In addition to Pope Francis, his predecessor, Benedict XVI also called for international efforts to dismantle nuclear weapons, in his 41st World Peace Day statement published on December 8, 2007, he emphasizes the responsibilities of nuclear power holders: "In these difficult times, all well-meaning people must unite to come up with concrete agreements for substantial demilitarized, especially in the field of nuclear weapons. With no progress in the process of banning nuclear proliferation, I strongly urge those in charge to pursue negotiations on the dismantlement of existing nuclear weapons that are developed and mutually agreed upon with a more firm determination. I appeal to everyone who cares about the future of mankind."
Since its inception in the 1960s, the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, which operates as a standard for the international community to this day, has in fact been committed to reducing nuclear weapons. The "system," designed to avoid the destruction of mankind, not only prohibited any country from developing new nuclear weapons but also contained the prospect that nuclear powers would reduce existing nuclear weapons.
However, even with the pause in the nuclear arms race between the U.S. and Russia and the dismantling of the Cold War between the East and the West, the powers did not give up their nuclear deterrence. Rather, more "efficient" and powerful new weapons have been developed without restriction, with the Catholic Church pointing out that for a world without nuclear weapons, the international community should face inequality among nations first.
As the North Korea-U.S. dialogue has been suspended, it has become difficult to resolve the North Korean nuclear issue. There have been as many as thousands of nuclear weapons in South Korea since the 1950s, with the 1991 agreement between Bush and Gorbachev the tactical nuclear weapons in South Korea were removed.
The relocation of tactical nuclear weapons is a claim that came even when the North Korean nuclear crisis escalated in 2017, meaning to give up "denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula" and bring some tactical nuclear weapons back to South Korea. According to their logic, the reason why there was no nuclear war during the Cold War between East and West was that the U.S. and the Soviet Union had tens of thousands of nuclear weapons each.
In a land where peace through weapons is emphasized and the belief that peace can be maintained only when it has a "deterrence" is more dominant, the church should strive more earnestly for true peace. Let's pray together for the disappearance of nuclear weapons on this earth, not for the peace of nuclear weapons, but reflecting more deeply on the kind of peace we want.
