structural hostility inside and outside the Korean peninsula. There are also newly emerging threats to human life and peace. One is severe hunger in North Korea, due to drought and economic difficulties; another is the new missile race between the four big powers (USA, Japan, Russia, China), in and around the Korean peninsula.

In the light of the above developments, the WARC executive committee affirms the following:

1. Diaconal mission is needed for the people of northeast Asia, who are suffering as a result of economic globalization, both in the free market economies and in the present and former socialist countries. Study of the diaconal mission of the church by the churches of the region and the Alliance is also needed.

2. Renewed prayer for peace in the Korean peninsula and the surrounding northeast Asia region is urgently called for. The new geopolitical situation demands critical study of the strategic military situation, as well as the advocacy of peace by churches and peoples. The peace of northeast Asia is especially threatened by the military might and strategic manoeuvring of the big powers: the USA, Japan, Russia and China.