Our statement on the U.S. elections
November 7, 2024
Posted in: News • Press Releases
Like many of you, we are grieving the results of the U.S. elections and are deeply concerned about the most vulnerable in our communities, our democracy, and the potential consequences for the Korean Peninsula. Arguably no other U.S. president has had a more wildly unpredictable and extreme relationship with North Korea than Donald Trump. In his first year in office in 2017, Trump threatened North Korea with “fire and fury like the world has never seen.” This provoked Pyongyang to test what it said was a hydrogen bomb, its sixth nuclear test, and an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) theoretically capable of reaching the United States. In 2017, Trump also instituted a ban on U.S. passport holders traveling to North Korea, preventing thousands of Korean Americans from seeing their loved ones. This ban represents the harshest travel restriction the U.S. government can apply to its passport holders, and currently only applies to North Korea.
This was followed by historic summits between Moon Jae In and Kim Jong Un, as well as between Trump and Kim, who promised to end the state of war and usher in a new era of peace on the Korean Peninsula. But ultimately, Trump squandered the opportunity for peace at the 2019 Hanoi summit by insisting that North Korea hand over its nuclear weapons program without any U.S. concessions or security guarantees, badly damaging relations with North Korea. Throughout his most recent campaign, Trump failed to present any plan to engage diplomatically with North Korea but instead boasted that North Korea is “afraid” of him. Trump also said that South Korea should be a “money machine” based on the U.S. troops stationed there.
For his part, Biden further eroded U.S.-North Korea relations by increasing militarization in the region and maintaining the strategy of complete, irreversible, and verifiable denuclearization (CVID) of North Korea. He relied on a deterrence strategy that has failed to abate the increased threat of nuclear conflict. Biden has also repeatedly renewed the Trump-era travel ban on North Korea that has cut off the possibility of people-to-people engagement and family reunions. As we look towards the future, we know that there is urgent and critical work to be done as U.S.-based peace activists to forge peace in Korea. We know that no amount of militarized escalation or sanctions will resolve the security crisis and that the prerequisite for peaceful coexistence and averting nuclear war with North Korea is to end the 74-year-old Korean War with a lasting peace agreement.
A majority of people in the U.S. support diplomatically engaging with North Korea to reduce tensions and avoid military confrontation. This growing political will is reflected in our hard-won legislative victories — including 52 co-sponsors of H.R.1369, the Peace on the Korean Peninsula Act. We’re also celebrating the election of Andy Kim (D-NJ), the first Korean American Senator, a longtime Korea peace champion!
Ultimately, the work for peace is not bound to any one election cycle, but instead depends entirely on the political will that we, the people, build. We must organize our communities and build solidarity with fellow anti-war activists and movements across generations and national boundaries. Our growing Korea Peace Now! Grassroots Network is part of the resilient transnational movements for peace made up of generations past, present, and future.
We reaffirm our goals:
- Lift broad-based sanctions against North Korea, especially those impacting the civilian population
- Pursue the peace-building process, including a formal end to the Korean War with a peace agreement and normalized relations.
- Realize the tangible de-militarization of the Korean Peninsula, including denuclearization, ceasing military exercises and testing of missiles and nuclear weapons, the removal of landmines, and the reduction of arms, bases, and troops.
- Redefine security away from a military-first approach towards genuine human security grounded in feminist principles of peace, justice, and ecological sustainability.
- Ensure feminist leadership and gender-based analysis in the Korea peace process.
Join our efforts to shape a progressive U.S. foreign policy to realize a more secure and equitable world. Become a Korea Peace Now! Grassroots Network member and sign up for updates here.