July 27 marked the 70th anniversary of the armistice agreement establishing a cease-fire in the Korean War. This temporary agreement has never been replaced by a permanent peace treaty. As a result, more than 75 million people on the Korean Peninsula (more than the population of the United Kingdom or France) live in an ongoing state of war, experienced as the potential for active hostility at any time.
We are all longtime residents of Chicago, and all of us have close family members and friends in South Korea. Many of them live in Seoul, a metropolitan region of almost 10 million people, which is only 35 miles from the Demilitarized Zone and border with North Korea. All men in South Korea are required to serve in the military for at least 18 months. And a large percentage of the budgets of both South and North Korea is diverted into maintaining the most heavily fortified border in the world, resources that could be put into health care, education, housing and the environment. All of these take a heavy toll on the mental health of people living in South Korea, which has one of the highest suicide rates in the world.
As members of the Korean American Peace Fund, we attended the Korea Peace Action: National Mobilization to End the Korean War, which included a rally and symposium in Washington on July 27-28. One of the main goals of this convening was to urge our government to pass House Resolution 1369, the Peace on the Korean Peninsula Act, which would create a pathway to a peace treaty between the United States and North Korea — the first, essential step toward building true collective security in the region.
The bill urges the U.S. government to engage in direct talks with the North Korean government and end the ban on travel by U.S. citizens to North Korea. More than 100,000 Americans are directly affected by the travel ban. Some are relatives of prisoners of war or soldiers missing in action lost during the war who are still searching for their family members’ remains. Many others affected by the travel ban are Korean Americans who yearn to see mothers, fathers, siblings and other loved ones in the North, separated now for almost three-quarters of a century. Most of these divided family members have already died without ever reuniting with their loved ones.
One of us, JeeYeun, has a grandfather who was taken by North Korean soldiers during the early part of the war. Her grandmother was able to see him once while he was in custody in Seoul before he was taken across the border. Decades later, her father traveled to North Korea in search of him, but the family never saw or heard from him. Only in the process of advocating for HR 1369 did JeeYeun even consider visiting North Korea herself to seek information about what happened to her grandfather, showing the level of resignation that many of us feel about the permanence of Korea’s division.
But all residents of the United States are affected by this un-ended war.
As the blockbuster drama “Oppenheimer” reminds us, the existence of nuclear weapons makes any war a potential global catastrophe. The continued presence of the U.S. military in the Korean peninsula heightens tensions, making us “one bad decision away from nuclear war,” as stated by Dan Leaf, retired Air Force general and former deputy commander of the U.S. Pacific Command. Within the last two weeks, two U.S. nuclear-powered submarines have landed in South Korea after months of joint U.S.-South Korean live-fire military drills that have sharply intensified in scale and frequency; during the same time, a U.S. soldier on a guided tour of the DMZ crossed the border to North Korea. Improving diplomacy and direct communication with North Korea would allow the U.S. to resolve sensitive matters and deescalate tensions more quickly.
Because of the perceived threat of North Korea and now China, South Korea is home to the third-largest overseas U.S. military presence in the world. This expenditure siphons valuable resources away from the basic needs of Americans here at home, for housing, health care, education and a clean environment.
As the leader of the United Nations Command during the Korean War, only the United States can sign a peace agreement with North Korea. It is in the best interest of our country to do so.
It’s time to end the longest war in U.S. history.
Becky Belcore is co-director of the National Korean American Service and Education Consortium. Inhe Choi is executive director of the HANA Center, a Chicago-area nonprofit. Youngju Ji and JeeYeun Lee work for the Korean American Peace Fund.
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