Peace & Freedom: 2023 Fall/Winner issue

The Nazis killed six million Jews, as well as Roma, gay people,
and people with mental and physical disabilities. Rosenberg
argued that it is possible to learn facts without “their having
any impact on the way we understand ourselves or the world
we live in.” Understanding the meaning of an event is a much
deeper process by which “it becomes integrated into one’s
moral and intellectual life,” part of a person’s analysis and
ethical principles. In addition, “Understanding compels us to
action, even though we may not initially want to change our
habitual ways of thinking and being.”
I’ve found this distinction helpful in thinking about how
people in the United States can be allies in Korean people’s
struggles for peace and disarmament. How do we change
our lack of concern? What gets in the way? And what compels
us to act? I believe we need guides and teachers, open
minds, and a willingness to show up. Several robust Korean
and Korean American organizations, listed below, provide
information, materials for use in school and community settings,
and opportunities to join ongoing campaigns to finally
end the Korean War.
Rather than continuing the military buildup and threats,
it is imperative to ease economic sanctions against North
Korea and start meaningful talks toward a peace agreement.
This is the safest way to address the ongoing security crisis
and reduce the threat of nuclear conflict. More than this,
millions of people on the Korean peninsula, across the Asia
Pacific region, and indeed worldwide, could thrive if massive
military spending was redirected toward genuine security for
people and the planet. In Washington, DC, Republicans and
Democrats alike are fueling military spending, with $886
billion proposed for the coming fiscal year, the highest ever.
Ro Khanna is the only member of the House Armed Services
Committee to vote against this.
In July 2023, South Koreans held rallies, marches, and
press conferences in Seoul, at the DMZ, and in other cities. In
Washington, DC, the National Mobilization to End the Korean
War called for sustained diplomatic engagement toward a
binding peace agreement on the Korean peninsula. For the
past three years, the Korea Peace Appeal has collected hundreds
of thousands of signatures calling for an official end to
the Korean War. Organizers plan to deliver them to the UN
Secretary General in New York, and to UN representatives from
the ROK, DPRK, US, and China at the end of September 2023.
Gwyn Kirk is a founder-member of the International Women’s
Network Against Militarism that links activists across the
Asia-Pacific region. She was part of an international women’s
delegation to North and South Korea in 2015 to call for the
end of the Korean War. See“Stitching Korea Back Together,”
Peace and Freedom (Fall/Winter 2015), vol. 75, no. 2: 18-19.
Five Things We Can Do
1. Go to the WILPF webpage on Korea for updated
information on the continuing human costs of the
Korean War, including divided families and humanitarian
crises, and US responsibility for the current situation.
2. Screen and discuss the award-winning documentary
Crossings. This film features thirty women activists
including Nobel Peace Laureates and noted US feminist
Gloria Steinem, who crossed the DMZ from North to
South Korea in 2015, calling for an end to the Korean
War.
3. Check out the following organizations, which are all
building on the actions they organized this year:
Korea Peace Action: koreapeaceaction.org
Korea Peace Appeal Campaign:
endthekoreanwar.net/posts
Korea Peace Now: Path to Peace: The Case for a
Peace Agreement to End the Korean War
The Korea Policy Institute: kpolicy.or
Women Cross DMZ: womencrossdmz.org
4. Support the Peace on the Korean Peninsula Act
(H.R. 1369). Catalyze Congressional and public support
for this initiative, introduced by Brad Sherman (D-CA),
which now has 34 co-sponsors in the US Congress.
5. Continue to oppose bloated military budgets and
demand that this money is redirected toward vital social
and environmental needs.
Notes
1 Gertrude Carman Bussey and Margaret Tims, Pioneers for Peace: Women’s
International League for Peace and Freedom 1915-1965, 2 nd edition
(WILPF British Section, 1980), 204-205.
2 Josh Smith, “US, S.Korea to hold big exercises with focus on N.Korea
“aggression”,” Reuters, March 3, 2023.
3 Commander, Submarine Group Seven, “USS Michigan Visits Busan,”
www.csp.navy.mil/csg7/, June 21, 2023.
4 Justin McCurry, “The Vladimir Putin-Kim Jong-un Summit: five things we
learned,” The Guardian, September 15, 2023.
5 Dave DeCamp, “US to Establish New Space Force Command Post in
Japan,” Antiwar.com, September 18, 2023.
6 Alan Rosenberg, “The crisis in knowing and understanding the Holocaust,”
in Echoes from the Holocaust: Philosophical Reflections on a
Dark Time, ed. by A. Rosenberg and G.E. Myers (Temple University
Press, 1988), 382.
4 | PEACE & FREEDOM FALL/WINTER 2023