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| With Plan to Walk Across DMZ, Women Aim for Peace in Korea | With Plan to Walk Across DMZ, Women Aim for Peace in Korea |
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| It was the women who helped end the bitter political and ethnic strife that ravaged Northern Ireland in the 1970s. It was the women who said enough to the atrocities in Liberia, peacefully resolving a civil conflict there more than a decade ago. Now, women are turning their attention to the divided Korean Peninsula, where a technical state of war has endured for more than 62 years. | It was the women who helped end the bitter political and ethnic strife that ravaged Northern Ireland in the 1970s. It was the women who said enough to the atrocities in Liberia, peacefully resolving a civil conflict there more than a decade ago. Now, women are turning their attention to the divided Korean Peninsula, where a technical state of war has endured for more than 62 years. |
| On Wednesday at the United Nations in New York, using a conference on the status of women as a backdrop, leading female advocates of disarmament will formally announce their intent to walk across the Demilitarized Zone, the two-mile-wide swath of land, ringed by barbed wire and booby traps, that separates North and South. | On Wednesday at the United Nations in New York, using a conference on the status of women as a backdrop, leading female advocates of disarmament will formally announce their intent to walk across the Demilitarized Zone, the two-mile-wide swath of land, ringed by barbed wire and booby traps, that separates North and South. |
| Their goal, organizers of the walk said, was to punctuate their desire for a permanent peace treaty to replace the 1953 armistice that halted, but technically did not end, the Korean War, a conflict that claimed four million lives, mostly Koreans, and separated millions of families. | Their goal, organizers of the walk said, was to punctuate their desire for a permanent peace treaty to replace the 1953 armistice that halted, but technically did not end, the Korean War, a conflict that claimed four million lives, mostly Koreans, and separated millions of families. |
| The organizers, a broad array of international peace activists, also see their plan as a catalyst for other steps that could revive the North-South reconciliation process, which has essentially been paralyzed by hostility, suspicion and occasional eruptions of violence. | The organizers, a broad array of international peace activists, also see their plan as a catalyst for other steps that could revive the North-South reconciliation process, which has essentially been paralyzed by hostility, suspicion and occasional eruptions of violence. |
| “Yes, we are hoping to walk across the DMZ,” Gloria Steinem, the author and an honorary co-chairwoman of the group that has been designing the plan, said by telephone on Tuesday. “We are hoping to get permission from both governments to allow it.” | “Yes, we are hoping to walk across the DMZ,” Gloria Steinem, the author and an honorary co-chairwoman of the group that has been designing the plan, said by telephone on Tuesday. “We are hoping to get permission from both governments to allow it.” |
| Ms. Steinem and some of her colleagues said it was the relatively reclusive North Korean side, perhaps oddly, that was the first to endorse the proposal, although final approval is still pending. | Ms. Steinem and some of her colleagues said it was the relatively reclusive North Korean side, perhaps oddly, that was the first to endorse the proposal, although final approval is still pending. |
| Suzy Kim, a professor of Korean history at Rutgers University who is another main organizer, said the group had yet to hear anything from the South Korean government side. South Korean officials declined to comment on the proposal Wednesday. | |
| Their intent is to walk across the DMZ, from South to North, on May 24. | Their intent is to walk across the DMZ, from South to North, on May 24. |
| Ms. Kim credited the original idea to Christine Ahn, a Korean-American activist who founded a group called Women De-Militarize the Zone a few years ago. “She had been thinking of how neglected the women’s role had been” in attempting to solve the Korean impasse, Ms. Kim said. | Ms. Kim credited the original idea to Christine Ahn, a Korean-American activist who founded a group called Women De-Militarize the Zone a few years ago. “She had been thinking of how neglected the women’s role had been” in attempting to solve the Korean impasse, Ms. Kim said. |
| Ms. Ahn was traveling to New York and could not be reached immediately. But in a statement released ahead of time, she said, “We are walking to unite Korean families tragically separated by an artificial, man-made division, and to redirect government investment away from the military toward improving the welfare of the people, in particular women, children and the elderly.” | Ms. Ahn was traveling to New York and could not be reached immediately. But in a statement released ahead of time, she said, “We are walking to unite Korean families tragically separated by an artificial, man-made division, and to redirect government investment away from the military toward improving the welfare of the people, in particular women, children and the elderly.” |
| Ms. Ahn’s website, WomenCrossDMZ.org, said the planned walk was meant as a “symbolic act of peace.” | Ms. Ahn’s website, WomenCrossDMZ.org, said the planned walk was meant as a “symbolic act of peace.” |
| Thirty female peace activists from around the world are the core group of walkers. They include Ms. Steinem’s fellow honorary co-chairwoman, Mairead Corrigan Maguire, a 1976 Nobel Peace laureate from Northern Ireland, who helped organize enormous peace demonstrations, mostly of women, that crossed sectarian lines and helped end the bloodshed there. | Thirty female peace activists from around the world are the core group of walkers. They include Ms. Steinem’s fellow honorary co-chairwoman, Mairead Corrigan Maguire, a 1976 Nobel Peace laureate from Northern Ireland, who helped organize enormous peace demonstrations, mostly of women, that crossed sectarian lines and helped end the bloodshed there. |
| Another organizer, Leymah Gbowee, received the Nobel Peace Prize in 2011 for her work in leading a women’s peace movement that brought an end to civil war in Liberia in 2003 and led to the eventual exile, and successful war-crimes prosecution, of President Charles G. Taylor. | Another organizer, Leymah Gbowee, received the Nobel Peace Prize in 2011 for her work in leading a women’s peace movement that brought an end to civil war in Liberia in 2003 and led to the eventual exile, and successful war-crimes prosecution, of President Charles G. Taylor. |
| Ms. Kim acknowledged that the currently high level of North-South hostility, coupled with the North’s regular denunciations of the United States, the South’s principal ally, was “not a climate to achieve an agreement” to replace the armistice. | Ms. Kim acknowledged that the currently high level of North-South hostility, coupled with the North’s regular denunciations of the United States, the South’s principal ally, was “not a climate to achieve an agreement” to replace the armistice. |
| “On the other hand, the kind of deadlock we’re in makes it all the more important and necessary in not being O.K. with the status quo,” she said. | “On the other hand, the kind of deadlock we’re in makes it all the more important and necessary in not being O.K. with the status quo,” she said. |