Our 2021-2022 Annual Report
November 21, 2022
Posted in: Annual Reports
Since 2014, Women Cross DMZ has built a formidable organization to educate the public and policymakers about the need for a peace-first approach to resolve the seven-decade conflict on the Korean Peninsula.
Despite the ongoing challenges of the pandemic, Women Cross DMZ continues to build the political will for bringing about a formal end to the Korean War. Here are some of the steps we’ve taken in the last year to get closer to that goal:
- Organized a Korea Peace National Strategy Meeting to convene key leaders from advocacy, grassroots organizing, humanitarian, and messaging sectors of the U.S.-based Korea peace movement in order to assess the current political reality and develop strategies across these intersecting vantage points.
- Highlighted the harms caused by the U.S.-China rivalry on frontline communities in the Pacific and Asia region through a series published in Foreign Policy in Focus as part of our Feminist Peace Initiative with MADRE and Grassroots Global Justice Alliance.
- Organized letters signed by 100 women leaders to U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Wendy Sherman and North Korea’s First Vice Minister of Foreign Affairs Choe Son-hui urging them to set the stage for a diplomatic solution, and to Secretary of State Antony Blinken urging him to end the ban on U.S. citizens traveling to North Korea, signed by humanitarian leaders, members of divided families, organizations working to repatriate U.S. servicemember remains, and others.
- Called for suspending the U.S.-R.O.K. military exercises and decreasing military tensions on the Korean Peninsula by organizing rallies and sending a letter to the State Department.
- Advocated for H.R.3446, the Peace on the Korean Peninsula Act by collaborating with the Korea Peace Network, Korea Peace Now! Grassroots Network, and Peace Treaty Now to organize “Korea Peace Advocacy Week” for nationally coordinated online advocacy.
- Organized nationwide screenings of the new documentary film Crossings by Emmy-award winning filmmaker Deann Borshay Liem about our historic journey across the demilitarized zone in 2015 from North Korea to South Korea to call for an end to the 70-year war that has divided the Korean Peninsula and its people.
- Published From Confrontation to Peacebuilding: U.S.-China Competition and the Korean Peninsula, a new report that explores how the great power competition threatens prospects for peace in Korea, and conversely, how peacebuilding in Korea offers an opportunity for cooperation between Washington and Beijing.
Looking to the future, Women Cross DMZ plans to:
- Garner more support in Congress and within the Biden administration for peace and normalizing relations with North Korea. We will continue to educate the public, lead and build coalitions, direct national advocacy work, and mobilize our grassroots chapters. We will work with Korea Peace Champions in Congress to reintroduce the Peace on the Korean Peninsula Act in Spring 2023.
- Cultivate the next generation of activists to become Korea Peace Champions by establishing Korea Peace Now! Campus chapters in colleges and universities, including at Boston College, University of California at Santa Cruz, University of Hawai‘i at Manoa, Spelman College, and more.
- Organize 100 screenings by December 2023 of the new documentary film Crossings to grassroots communities, on college campuses, and to policymakers as an educational and organizing tool to grow our movement and encourage people to take action to end the Korean War.
- Lead an international delegation of women leaders on a De-militarization Tour to South Korea in 2023 on the 70th anniversary of the Armistice Agreement. We will travel to the DMZ and other militarized sites to hear from women about the impact of the ongoing 70-year-old war on their daily lives, and about their vision of a genuinely de-militarized Korea, region and world.
Read more about our accomplishments and how we are continuing to build a growing movement for peace in Korea in our 2021-2022 Annual Report.
