2023 has witnessed dangerously high tensions on the Korean Peninsula: North Korea recently displayed enough ICBMs to overwhelm the U.S.’s missile defense system, the United States and South Korea are ramping up joint military exercises, and South Korea is considering arming itself with nuclear weapons. The backdrop to this endless cycle of provocations is the US-China great-power competition, with the Korean Peninsula as its front line. As tensions continue to escalate, how can the Biden administration bring North Korea back to the negotiating table and lay the foundation for peace? The reintroduction of the Peace on the Korean Peninsula Act on March 1 provides an opportunity to advocate for an alternative path for Washington — to explore non-military solutions to the security crisis on the Korean Peninsula.
As we approach the 70th anniversary of the signing of the armistice, this webinar will reflect on the current political context and geopolitical dynamics in Korea and the United States, discuss how the Peace on the Korean Peninsula Act provides a roadmap toward peace, and empower everyday people to take action.
Speakers include:
Christine Ahn, Women Cross DMZ (Moderator)
Colleen Moore, Women Cross DMZ
Andy Kim, Congressman (D-New Jersey)
J.J. Suh, International Christian University (Tokyo, Japan)
Hosted by Women Cross DMZ.
Washington, D.C. – Today, Congressman Brad Sherman (CA-32), senior member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, led 19 members of Congress in re-introducing the Peace on the Korean Peninsula Act – bipartisan legislation that calls for serious, urgent diplomatic engagement in pursuit of a formal end to the Korean War. Congressman Sherman made the announcement in a press conference on Capitol Hill and was joined by his Congressional colleagues along with members of the Korean American Public Action Committee (KAPAC) and supporters of the Korea Peace movement.
Nobel Peace Laureates and South Korean civil society leaders held a press conference in Pyeongchang, South Korea, to call for an immediate de-escalation of tensions on the Korean Peninsula, a return to diplomatic talks, and, most crucially, replacing the 1953 Korean War Armistice with a formal peace agreement.
Speakers included Nobel Peace Laureate Leymah Gbowee, a Liberian peace activist who in 2015 crossed the DMZ with a delegation of women peace activists calling for an official end to the Korean War; Ouided Bouchamaoui, whose organization National Dialogue Quartet won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2015 for helping to halt a civil war in Tunisia; Ira Hefland, MD, chair of the Physicians for Social Responsibility’s Nuclear Weapons Abolition Committee and Ruth Mitchell, of the International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War. From civil society, Yoon Jung Sook of the Korea Peace Appeal (ROK); and Ann Wright, a Board Member of Women Cross DMZ (USA) who also crossed the DMZ in 2015 and a former U.S. Army Colonel and U.S. Diplomat who resigned in protest of the U.S. war on Iraq.
At the press conference, the speakers also announced a letter signed by civil society groups in the United States, South Korea, and around the world to be sent to President Joseph Biden, Chairman Kim Jong Un, and President Yoon Seok-Yeol urging them to stop the destructive arms race, take steps now to prevent a potentially catastrophic war, and set the table for peace talks.
Read the statement here.
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