The World PostNorth Koreademilitarized zoneSouth Korea

Gloria Steinem, Women Peace Activists Cross DMZ Dividing North And South Korea

Gloria Steinem Joins Women Activists Crossing Demilitarized Zone Dividing North And South Korea
Reuters

PAJU, South Korea, May 24 (Reuters) - A group of international women activists crossed the heavily-fortified Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) between North and South Korea on Sunday in what they said was a symbolic act for peace.

North and South Korea are still technically at war after the 1950-53 Korean War ended in a truce, not a peace treaty. Despite its name the DMZ is one of the most heavily militarized and fortified borders in the world.

"We feel very celebratory and positive that we have created a voyage across the DMZ in peace and reconciliation," said U.S. activist and feminist Gloria Steinem, honorary co-chair of the WomanCrossDMZ group, which is calling for a permanent peace treaty to replace the armistice which ended the conflict.

north korea

The group, which had initially set out to embark on a symbolic walk across the DMZ at the Panmunjom "Truce Village," instead crossed from North Korea in a bus flanked by South Korean military and police cars at a customs area which connects to the jointly-operated Kaesong Industrial Zone.

"This is about human relationships, this is about us seeing our common humanity in each other," Mairead Maguire, Northern Ireland peace activist and Nobel Laureate, said at a press conference on the southern side of the inter-Korean border.

On the South Korean side, the group united with a larger group of South Korean activists, and held a rally at a pavilion just south of the Demilitarized Zone.

north korea

But a few hundred meters away, between lines of South Korean police, the reception was more frosty as around 500 conservative protesters greeted the WomenCrossDMZ group with placards telling them to "go to hell," "get out" or go back to North Korea.

The group is not without its critics further afield too. Washington D.C.-based blogger and attorney Joshua Stanton has for weeks on his blog One Free Korea said the march detracts from human rights issues in North Korea, and ultimately works in the isolated and repressive state's favor.

north korea

"What Pyongyang really wants is to use peace talks to lift U.N. sanctions, gain recognition as a nuclear state, and extract 'security guarantees' to silence criticism of its crimes against humanity," Stanton said in an email.

North Korea is under heavy U.N. and U.S. sanctions designed to stop the procurement of luxury goods, and technology related to its nuclear and ballistic missile programs.

An introductory video on WomenCrossDMZ.org, the group's official website, said millions of North Koreans lack "basics of survival" because of what it describes as "crippling embargos" against the North Korean government.

Stanton said such statements from the group's organizers play down the role of the North Korean leadership in the isolated country's lack of development and brutal oppression. (Editing by Michael Perry)

Related

North Koreademilitarized zoneSouth KoreaGloria Steinem

Before You Go

ASSOCIATED PRESS
In this June 20, 2014 photo, a North Korean man stands in front of a row of homes in the town of Kimchaek, in North Korea's North Hamgyong province. (AP Photo/David Guttenfelder)
ASSOCIATED PRESS
In this June 20, 2014 photo, an exclamation point punctuates a long propaganda slogan in a field in North Korea's North Hamgyong province. (AP Photo/David Guttenfelder)
ASSOCIATED PRESS
In this June 19, 2014 photo, residents of a small roadside town walk towards the main road in North Korea's North Hamgyong. (AP Photo/David Guttenfelder)
ASSOCIATED PRESS
In this June 19, 2014 photo, a North Korean man pushes his bicycle to a village in North Korea's North Hamgyong province. (AP Photo/David Guttenfelder)
ASSOCIATED PRESS
In this Monday, June 16, 2014 photo, North Korean men ride in a farmer's wagon in North Korea's South Hamgyong province. (AP Photo/David Guttenfelder)
ASSOCIATED PRESS
In this June 20, 2014 photo, North Korean people rest next to the railroad tracks in a town in North Korea's North Hamgyong province. (AP Photo/David Guttenfelder)
ASSOCIATED PRESS
In this Saturday, June 21, 2014 photo North Koreans walk in front of an apartment building in North Korea's South Hamgyong province. (AP Photo/David Guttenfelder)
ASSOCIATED PRESS
In this June 21, 2014 photo a monument of a fist holding a bayonetted Kalashnikov rifle stands on a roadside in North Korea's South Hamgyong province. (AP Photo/David Guttenfelder)
ASSOCIATED PRESS
In this June 20, 2014 photo, exhaust fumes, like fog, spills out of the long Hamgwan Tunnel near Hamhung in North Korea's South Hamgyong province. (AP Photo/David Guttenfelder)
ASSOCIATED PRESS
In this June 15, 2014 photo, an apartment block stands behind hotel room curtains on the main street in Hamhung, North Korea. (AP Photo/David Guttenfelder)
ASSOCIATED PRESS
In this June 15, 2014 photo, the remains of lunch sits on a restaurant table in the city of Wonsan, North Korea. (AP Photo/David Guttenfelder)
ASSOCIATED PRESS
In this June 14, 2014 photo, portraits of the late North Korean leaders Kim Il Sung and Kim Jong Il are illuminated on a building side as the sun rises over Pyongyang. (AP Photo/David Guttenfelder)
ASSOCIATED PRESS
In this June 16, 2014 photo, statues of animals playing musical instruments stand along the roadside south of Samsu, North Korea in Ryanggang province. (AP Photo/David Guttenfelder)
ASSOCIATED PRESS
In this Monday, June 16, 2014 photo, walks with a pink umbrella along the roadside south of Samsu, North Korea in Ryanggang province. (AP Photo/David Guttenfelder)
ASSOCIATED PRESS
In this June 16, 2014 photo, farmers walk in a rainstorm with their cattle near the town of Hyesan, North Korea in Ryanggang province. (AP Photo/David Guttenfelder)
ASSOCIATED PRESS
In this June 16, 2014 photo, boys play soccer in the town of Hyesan in North Korea's Ryanggang province. (AP Photo/David Guttenfelder)
ASSOCIATED PRESS
In this June 16, 2014 photo, North Korean men share a picnic lunch and North Korean-brewed and bottled Taedonggang beer along the road in North Korea's North Hwanghae province. (AP Photo/David Guttenfelder)
ASSOCIATED PRESS
In this June 16, 2014 photo, a fishing boat crosses the Samsu reservoir near the town of Samsu in North Korea's Ryanggang province. (AP Photo/David Guttenfelder)
ASSOCIATED PRESS
In this June 17, 2014 photo, a deer's hoof used as a door handle, hangs from the front door of the home where North Koreans say the late leader Kim Jong Il was born around Mount Paektu in North Korea's Ryanggang province. (AP Photo/David Guttenfelder)
ASSOCIATED PRESS
In this June 17, 2014 photo, a North Korean man holds a hand drawn map of the areas around Mt. Paektu as he and colleagues drive in Samjiyon in North Korea's Ryanggang province. (AP Photo/David Guttenfelder)
ASSOCIATED PRESS
In this June 17, 2014 photo, a North Korean man sits by a cooking fire he built to roast potatoes and chicken in the town of Samjiyon, in North Korea's Ryanggang province. (AP Photo/David Guttenfelder)
ASSOCIATED PRESS
In this June 17, 2014 photo, a North Korean man takes shelter in the rain next to long propaganda billboards in the town of Samjiyon in North Korea's Ryanggang province. (AP Photo/David Guttenfelder)
ASSOCIATED PRESS
In this June 18, 2014 photo, the Associated Press vehicle climbs the slopes of Mount Paektu in North Korea's in North Korea's Ryanggang province. (AP Photo/David Guttenfelder)
ASSOCIATED PRESS
In June 18, 2014 photo, a boulder lies on a path near the peak of Mount Paektu in North Korea's Ryanggang province. North Koreans venerate Mount Paektu for its natural beauty, but more importantly because it is considered the home of the North Korean revolution. (AP Photo/David Guttenfelder)
ASSOCIATED PRESS
In this June 19, 2014 photo, smoke stacks of a factories stand behind a compound wall along a street in the city of Chongjin, North Korea. (AP Photo/David Guttenfelder)
ASSOCIATED PRESS
In this Thursday, June 19, 2014 photo, North Korean women sit in their small food stalls in front of apartment blocks on the outskirts of Chongjin, North Korea. (AP Photo/David Guttenfelder)
ASSOCIATED PRESS
In this June 19, 2014 photo, a hotel employee walks in the lobby of a hotel that accommodates foreign visitors in Chongjin, North Korea. (AP Photo/David Guttenfelder)
ASSOCIATED PRESS
In this June 21, 2014 photo, a row of bicycles are parked next to the sea Wonsan, North Korea. (AP Photo/David Guttenfelder)
ASSOCIATED PRESS
In this June 21, 2014 photo, a group of young North Koreans enjoys a picnic on the beach in Wonsan, North Korea. (AP Photo/David Guttenfelder)
ASSOCIATED PRESS
In this June 21, 2014 photo, a man works on his car as others sit next to the sea Wonsan, North Korea. (AP Photo/David Guttenfelder)
ASSOCIATED PRESS
In this Thursday, June 19, 2014 photo, a North Korean farmer stands in a field at Chanpyong Farm in Taehongdan in North Korea in Ryanggang province. (AP Photo/David Guttenfelder)
ASSOCIATED PRESS
In this Wednesday, June 18, 2014 photo, a North Korean woman walks on the peak of Mt. Paektu in North Korea's Ryanggang province. (AP Photo/David Guttenfelder)
ASSOCIATED PRESS
In this Wednesday, June 18, 2014 photo, a North Korean national television station camera crew records the scenery from the peak of Mt. Paektu in North Korea's Ryanggang province. (AP Photo/David Guttenfelder)
ASSOCIATED PRESS
In this Monday, June 16, 2014 photo, a North Korean man driving an ox cart protects himself in a rainstorm south of Hyesan, North Korea in Ryanggang province. (AP Photo/David Guttenfelder)
ASSOCIATED PRESS
In this Monday, June 16, 2014 photo, a propaganda billboard stands in a field south of Samsu, in North Korea's Ryanggang province. The sign reads: "Let's complete the tasks set forth in the New Year's address." (AP Photo/David Guttenfelder)
|
Submit a tip

Popular in the Community

Close

What's Hot