Diplomacy is the only hope to avoid N. Korea catastrophe

We are members of the Friends Committee on National Legislation’s Pittsburgh-area advocacy team, seeking to live our Quaker values of integrity, simplicity and peace as we build relationships across political divides to move policies forward. We all agree that only diplomacy, not war, will succeed at finding lasting solutions to the conflicts on the Korean Peninsula.

We were pleased to see the Singapore summit between the leaders of the U.S. and North Korea and the diplomatic initiatives by South Korea to prevent war and address denuclearization. In the time since the successful U.S. North Korea summit in Singapore, we have been grateful that North Korea continued the pause of its nuclear and missile tests and that U.S. leaders dropped inflated war rhetoric and took true steps for peace. The verdict will come in six months or a year, when the region measures what lasting progress has been made toward eliminating nuclear weapons and reducing tensions.

These encouraging moments still demand great patience, long-term diplomatic flexibility and persistence. Successful diplomacy is always a marathon, not a sprint. Diplomacy can work — and offers the only hope for steering our nation and the world away from the catastrophe that renewed war on the Korean Peninsula would bring.

Congress can and must do its part to support this effort for peace. Far too many Republicans and Democrats have been silent on the question of war with North Korea and have let partisan politics get in the way of supporting diplomatic efforts. We urge our representatives to reassert their co-equal constitutional role over any presidential action that would put our country on the path of war by co-sponsoring S. 2047 and H.R. 4837. As the representatives of the people, Congress must stand up and say no to a presidential preventive war of choice with North Korea.

VON KEAIRNS Squirrel Hill

The letter also was signed by Gina Godfrey, Joe Marchesani, Chuck Slayton and Josephine Posti.