Amid Trump-Kim Summit in Hanoi, Anti-War Women Offer Blueprint for Lasting Peace on Korean Peninsula

As President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un went head-to-head Wednesday for their second summit, an international coalition of anti-war women laid out a blueprint for “achieving lasting peace” on the Korean peninsula.

“We must ensure that our voices, our faces are heard; otherwise, we’ll always cede ground to the patriarchs and to the militarists,” said Christine Ahn, founder and executive director of Women Cross DMZ, who’s on the ground in Hanoi for the summit. “We know that when women are involved in the peace process, not only does it lead to a peace agreement, but it leads to one that lasts.”

Ahn’s group is part of the global Korea Peace Now! campaign, which also brings together the Nobel Women’s Initiativee, the Korean Women’s Movement for Peace, and Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom (WILPF). They issued their demands to the world leaders in a letter last week, and reiterated them in a Twitter thread on Wednesday:

Their sustained call comes a day after the introduction of a House resolution that calls for an end—after nearly seven decades—to the Korean war. It was sponsored by Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.) and backed by 18 other Democratic lawmakers.

“Historic engagement between South and North Korea has created a once-in-a-generation opportunity to formally end this war,” Khanna, a member of the House Armed Services Committee, declared in media statement on Tuesday. “President Trump must not squander this rare chance for peace. He should work hand in hand with our ally, South Korean President Moon Jae-in, to bring the war to a close and advance toward the denuclearization of the peninsula.”

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