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By Jonathan Frerichs (*)

The World Council of Churches (WCC) general secretary Rev. Dr Samuel Kobia has urged South Korean President Lee Myung-bak to "take urgent measures to strengthen inter-Korean relationships without any pre-conditions".

The US and its allies must "settle the dispute over Iran's nuclear programme through negotiations and not through the use of military force," stated the World Council of Churches (WCC) executive committee at its 25-28 September meeting in Etchmiadzin, Armenia.

"An untiring, credible and enlightened voice for peace" is how World Council of Churches general secretary Rev. Dr Samuel Kobia refers to German physicist Prof. Dr Carl Friedrich von Weizsäcker in a tribute released today.

Ahead of an upcoming vote in the UK parliament on the government's plan to replace the Trident nuclear weapons system, the World Council of Churches (WCC) general secretary Rev. Dr Samuel Kobia has written to WCC member churches in the country praising and expressing support for their efforts to stop this.

Former top United Nations weapons inspector Dr Hans Blix, now the chair of The Weapons of Mass Destruction Commission (WMDC), is scheduled to present the WMDC's report at the World Council of Churches (WCC) during a ceremony at the Ecumenical Centre on Thursday evening 15 June 2006.

The World Council of Churches (WCC) executive committee called today on the government of Iran for a moratorium on its uranium enrichment programme, to recognize the state of Israel, and to support international efforts to end terrorism. Other countries should also contribute to global security, the committee said.

This year's Nobel Peace Prize affirms that "multilateral, legal and peaceable conduct of international affairs is not only possible but productive," said Peter Weiderud, director of the World Council of Churches Commission of the Churches on International Affairs (WCC/CCIA), commenting on the prize awarded to Mohamed El Baradei today. Weiderud also said that "control of nuclear arms and technology" is an "incontrovertible recognition of the God-given value of human life" and that, therefore, the award represents an "important investment in hope as well as peace".

Full text of WCC public statements available, see below

In the lead-up to the 14-16 September 2005 United Nations World Summit, the World Council of Churches (WCC) has shared its views on a planned reform of the international body with the governments of the UK and China - the two nations which currently preside, respectively, over the G8, and the G77.

A memorandum sent today by the World Council of Churches' (WCC) general secretary, Rev. Dr Samuel Kobia, to the United Nations secretary-general, Kofi Annan, shares WCC points of view on issues dealt with in Annan's report on reforming the UN.

Free photos available, see below.

A World Council of Churches (WCC) delegation will meet ministers and official government representatives of three non-nuclear NATO states this week. The purpose of the meetings is to ask these states to take a more pro-active role within the organization to fulfill nuclear disarmament obligations undertaken in the framework of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT).

Cf. WCC Press Update PU-03-42 of 11 November 2003