It’s Time to End the War in Korea

Together, we aim to seed conditions for a transformative peace on the Korean Peninsula by:

Catalyzing Congressional and public support for the Peace on the Korean Peninsula Act (H.R.1369), which lays the groundwork for ending the longest standing U.S. conflict overseas;

• Establishing a peace agreement as the best, safest way to address the security crisis in Korea and reduce the threat of nuclear conflict;
• Calling for the reallocation of massive military spending toward genuine human security: education, health care, jobs, and green infrastructure needs;
• Raising awareness about the ongoing human costs of the Korean War, including divided families and humanitarian crises;
• Strengthening, expanding, and aligning the grassroots base of Korea peace advocates.

“No matter how challenging the negotiations and politics of securing peace on the Korean Peninsula may prove, they are nothing compared with nuclear war”

— Dan Leaf (U.S. Air Force)
Retired U.S. Air Force lieutenant general and former deputy commander of the U.S. Indo-Pacific Command

Led by Women Cross DMZ and Korea Peace Now! Grassroots Network, Korea Peace Action: National Mobilization to End the Korean War unites several U.S. organizations advocating for peace on the Korean Peninsula. We are organizing a national gathering in Washington, DC, on the 70th anniversary of the Korean Armistice to urge Congress and President Biden to replace the temporary armistice with a formal peace agreement with North Korea.

Referred to by some people in the U.S. as the “Forgotten War,” the Korean War killed an estimated four million people in just three years—more than half of them Korean civilians. It is the longest-standing U.S. conflict. It is also the singular historical trauma that continues to haunt generations of Koreans, including the last living generation of war survivors divided on opposite sides of the world’s most heavily militarized border and those in the diaspora.

The unresolved state of the war is the root cause of tensions between the two parties, resulting in the extreme militarization of the Korean Peninsula. Without a peace agreement, renewed conflict could break out at any time. Many experts agree that the risk of nuclear war may be the highest in Korea. 

A peace agreement that officially ends the Korean War is the most realistic and effective method for resolving the security crisis on the Korean Peninsula. Such an agreement would reduce tensions in the region and provide a foundation for effective engagement on human rights and denuclearization. And it would be a step toward shifting resources away from endless wars and toward peace, justice, basic human needs, and collective security.