Seoul (Fides Service) - The Catholic Bishops of Korea issued a statement against war on Iraq and against nuclear weapons in North Korea. Here is an English translation of the statement signed by Bishop Andrew Choi, president of the CCBK Bishops' Conference.
"We want peace, not war!"
Peace is the task par excellence for humanity. Today the whole world trembles at the threat of war about to break out before our eyes.
Pope John Paul II is deeply concerned and he calls for prayers for peace to be made everywhere in the world. Peace is not reached with arms or with international decrees, it is built with a firm decision to stop the production of weapons.

If powerful nations assigned only 1% of their military expenses to solving the problem of world hunger, this would lead to peace.
It is not right to sacrifice the lives of thousands of innocent people in the name of "war on terrorism". We fail to understand why the United States wants to go to war with Iraq. War produces nothing but war.
We unite with the Pope, the Bishops of the United States, our Brothers in the Middle East to say: "We want peace not war!" We must demonstrate brotherly tolerance and solve problems peacefully.
We hope that those people charged with mediation and intervention of the United Nations will boost process of peace.
We also hope that nuclear weapons will not be produced in North Korea because this would cause an even deeper rift in our Korean people.
We implore North Korea to renounce its threat which will only worsen the situation and create greater tension, instead of helping to solve the crisis through dialogue. We must find a way to live as brothers and sisters and we must reach peace for the good of all.
Let us put aside violence and death and sow seeds of true life: this is the task we must all engage in together.
Blessed are the Peace-Makers! We call on all Catholics to pray to the Lord Jesus Christ who taught peace, for our people and for the world.
We ask the intercession of Mary, Queen of Peace, and Saint Joseph her husband.
The Pope has asked everyone to pray the Rosary for world peace.
We do so and we pray for all men and women of good will and for the whole world. PA (Fides Service 14/2/2003 EM lines 31 Words: 415)