Women De-Militarize the Zone Complete Peace Walk in Korea Published on June 1, 2015
On Sunday, May 24 2015, thirty women leaders from around the world sponsored by Peace Development Fund on behalf of Women De-Militarize the Zone made a rare and risky crossing of the demilitarized zone (DMZ) between North and South Korea to call for peace on the 70th anniversary of the division of the Korean Peninsula.
International women activists including Gloria Steinem and two Nobel Peace laureates on Sunday were denied an attempt to walk across the Demilitarized Zone dividing North and South Korea, but were allowed to cross by bus and complete what one of them called a landmark peace event. (AP Photo/Lee Jin-man)
While a temporary ceasefire agreement has been in place for more than 60 years following the ended the Korean War, which claimed an estimated four million lives, the ceasefire has never been replaced with a peace treaty. As a result, the two- mile-wide and 155 mile-long demilitarized DMZ continues to divide the Korean peninsula with recurring tensions that serve as a sobering reminder of the possibility of renewed war.
With support from PDF, 30 women leaders made this brave journey across the DMZ. On Sunday morning, a bus picked them up from the North Korean side and drove them across the DMZ that has separated the two countries for more than half a century. The delegation included two Nobel Peace Laureates, Mairead Maguire from Northern Ireland and Leymah Gbowee from Liberia, and women leaders from over a dozen countries, many of which participated in the 1950-53 Korean War, as well as activists like Gloria Steinem.
“We feel very celebratory and positive that we have created a voyage across the DMZ in peace and reconciliation that was said to be impossible,” Steinem said after the group, which had originally planned to walk across the zone, arrived in South Korea.
As longtime peace activist, and the founder of Women De-Militarize the Zone, Christine Ahn says: “We women, from North and South Korea and around the world, are walking for peace and the reunification of the Korean peninsula. We are walking for a new chapter in Korean history, one marked by forgiveness, understanding, and dialogue. We are walking to unite Korean families tragically separated by an artificial, man-made division. We are walking to demilitarize the Korean peninsula.”
Women De-Militarize the Zone is a member of The Sustainability Project, PDF’s unique three-year program of technical assistance for grantees that targets capacity building.
In addition to crossing the DMZ, the activists spoke with women at a series of events during their time there, and will also participate in meetings with women leaders from different regions, as well as advocacy efforts in Washington, D.C. and at the United Nations, which will be crucial in seeing through the passage of a peace treaty. This is just the beginning of women directly impacting peace processes internationally.
