by CHRISTINE AHN
Women cross the DMZ (Demilitarized Zone), a land area dividing North and South Koreas for more than 60 years
One year ago, I led a group of 30 women from 15 countries on a journey across the De-Militarized Zone (DMZ) from North to South Korea.
On May 24, International Women’s Day for Peace and Disarmament, we crossed the world’s most militarized border calling for the reunification of Korean families divided by conflict and a peace treaty to end the Korean War. Our delegation included two Nobel Peace Prize laureates, a retired U.S. army colonel, and America’s most revered feminist, Gloria Steinem.
Together, we shined a light on the urgent need for a peaceful solution to the Korean conflict that’s separated three generations of families and threatens nuclear war today.
While we received support from world leaders such as U.S. President Jimmy Carter and UN Secretary General Ban Ki Moon, others called us “naïve handmaidens” of the Kim Jong-Un regime and accused us of seeking to advance North Korea’s agenda. As South Korean women plan another peace walk this May along the DMZ’s southern border, detractors now allege that the idea came from the North Korean government.
In fact, the idea of the women’s peace walk emerged from a dream I had in 2009 after reading about the flooding of the Imjin River, which killed six South Koreans. To avert a catastrophe in North Korea, Pyongyang lifted the floodgates of the dam, but apparently didn’t communicate with Seoul, as the inter-Korean hotline had been shut down.
In 2013, my idea crystallized into action when five New Zealanders rode their motorbikes across the DMZ. If they could do it, international women peacemakers could certainly do it, too. And we could call for an end to the Korean War while we were at it.
With a colleague and my young daughter in tow, I traveled to Pyongyang in February 2014 to present my idea to a panel of skeptical North Korean officials. Whether out of shared belief in re-starting a long-stalled peace process or an undisclosed agenda of their own, they signed a memorandum agreeing, tentatively, to a women’s peace march across the DMZ. With assistance from former U.S. Ambassador Bill Richardson, the UN Command Military Armistice Commission also agreed to cooperate once South Korea gave the green light, which finally arrived days before we boarded our planes to Beijing en route to North Korea.
Over the course of four days, we exchanged ideas with North Korean women leaders and marched with 7,000 North Korean women through the streets of Pyongyang and Kaesong.
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