The wider ecumenical family supported this process by working to break down "enemy images" and "ideological walls" while at the same time advocating for an end to the arms race, the denuclearization of the peninsula and reunification by peaceful means based on the democratic participation of all Koreans.
Still seeking peace today
Two decades later, the situation has significantly changed in both Koreas.
South Korea is a democracy - an achievement to which the country's churches contributed - and a number of factors have brought the South and the North closer. Notable among these was former president Kim Dae Jung's "sunshine policy" of engagement with the North in the 1990's which led to a historic inter-Korean summit in 2000.
But the events of September 11, 2001 marked a setback to positive developments on the Korean peninsula. Included by U.S. president George W. Bush in his "axis of evil" speech in 2002, North Korea withdrew from the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty in 2003.
Only in February 2007, in the context of the Six Party Talks - launched in 2003 and comprising both Koreas, Russia, Japan, China and the U.S. - has North Korea committed itself to some steps towards denuclearization in return for energy and economic aid.
This week South Korea officials announced that a second summit with leaders from the North was set for Aug. 29-30 to aid in discussions about the international efforts to resolve the North Korean nuclear issue.
"We have come a long way since the epoch when discussion of reunification was considered an offence, and time has proved that the churches' principled stand on this issue was prophetic," says WCC general secretary Samuel Kobia in his address today in Seoul at the International Consultation on the Role of Churches in Peace and Unification. "But today the struggle for peace and reunification has to continue in a much more complex geopolitical landscape." (See the WCC website for full text of Kobia's speech.)
Sponsored by an ad-hoc group of 24 churches, the consultation was part of a wider commemoration of the 100th anniversary of Korea's great evangelical revival of 1907.
The trauma of the Korean War together with the anti-communism prevalent in society and the churches create a "social atmosphere of antagonism" regarding the North. This leads many to promote "reunification through absorption" as well as an "aggressive missionary work", Geo-Sung Kim said.
The obstacles to reunification are of both a political and spiritual nature. The 1907 revival was - in a bit of historical irony - centred in Pyongyang, now the capital of North Korea.
Among the political challenges facing Korea are the geopolitical interests of powerful neighbours like Japan, China and Russia, as well as the US, according to Soo-il Chai, professor of missiology and ecumenics at the Hanshin University and member of the WCC's Commission of Churches on International Affairs. "The longer Korea remains divided, the better for the strategic and economic goals of the superpowers," he says.
Both Kim and Chai believe that achieving reunification will take several decades. They both think it will be the result of a "step by step" process of building mutual trust and a culture of peace, as well as of strengthening economic cooperation, which should improve the quality of life in North Korea.
International ecumenical advocacy should include helping North Korea move beyond its isolation and being better integrated into the international community, says Chai. He would also like to see greater support for North Korean Christians in order to help them improve their standing in society.
Meanwhile, churches in the South - and the wider ecumenical family - have pledged to continue helping the North with humanitarian aid and by praying for peace and reunification, as many have been doing for decades.
