Hope Springs Eternal For Reduced Tensions and Peace on the Korean Peninsula
July 9, 2026
Posted in: In the News
Building Peace in Times of Division
In May, Pyongyang-based Naegohyang Women’s Football Club traveled to South Korea to face off against Suwon FC Women in the semifinals of the Asian Football Confederation Women’s Champions League in South Korea—marking the first time North Korea has sent athletes to South Korea to compete since 2018.
As Korea Peace activists, Women Cross DMZ wrote about the significance of this inter-Korean women’s soccer match as the first cross-border athletic engagement in eight years, and the first moment of inter-Korean contact on this public scale since the prior South Korean president Yoon Suk Yeol’s administration effectively shut the door on engagement.
WCDMZ Board Member Ann Wright added, “Soccer games won’t end wars, but they can mark important moments of engagement during times of deep freeze. Promoting engagement and people-to-people contact is a key priority for our peace organization and has long been important in conflict diplomacy.”
The match took place just weeks after North Korea’s announcement of constitutional revisions to drop references to unification with South Korea. For anyone following North Korean politics, this was no surprise given that in 2024, Kim Jong Un announced that the North would abandon the goal of peaceful reunification, declaring that Pyongyang no longer sees Seoul as “the partner of reconciliation and reunification.”
The soccer match exposed nuances in this new political reality, including a tense moment when the North Korean soccer coach abruptly left a press conference due to a South Korean reporter’s use of “North side” to refer to the team, rather than North Korea’s preferred official state name, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK). However, in other respects, the match also revealed which conditions have not changed – for one, the extremely harsh sanctions regime that strangles North Korea’s economy. Due to the sanctions, North Korea’s soccer team could not receive its prize winnings, despite securing the Asian Football Club championship.
South Korea-based peace activists had nuanced reflections from this moment.
Yehjung Yi, Program Director of Korean Sharing Movement said, “I was one of the estimated 3,000 joint supporters at the match. We stayed in our seats until the very end despite the pouring rain and cheered enthusiastically for players from both the South and the North. Although it was an ‘international’ sports match, the anticipation for this long-awaited meeting was enough to excite those hoping for the resumption of inter-Korean exchanges and peace on the Korean Peninsula. A long journey must be taken one step at a time. I hope that, starting with this match, we can create more opportunities for exchange and cooperation in the future.”
South Korea-based peace activist Youngmi Cho traveled over an hour from Seoul to the match in Suwon with peacebuilding colleagues and watched the full game amidst the torrential downpour. “We cheered hard for both sides. Although we have moved far from prior eras of hopeful reunification, by focusing on openings – however slim they are, we can move towards peaceful coexistence between the two Koreas.”
Director of the Peace and Unification Education and Culture Center, Head of OhmyNews Daejeon-Chungcheong Branch, Kim Kyu Sung said, “When we don’t have any connection between the North and South, one seed we can start with is a cultural or sports connection. The North Korean team could come to South Korea to play the game without any major conditions. Now there is a precedent and stepping stone for next time — another game, another talk. The North Korean players had cold expressions this time, because they know that North Koreans are considered enemies in the South, and North Korea has also declared South Korea as an enemy. But the present government under Lee Jae Myung is different from Yoon Suk Yeol, and he has been engaging Trump on restarting dialogue with North Korea.”
Korean feminist and Seoul-based Palestine solidarity organizer (팔레스타인평화연대) Za’ah reflected, “It’s hard to describe the feeling of seeing women from across the DMZ in South Korea for the first time in eight years and I was deeply impressed by their championship-winning athletic prowess.” However, Za’ah also cautioned letting this feel good moment mask the South Korean government’s actions behind the scenes. Za’ah explained, “We cannot put all the pressure on these young women players or their coaches to save the day and change conditions that are determined by government officials’ actions.” Instead of heightening scrutiny on the young women’s facial expressions, as much of the Western media has done, we must instead focus on what U.S. and South Korean government officials are doing to further conditions of militarism.
As peace activists, our charge is not simply to resign ourselves to existing conditions, but instead study conditions closely to identify avenues for change. Much has changed since 2015, including North Korea’s position towards unification, but WCDMZ continues peace-building initiatives to meet this political moment.
In the last year, WCDMZ has:
- Launched a nationwide campaign to challenge U.S. military spending in Korea through the NDAA process, and bolstered coalition calls to cut the Pentagon budget. This important work recognizes that we must target the material investments that make the U.S. forever wars possible – including the unprecedented provision in the NDAA to prohibit OPCON transfer back to the South Korean government. Despite having started in February, we have organized over 80 grassroots members to challenge over 30 congressional offices, in addition to organized educational webinars.
- Organized a historic effort to call for U.S. accountability for Korean women survivors of militarized sexual violence. WCDMZ issued the first-ever call on U.S. Senate Armed Services Committee by 100+ global feminist leaders to provide redress for Korean women survivors of sexual violence by the U.S. military, along with a historic teach-in with Rep. Rashida Tlaib, Margo Okazawa-Rey (International Women’s Network Against Militarism), Susan Schnall (Veterans For Peace), and Ha Ju Hee (South Koreean Human Rights Attorney). In solidarity and tandem with South Korea-based organizers on the frontlines of the historic lawsuit against the U.S. military, WCDMZ has also organized online and in-person teach-in’s at the University of Washington and the United Nations’ Commission on the Status of Women.
- Co-led political education efforts across the U.S. at universities and community centers; organized educational treks to bring new generations of U.S.-based anti-war activists from diasporas impacted by U.S. militarism – including Indigenous (Diné), Afghan, South Asian – to meet leading South Korean anti-war activists and visit sites of militarism. We also continue to challenge the U.S. to end the travel ban to North Korea, organize for a peace agreement, provide political education to hundreds in-person and online, and organize rallies and actions across the country. We have also produced dozens of new educational videos, including new social media formats from our historic 10-year anniversary trek.
- Built coalitions with partners across the U.S. and beyond including the Korea Peace Network (Mennonite Central Committee, United Methodist Church, American Friends Services Committee, Korean American Peace Fund, Maryknoll Office for Global Concerns) to organize the only grassroots-driven Korea Peace advocacy efforts throughout the U.S. We also worked with Feminist Peace Initiative partners (MADRE, Grassroots Global Justice Alliance) to build bridges across movements, fortify the anti-war movement rooted in feminist principles, and democratize U.S. foreign policy.
WCDMZ will continue to organize, advocate, and educate for an end to war and militarism and build feminist peace.