Seventy years after armistice, Korean Peace Now! Grassroots Network and Women Cross DMZ are working to see the official end to the war.
The following article was published in the July-August 2023 issue of NewsNotes.
This July 27-28 in Washington, DC, Maryknoll Office for Global Concerns will co-sponsor Korea Peace Action: National Mobilization to End the Korean War, hosted by Korea Peace Now! Grassroots Network and Women Cross DMZ. This year marks two important anniversaries: 100 years since the arrival of Maryknoll missioners in Korea, and 70 years since the July 27, 1953 armistice that ended major combat in the Korean War.
No formal peace treaty was ever signed, and so the Korean War never officially ended. Today, the Korean Peninsula remains divided, tensions remain high, and the stakes have only heightened through the nuclear brinksmanship between North Korea and the United States.
The first week of June, MOGC joined Women Cross DMZ and others across the country in lobbying Congress to end the war as part of Korea Peace Advocacy Week. The Korea Peace Action will build on those advocacy efforts, bringing people together on the July 27 Armistice anniversary for a press conference at the Capitol with Korea peace champions and Members of Congress, a grief ceremony, a rally at the White House, a march, and a faith vigil at the Korean War Veterans Memorial on the National Mall, followed by an all-day conference July 28 at George Washington University.
In particular, participants in Korea Peace Action will be raising Congressional and public support for the Peace on the Korean Peninsula Act (H.R.1369) currently before the House of Representatives.
Organizers note in the event press release that the historic gathering of peace advocates will take place in the context of “tensions rising dangerously on the Korean Peninsula—including the U.S. and South Korea holding the largest ever live-fire drills and a U.S. nuclear-powered submarine arriving in South Korean waters a day after North Korea resumed missile tests.”
The statement continues: “Korea peace advocates have made significant strides in challenging the mainstream narrative about the ‘Forgotten War,’ as it is often referred to in U.S. history textbooks. That war—which killed 4 million people in just three years, mostly civilians—remains the defining trauma of the Korean people, both on the peninsula and in the diaspora. Most Americans don’t realize that the Korean War never technically ended, or that the Korean War is the longest-running overseas U.S. military conflict.
“The broad coalition of organizations involved in this mobilization are calling for a permanent peace agreement between the United States and North Korea—the only two parties to the war that have not declared peace or normalized relations—to replace the 70-year armistice. The current U.S. approach toward North Korea, defined by hostility and isolation, has failed to achieve positive outcomes and has only prolonged continuing tensions and hostilities between the two parties. This has resulted in the extreme militarization of the Korean Peninsula and continued division of families.
“Geopolitical and military experts agree that an official end to the Korean War would reduce tensions and build confidence, providing the foundation upon which to more effectively engage on issues such as denuclearization and improved human rights. It would be a step toward shifting resources away from endless wars and toward more basic human needs at home, including housing, healthcare, food security, and climate action.”
Maryknoll Fathers and Brothers arrived in Pyongyang in what is now North Korea in 1923, followed by Maryknoll Sisters in 1924. In the next decades, the conflicts between foreign powers on the peninsula and between the communist north and United States-allied south resulted in many Maryknoll missioners in Korea being expelled and even martyred.
While missioners have never been able to return full-time to North Korea, Fr. Gerry Hammond, MM, has made over 70 visits, delivering tuberculosis medicines with the Eugene Bell Foundation. He draws a direct relationship between such humanitarian engagement and hope for peace: “We act as a bridge between the two Koreas, so we try to create a climate of trust that can facilitate the work of those who will come after us.”
In addition to support for the Peace on the Korean Peninsula Act, MOGC lobbied in June for the revival of the Enhancing North Korea Humanitarian Assistance Act, which has yet to be reintroduced during this Congress, in hopes that work like Fr. Hammond’s can continue paving the way for peace.
Faith in Action
- Register for Korea Peace Action in Washington, DC July 27-28 at https://www.koreapeaceaction.org/.
- Urge your Member of Congress to become a Korea peace champion by co-sponsoring the Peace On The Korean Peninsula Act (H.R. 1369) today: https://mogc.info/HR1369
Photo from the Korea Peace Now! website