2015 Crossing

In 2015 — the 70th anniversary of Korea’s tragic division by the United States and the former Soviet Union — 30 women peacemakers from around the world crossed the Korean Demilitarized Zone, the strip of land that has separated North and South Korea ever since a “temporary” ceasefire halted the Korean War in 1953.

Gloria Steinem, Christine Ahn, Leymah Gbowee, and Mairead Maguire were among the 30 women peacemakers who crossed the DMZ in 2015.

With this historic act we called for three things: an end to the Korean War by replacing the 1953 Armistice Agreement with a permanent peace treaty, the reunification of separated families, and women’s involvement at all levels of the peacebuilding process.

Our delegation included two Nobel Peace laureates — Mairead Maguire from Northern Ireland and Leymah Gbowee from Liberia — feminist icon Gloria Steinem, retired U.S. Army Colonel Ann Wright, academics, humanitarian aid workers, faith leaders, and others from a dozen countries, including several nations that fought in the 1950-53 Korean War.

Despite criticism that we were hopelessly naïve and playing into the sinister plans of one side or the other, we held a peace symposium in Pyongyang with hundreds of North Korean women and walked arm-in-arm with 10,000 Korean women on both sides of the DMZ, on the wide boulevards of Pyongyang and the cobblestone streets of Kaesong, and along the barbed-wire fence in Paju. We held a second international peace symposium in Seoul. We did this on May 24, International Women’s Day for Disarmament.

Quilt-stitching ceremony at the Women’s Peace Symposium in Pyongyang. Photo by David Guttenfelder.

Crossing the most militarized border in the world was no simple task. We had to gain approval from both Korean governments and the UN Command, which has jurisdiction over the DMZ…

Women embrace at a quilt-stitching ceremony at the Women’s Peace Symposium in Pyongyang. Photo by David Guttenfelder,

Crossing the most militarized border in the world was no simple task. We had to gain approval from both Korean governments and the UN Command, which has jurisdiction over the DMZ. Eventually, we did gain permission from all involved parties. Our peace walk also garnered international support, including endorsements from U.S. President Jimmy Carter, authors Alice Walker and Naomi Klein, Nobel Peace Laureate and Archbishop Desmond Tutu, the Dalai Lama, actor Robert Redford, and physician Deepak Chopra.

However, we were not the first ones to cross the DMZ. In fact, Korean women were the first to cross the DMZ in the name of peace. In 1989, university student Lim Su-kyung traveled to Pyongyang to attend the World Youth Festival and was arrested upon her return at Panmunjom. With her action, she hoped to inspire reunification. In the 1990s, South Korean women crossed the DMZ and met their counterparts at Panmunjom, and then in Tokyo, Seoul, and Pyongyang. (And in the two years before our 2015 crossing, two delegations — five New Zealanders by motorbike and 32 Korean Russians by motorcade — crossed the DMZ, with approval from both Korean governments.)

…we were not the first ones to cross the DMZ. In fact, Korean women were the first to cross the DMZ in the name of peace. In 1989, university student Lim Su-kyung traveled to Pyongyang to attend the World Youth Festival and was arrested upon her return at Panmunjom.

We hoped to build on that important legacy with our 2015 crossing. After all, women have long been crossing borders to end wars and call for peace. Women Cross DMZ continues to mobilize people across borders to press for peace, diplomacy, and women’s inclusion in peacebuilding.