The 'Stations of the Cross' for the Peace of Korea & Letter to Bush on 'Axis of Evil' Remark

Greetings of Peace,

As most of you know, President Bush has made some terrible remarks in his State of the Union address, calling North Korea, Iran and Iraq an 'axis of evil'. This attitude is once again threatening the peace of the Korean Peninsula.

All the peace loving groups and individuals in Korea and abroad are carrying out a campaign of sending complaint letters to President Bush. He will be visiting Korea on Feb. 19, so let us send many many letters in the next few days! You may write your own letter, or send the letter that we have written. The President's e-mail address is president@whitehouse.gov .

In addition to this, the Korea Catholic Peace Network is offering 'The Stations of the Cross' on February 15, the first Friday in Lent, as we pray for peace of the Korean peninsula. Meditating on the sufferings of Jesus Christ, we will walk through the main streets of Seoul, starting from the Yongsan US military base and go to the US embassy. Both are located in central Seoul and are symbols of the Korean people's suffering imposed by division and foreign powers.

We will pray for the solidarity of all the peace loving people; we will pray that the US Bush administration will withdraw the threat of war and the pressure for the sale of the jet fighters to South Korea. (According to the press, the Bush administration will put pressure during this visit on the Korean Government to buy 100 F-15K fighters made by Boeing, at a cost of about 10,000,000,000 US$10 billion dollars). On February 15, meditating on death, life and peace, please pray for us and pray for peace in the Korean peninsula.

Thank you for your solidarity, attention and prayer.

In your State of the Union address on January 29th, you called the Democratic Peoples Republic of Korea an 'axis of evil' along with Iran and Iraq. We believe this reckless and dangerous remark is a misguided effort to justify more military spending, including your new 'NMD Star Wars' program.

Without any conclusive evidence you accuse these three countries of supporting terrorism and manufacturing weapons of mass destruction. Since 1950 the US has placed the world's longest sanctions on North Korea, preventing economic growth and international trade and has continued to threaten the north with 37,000 US troops in South Korea and the full military might.

In the pursue of enlightened self-interest, the former President Clinton engaged North Korea and began to normalize relations by signing the US-DPRK Joint Communique on October 12, 2000 along with Vice Marshal Jo Myong Rok.

The Joint Communique explicitly states that the two sides are

• Recognizing the changed circumstances on the Korean Peninsula created by the historic June 15, 2000 inter-Korean summit, the United states and the Democratic People's Republic of Korea have decided to take steps to fundamentally improve their bilateral relations in the interests of enhancing peace and security in the Asia-Pacific region.
• The two sides agreed there are a variety of available means, including Four Party talks, to reduce tension on the Korean Peninsula and formally end the Korean War by replacing the 1953 Armistice Agreement with permanent peace arrangements.
• The two sides agreed to support and encourage international efforts against terrorism.

Your renewed hostility towards DPRK creates grave concern from both the domestic and international community. Commentators from China, Russia, the European Union as well as in the US have all raised concerns about your misinformed hard line stance.

We are extremely alarmed by your dangerous reversal off the course of peace unto the pursuit of war.

We believe you should drop your confrontational approach towards the DPRK, Iran and Iraq as it only creates hostility and terrorizes the rest of the world. Our world does not need any more war.

Despite what you say, the DPRK is a responsible member of the international community, having denounced the international terrorism of September 11th and having signed the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty (NPT) as well as seven out of twelve International Anti-Terrorist treaties. Both the US and the DPRK are considering signing the remaining five treaties.

We believe you should uphold the previous administration's engagement policy as stated in the 2000 Communique and support South Korean President Kim Dae-Jung's Sunshine policy towards peace and reunification in Korea.

We sincerely urge on your visit to South Korea on February 19 to retract your remarks and take the necessary steps towards a peace and stability in Korea and Asia.