Dear Friends,
Here are some highlights from our activities we're proud to share with you:
From May 24-27, five members of Women Cross DMZ participated in a women’s peace symposium in Seoul and the third major peace walk along the barbed wire fences lining the southern border of the De-Militarized Zone in Paju, South Korea. Aiyoung Choi sent this message of hope from Seoul: “The mood here is quite upbeat due to President Moon's victory and his new policy directions. Everyone is optimistic and dreaming big again.”
At the same time, I participated in a meeting on “Women Talk Security, Nukes and Democracy” at the Pocantico Center of the Rockefeller Brothers Fund hosted by the Ploughshares Fund. Over two days, 20 respected women experts, thought leaders, and funders discussed how to amplify women’s voices in national and global efforts for saner nuclear policies. I then headed to Los Angeles where I delivered the morning keynote to a nationwide gathering of Korean Americans on why this was the political moment to advance a peace treaty.
Two weeks ago, we were greatly heartened when 64 Congressional Democrats led by Korean War veteran John Conyers (D-MI) sent
a letter to President Trump urging diplomacy with North Korea. Citing a recent
Economist/YouGov poll that found that 60 % of Americans supported direct talks with North Korea, lawmakers pressed Mr. Trump to outline steps he would take towards reuniting Korean families and retrieving the remains of US servicemen who died in the war.
And in our ongoing work to highlight the longstanding legacies of the Korean War, Women Cross DMZ, together with the Korea Peace Network, will co-sponsor the second annual peace conference on June 13, “
Off-Ramps to War: Paths to Building Peace with North Korea.” This daylong conference will be hosted by the Partnerships for International Strategies in Asia at George Washington University’s Elliott School of International Affairs, in Washington DC. Former US Secretary of Defense William J. Perry, and University of Chicago historian and WCDMZ advisor Bruce Cumings will deliver keynote addresses on alternatives to military action on the Korean Peninsula. The conference is free and open to the public, so please join us and help spread the word!
The day after Moon’s landslide presidential victory, Women Cross DMZ held a webinar,
“A New South Korean President: Prospects for Peace on the Korean Peninsula.” Co-sponsored with the Fellowship of Reconciliation, over 300 people joined us from across the world, including via live Facebook feed, tuning in to hear our experts, including the renowned journalist Tim Shorrock and People's Solidarity for Participatory Democracy's (PSPD) Gayoon Baek who joined us from South Korea. You can now watch it on
Youtube.
With gratitude for your continued support for peace, and in solidarity,
Christine Ahn
International Coordinator
Women Cross DMZ
