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News Release

THE UNITED STATES AND NORTH KOREA MUST RETURN
TO THE NEGOTIATING TABLE

Philadelphia (July 11) —   In response to the recent missile launches by North Korea, the American Friends Service Committee (AFSC), an international social justice organization, expresses its deep concern about the renewed possibility of armed conflict on the Korean peninsula. 

The Service Committee strongly urges North Korea and the U.S. to avoid further military provocations, and instead return to the negotiating table to work together with area governments toward a permanent peace settlement in the region.  Military action or further preparation for military action by either side will only poison the political atmosphere, increase mistrust, and end progress toward sustainable peace.

“We should be doing all we can to promote trade, aid and exchange, and to make conditions possible for North Korea to play a greater role in the community of nations,” states AFSC general secretary Mary Ellen McNish. “The Service Committee has visited North Korea three times in the last month for cultural exchanges and to carry out ongoing agricultural work.  There is obvious good will among the North Korean people and a hunger for greater contact and relationships.”

Having also recently returned from a meeting in South Korea with former President Kim Dae-Jung, South Korean Prime Minister Han Myung-Sook and Korean civil society leaders, McNish emphasized that a lasting solution to the current crisis can only be achieved by patient diplomacy.

The Six Party Talks framework, negotiated over several years by North Korea, South Korea, China, Japan, Russia and the United States provides a very workable path forward to achieve the verifiable denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula in a peaceful manner.  Diplomatic progress will require compromises on all sides.  North Korea should forgo a nuclear weapons program, the U.S. should offer security guarantees, and the Six Parties should cooperate to promote economic, technical and cultural cooperation with North Korea. Diplomacy and trade, not military threats, provide the best hope for peace on the Korean peninsula.

Backed by an 89-year history working for peace, justice and reconciliation in troubled areas of the world, the American Friends Service Committee is a faith-based organization grounded in Quaker beliefs respecting the dignity and worth of every person.

The search for regional peace has been a major focus of the Service Committee’s highly regarded international affairs work and the group has a long history working for peace and reconciliation in an atmosphere of war.  In 1919 the Service Committee launched massive programs to feed millions of starving children in post-war Germany at the request of Herbert Hoover, then director of the American Relief Administration. During World War II, AFSC provided temporary aid, housing and other assistance to Japanese-Americans in efforts to get them out of internment camps.

In 1947, the American Friends Service Committee and its European counterpart, the British Friends Service Council, accepted the Nobel Peace Prize on behalf of Quakers worldwide for wartime humanitarian efforts.

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The American Friends Service Committee is a Quaker organization that includes people of various faiths who are committed to social justice, peace and humanitarian service. Its work is based on the belief in the worth of every person and faith in the power of love to overcome violence and injustice

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