[It is utterly ironic that an organization comprised of Nobel Peace Laureates and others pursuing peace, awarded the 2022 Peace Summit Medal for Social Activism to a person whose views and ideology, if carried out, would lead to the continuing misery of the North Korean people, the ongoing dictatorship of a brutal tyrant, and a mortal threat to the very existence of the Republic of Korea as well as a grave national security threat to the United States and the Indo-Pacific region.
OKN is posting a translation of this article which features comments by Christine Ahn on the occasion of her winning this Medal, to note that Ahn and those who follow the same views, never hold the North Korean regime accountable and responsible for the instability in the region and the precarious human rights situation of the North Korean people, and always blame the United States and the now-conservative government in South Korea for the division on the Korean peninsula. Her support for fake peace on the Korean peninsula, as evidenced by her and her followers’ support for the failed H.R. 3446 (the Peace on the Korean Peninsula Act), would ultimately lead to the US military leaving the Korean peninsula, and result in South Korea being in grave danger under the Kim Jong Un regime’s threat.
Thank you for your support as always, and if you have not read our book, “The Quest for PEACE ON THE KOREAN PENINSULA,” highlighting the dangers of the fake peace pushed by people like Ahn, please click here for an online version:
https://issuu.com/kcpac2020/docs/peace_on_the_korean_peninsula]
– OKN Editorial Team
This article was originally published in Pressian and translated by OKN Correspondent.
This year’s 18th World Summit of Nobel Peace Laureates will be held from the 12th to the 14th in Pyeongchang, Gangwon-do.
Christine Ahn, a Korean-American and peace activist, visited Korea to receive the Nobel Peace Laureates Medal for Social Activism at the World Summit under the slogan “Stronger Together.”
In an interview with Pressian on the 10th, Christine Ahn, founder and executive director of “Women Cross DMZ (WCD),” said, ‘it is a real honor to receive this award from the Nobel Peace Prize winners.”
In 2015, about 30 female peace activists from 15 countries worldwide crossed the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) from North to South Korea to end the war and establish peace on the Korean Peninsula. Ahn took the lead in presenting and realizing these ideas for the first time. Nobel Peace Prize winners Mairead Maguire and Leymah Gbowee, and Gloria Steinem, the leader of the feminist movement from America. About 10,000 Korean women on both sides of the DMZ joined this movement, praying for peace. The movie “Crossing” documented the women’s movement of crossing the DMZ and praying for peace.
WCD has been carrying out international solidarity activities, such as petitioning the U.S. government and Congress for peace policies such as the “Peace on the Korean Peninsula Act,” and holding a joint conference of South and North Korean women, such as the one in Bali, Indonesia, in 2016.
Ahn referred to the US’ responsibility for the ongoing “armistice,” not the “end of the war” on the Korean Peninsula, when asked about why she is striving for a peace movement for Korea as an “American.”
“President Moon Jae-in gave a speech at the United Nations General Assembly in September 2021 on the importance of an end-of-war agreement and a peace agreement. No one responded. The Korean War was not a “civil war” between the South and North. Instead, it was a joint war in which the United States, China, and 21 countries of the UN coalition participated. Therefore, it is not possible to agree on the end of the war just between South and North Korea. We need consent from the United States and China that signed the armistice.
I think it is very important for Americans to understand and take responsibility for the Korean War is not a Korean war. This is America’s war, America’s longest war.”
Ahn, who lives in Hawaii, said that the peace on the Korean Peninsula issue is directly related to her safety. She pointed out that Hawaii, a tourist destination recognized by many as one of the famous “honeymoon destinations,” functions as a major military hub in the United States.
“25% percent of Hawaii’s land is military-related. Along the coast are millions of gallons of fuel storage (Red Hill Depot) owned by the US Navy. These facilities for refueling aircraft carriers and jets are aging and leaking fuel, contaminating the drinking water sources of 93,000 people and poisoning them with toxic substances. However, these facts are not well known, and Hawaii is only highlighted as a tourist destination.”
“Korea Is on the Front Line of the Cold War: President Yoon’s Move to Accelerate the ROK-US-Japan Alliance is Dangerous”
Ahn showed great concern about the situation in which peace on the Korean Peninsula is threatened by the competition between the United States and China, intensifying even in the Joe Biden administration and the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
At the UN General Assembly in March, held right after Russia invaded Ukraine, North Korea was one of five countries (Russia, North Korea, Belarus, Syria, and Nicaragua) that voted against a resolution condemning the Russian invasion, and has since blatantly justified the Russian invasion.
On the other hand, South Korea is attracted to the ROK-US-Japan alliance system like a magnet as the Yoon administration, hostile to North Korea and China, took power, and the United States pressured the country amid its rivalry with China. Since the Yoon administration, South Korea and the United States have increased the scale of joint military exercises. North Korea, stimulated by the exercises that even involved a nuclear aircraft carrier, fired missiles once every two to three days during that period.
“I think it is important to know that the Korean War was the front line of the Cold War. The fact that this unresolved war is part of the massive militarization of the region also contributes to the ongoing tension.
Recently, I could not believe my eyes when I saw the Korean Navy saluting a Japanese warship at a Japanese naval review ceremony. I am not a nationalist, but it was astonishing how Korea, which experienced Japanese colonial rule, could salute a warship with the rising sun flag, a symbol of Japanese militarism.”
As tensions between the two Koreas escalated, the idea of “nuclear armament” began to rise again in some conservative circles, including within the Yoon administration. Ahn refuted this argument, saying, “we need to change the paradigm that security will be achieved through military means.”
According to the “2022 Global Defense Market Yearbook” published by the Korea Research Institute for Defense Technology Planning and Advancement, global defense spending last year totaled $2.113 trillion (approximately 2270 trillion won), an increase of 7% from the previous year. Among them, the United States (801 billion dollars) ranked first, accounting for 38% of global defense spending. China ranked second (293 billion dollars), and Korea ranked 10th (50 billion dollars). Defense spending by each country, which is increasing more competitively due to the “war” in Ukraine, is eventually used to take the lives of civilians and destroy their daily lives. Ahn emphasized that the same is true for Koreans who have been in armistice for 70 years.
“The term cognitive dissonance can describe it. We live in an armistice system and think that the present is peaceful, but in fact, we live in a violent situation. We have become accustomed to and insensitive to the US-ROK military drills and the missiles fired day after day by North Korea. There are more things that define our daily life due to a suspended war. The stories of separated families, the lives of women around the DMZ, the lives of the Korean diaspora, the veterans and their families suffering from trauma from the Korean War, Vietnam War, and the Iraq War, and how war ruined our lives are not stories of a distant past.
It is well known that the military-industrial complex, such as Lockheed Martin, is, after all, the one that benefits the most through maintaining a permanent state of war. Ahn pointed out the loss of opportunity cost, such as the inevitability of reducing spending on the economy, environment, and education due to excessive spending on defense.
“Korea is not an ‘island,’ but it became an island nation because of the division. Hawaii, where I live, is also an island, so logistics costs are about 30% more expensive. Similarly, the land route to Europe was blocked due to the division of Korea.
I am not advocating the unification of the Korean Peninsula. I am talking about peaceful coexistence, about returning to a state of normalcy with each other. After the war in Ukraine, Ukraine’s permanent neutrality emerged as one of the alternatives. Is it that difficult for Korea to go to a permanently neutral country like Switzerland?
In the end, the thing that blocks this is the national interest of large countries, such as the confrontation between the United States and China. Koreans must decide Korea’s destiny. Korea has lived for 5,000 years as one nation. Korea is one of the most peaceful countries that have never actually invaded other countries. What Korea in the 21st century is proud of to the world is not only K-culture like BTS. There is also a spirit of peace based on the history of living in harmony with nature, humans, and people from other countries.”
