It’s Time to End the Korean War | August Newsletter
July 29, 2025
Posted in: News • Newsletters
Today marks the 72nd anniversary of the armistice that suspended—but did not permanently end—the Korean War. The ongoing war and division are the root cause of heightening tensions, extreme militarization, and deprivation of women’s human rights on the Korean peninsula. On this day, we reaffirm our commitment to ending the war with a peace agreement, reuniting families, and uplifting women’s leadership in peacebuilding.
In May, WCDMZ brought a delegation of anti-war activists on a 10-Year Anniversary Korea Trek to build transnational solidarity and amplify calls to end the Korean War. At the Civilian Control Zone, delegates restaged “Movement Towards” (2018) by Yong Soon Min, a revered Korean American artist whose lifelong work exposed the lasting reverberations of the ongoing Korean War and Korea’s division. Watch our restaging below.
Yong Soon Min first exhibited “Movement Towards” at the DMZ Museum in 2018 at a historic time for inter-Korean relations. But as WCDMZ Board Chair Ji-Yeon Yuh explains in a recent op-ed, prospects for diplomacy and engagement took a sharp downturn after Trump walked out of the 2019 Hanoi summit. Yong Soon Min wrote of her piece, “[W]hile suggesting the complete yin/yang circle, the line itself curving this and that way suggests that life can be dynamic yet mercurial and unpredictable, waiting perhaps if not for reunification, then at least peace.”
This year marks 80 years of Korea’s division and 75 years of the Korean War. As the political landscape continues to transform, WCDMZ and peace activists renew our call for lasting peace. Take action for Korea peace today.
🗣️ Building Community Power
Fairfax, VA Korea Trek Report Back: On June 15, Women Cross DMZ Director of Activism and Special Campaigns and Korea Peace Now! Grassroots Network Organizer Echo spoke at the monthly Open Gathering meeting hosted by the Korean American community in Fairfax, VA. Echo discussed Women Cross DMZ’s 10-Year Anniversary Solidarity Trek to Korea, reflecting on learning, marching, and protesting together with fellow anti-war activists from the U.S. and South Korea. Read more about our trip here.
Conference of Asian Pacific American Law Faculty & Western Law Teachers of Color at William S. Richardson School of Law, University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa: On June 28, Women Cross DMZ Executive Director Cathi Choi presented at the conference, “Transformative Justice in a World on Fire” at the William S. Richardson School of Law, University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa with co-panelists Miyoko Pettit-Toledo (Professor, William S. Richardson School of Law) and Elizabeth “Kalei” Akau (William S. Richardson School of Law Graduate). Panelists discussed the Jeju 4.3 tragedy and U.S. reparative justice responsibility; Korea Peace Now’s Intergenerational Learning and Healing Series; and how activists are combatting right-wing forces seeking to undermine democracy and peace.
🗓️ Upcoming Events
There will be no Korea Peace Now! Grassroots Network monthly meeting this August due to a short summer break. KPNGN will resume with its regularly scheduled meeting the second Thursday every month on September 11 at 5pm PT // 8 pm ET! Please mark your calendars! Registration link to follow.
July 29, 2025 | Women Cross DMZ 10-Year Anniversary Korea Trek NYC Report Back
Women Cross DMZ Executive Director Cathi Choi and Afghans for a Better Tomorrow Co-Director Arash Azizzada will be in New York on Tuesday, July 29, 2025 to give an in-person report back on our 10-Year Anniversary Solidarity Trek to Korea! Join us this Tuesday at 6pm at Deep Dive (246 Patchen, Brooklyn). RSVP here.
August 10, 2025 | How Global U.S. Militarism Impacts Americans: Korea, War, and U.S. Domestic Policies
Join Korea Peace Now! Midwest Region at the HANA Center in Chicago (4300 N. California Ave) on Sunday, August 10 at 5pm for a special discussion and networking event on the war, the economy, and its effects on communities and families. This event is free to the public and in-person only. Please RSVP here.
Two speakers from Women Cross DMZ will offer insights on the connections between US militarism, the war economy, and continuing assaults on the well-being of our communities and families:
- Women Cross DMZ and Korea Peace Now! Organizer Echo will discuss the current state of US intervention in Korea and its consequences for ordinary Koreans.
- Women Cross DMZ’s Board Chair Ji-Yeon Yuh will address ballooning war spending and its consequences for the economy, social services, health care, and education.
KPNGN Midwest thanks event co-sponsors WCDMZ, HANA Center, and KAN-WIN for their support.
September 15-19, 2025 | Commemorating 80 Years of Liberation and 60 Years of Korea–Japan Relations “East Asia–North America Peace Workshop & Campaign: Ending the Korean War and Colonial Legacy”
Women Cross DMZ and Korea Peace Now! are sponsoring “East Asia–North America Peace Workshop & Campaign: Ending the Korean War and Colonial Legacy,” a collaborative multi-workshop campaign taking place from September 15-19 in Pennsylvania and Washington D.C. Objectives of the campaign include strengthening the role of civil society and academia in advancing peace on the Korean Peninsula and in East Asia and building networks of cooperation between U.S. and East Asian organizations. Some of the workshops and events will be open to the public. Learn more about the campaign and partners here.
🔔 Take Action:
Urge your Representatives to Support the Peace on the Korean Peninsula Act
We have two new Korea Peace champions! Thank you to Rep. Maxine Waters (D-CA) and Rep. Terri Sewell (D-AL) for co-sponsoring H.R.1841, the Peace on the Korean Peninsula Act. It’s long past time to end the longest-running U.S. conflict, the Korean War. Korea Peace Now! Grassroots Network members and constituents met with Rep. Sewell’s office in 2024 and with Rep. Waters’ office this year to advocate support for the Peace on the Korean Peninsula Act (PKPA), which calls for serious, urgent diplomacy in pursuit of a binding peace agreement to formally end the Korean War, and other peace-focused policies.
The PKPA currently has 40 total co-sponsors! Is your Representative a Korea Peace Champion? Contact your member of Congress now to urge them to support peace in Korea here.
✌️Follow Women Cross DMZ and Korea Peace Now! on Bluseky! Say hello and check out our account!
🛍 Support the Korea Peace Movement: Show your support for Korea peace with one of our tote bags, hats, baby onesies, and clothing, available here. All funds will support Korea Peace Now!, our U.S.-based movement for peace in Korea led by Women Cross DMZ. Art by Peter Holland and lazy blender.
Sincerely,
Women Cross DMZ