Impact

A BEAUTIFUL MOVEMENT IS CROSSING THE LINE NOW

Photo of Women Cross DMZ Peace Walk at the Monument to the Three Charters for National Reunification. Pyongyang, North Korea by Niana Liu.

by Niana Liu. Women Cross DMZ Peace Walk at the Monument to the Three Charters for National Reunification. Pyongyang, North Korea.

When a motion becomes a movement, it can be a very beautiful thing.

On May 24, 2015, for the first time in 63 years, a group of civilians crossed the border between North and South Korea. They did so in a call for peace. They were an international group of 30 women activists who came together in the WomenCrossDMZ Peace Walk. They were joined by thousands of Korean women on both sides.

Women Cross DMZ started with a vision, initiated by Christine Ahn, the executive director of the Korea Policy Institute, which she co-founded.

Their mission is to move hearts and minds to reunite North and South Korea. Although most people think the Korean War is over, it isn’t. It is in the limbo state of a tense and acrimonious truce. Women Cross DMZ hopes their efforts can help get the ball rolling towards a formal end to the war. They have acted as “citizen diplomats” in their calls for a permanent peace treaty.

Although the North-South Korean border is called a demilitarized zone, the 160-mile-long, 2.5-mile-wide DMZ is among the world’s most heavily militarized borders, created as a result of the Korean War.

One million North Korean troops stand, on their side of the line, ready to attack the 620,000 South Korean and 28,500 U.S. troops who face them, in opposition, on the other side.

The division has separated many families. Thousands of Korean elders die every year waiting for permission to see their children or siblings after being separated from them for almost 70 years.

Sanctions against the North Korean government have made it difficult for people to access the basics needed for survival. The unresolved Korean conflict keeps everyone in a heavy military state of mind and economy, as it channels funds and energies away from schools, hospitals, jobs, and environmental stewardship.

Gloria Steinem, the honorary co-chair of Women Cross DMZ, is passionate about the mission. "I feel this is very much our spiritual and political duty to be part of every peace table," Steinem said at a recent press conference. "It has often been the case that citizenry -- women and men -- can make progress when it is not possible for the officials to be able to meet at that moment in time.

Other prominent members of the Peace Walk included Nobel Peace Prize laureates Mairead Maguire and Leymah Gbowee; Medea Benjamin and Jodie Evans, co-founders of CODEPINK, a women-led peace organization; and film producer and philanthropist Abigail Disney. The group also included university professors, politicians, and other activists.

Evans explains how the idea took shape, “We listened to Korean women and shared our experiences and ideas of mobilizing women to bring an end to violent conflict.”

While the quest for peace is an undeniably beautiful mission, some people have criticized the Women Cross DMZ because the group did not address North Korea’s record of crimes against humanity and, in particular, its cruel abuses of women.

Jodie Evans responds, “To even begin to have proximity to and affect on human rights abuses we must begin the path to peace and reunification. Nothing has changed or affected the North Korea government for 63 years, something new is needed.”

After leading an international peace symposium in Pyongyang, the group marched along a route lined with thousands of North Korean women who cheered them on. But when they reached the border, North Korean authorities would only permit a South Korean bus to to carry the activist delegation across the line to the South, where they were greeted by thousands of South Korean women. They held another peace symposium in Seoul.

The activists, together with the women of North and South Korea, created a beautiful symbolic quilt, using colors and patterns from both the north and the south. Each woman made a piece, then they sewed the pieces together. The patchwork motif was mirrored in scarves worn by the women. It was all a metaphor for stitching together the broken pieces of their world.

While we are now just beginning to see a bit of movement towards change, the Women Cross DMZ Peace Walk made an important impact. The North and South Korean governments began, for the first time in many decades, to communicate with each other in order to plan the peace march. We hope they keep talking.

For more insight into the conflict and the peace movement, check out Deann Borshay Liem’s film “Memory of Forgotten War,” a painful look at the separated families in North and South Korea. She is currently producing a new film about the Peace Walk called, “Crossings.”

CODEPINK plans to launch a campaign to continue to educate and put pressure on Congress, with a Congressional briefing in late July for the Korea caucus.

“Our trip took us behind the myth of North Korea into the lives of the women who shared their stories of loss and their deep desire to be reunited with their families,” Evans shares. “The lack of a peace treaty and reunification is a dark cloud over both countries that needs to be lifted, NOW.”

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IMAGE CREDITS:

Image: by Niana Liu. Women Cross DMZ Peace Walk at the Monument to the Three Charters for National Reunification. Pyongyang, North Korea.
Image: by Adam Pervez. Demilitarized Zone between North and South Korea.
Image: by Joop. Joint Security Area. Demilitarized Zone between North and South Korea.
Image: by Matt Gutteridge. Fence with Ribbons at Imjingak, Paju, South Korea
Image: by Jodie Evans. Gloria Steinem at Women Cross DMZ
Image: By Jodie Evans. Colorful ending... — in Seoul, Korea. Women Cross DMZ.
Image: by Medea Benjamin. With M. Brinton Lykes, Erika Guevara, Jodie Evans, and Coleen Baik.
Image: by Jodie Evans. Women Cross DMZ Peace Walk.
Image: by Alli McCracken. Gloria Steinem leads Women Cross DMZ Peace Walk.
Image: By Jodie Evans. the women lined the streets as we walked - so much pink! Women Cross DMZ Peace Walk
Image: by Niana Liu. Women Cross DMZ with Quilt.
Image: by Alli McCracken. Medea and Jodie with pink ladies in North Korea. I'm somehow not surprised! — with Medea Benjamin and Jodie Evans
Image: Courtesy of Jodie Evans. She is reading our card that says Peace on Earth — with Medea Benjamin.
Image: by Medea Benjamin. I love this photo of Jodie Evans from the South Korea reception for us when we crossed the DMZ from North Korea. So much joy!!!
Image: by Jodie Evans. Visit to a Buddhist Temple. Women Cross DMZ.
Image: by mendhak. From Mountain to Sea. Seoraksan National Park, Sokcho, South Korea.
Image: by Duesride. Haeundae District. Busan, South Korea
Image: Courtesy of BeautifulNow. BN App.
Image: by Adrián Miguel Torres. Sunset in Sokcho ROK. Sokcho, South Korea.

All Women Cross DMZ images are courtesy of Jodie Evans and Medea Benjamin and are used with permission.