UK WILPF sends greetings and support for conciliation to all Women in both North and South Korea. Fear of the Other is really dangerous, especially when it is backed up by costly and very dangerous weapons. Money spent on armaments could so easily be re-used to improve the lives of women and families.
We acknowledge that we have all been given a particular story about the beliefs and values of the West, which has been dominated by the discourse of capitalism and consumer culture. This has resulted in unequal distribution of the world’s resources and the dominance of profit. We seek a new sense of mutuality, based on the needs of our small planet and of our children’s right to grow up free from fear.
We propose that we need time to talk to each other about what we do have in common, like children and love of our friends and good food, the value of nature and clean water and seas. We seek connections through art and music as it may avoid misunderstandings.
We hope that women from both North and South Korea will work to connect with each other, as well as those women from other countries in the area which could be affected by nuclear conflict. We stand in solidarity with all women in the region. Established nation-bridging tools such as United Nations channels of communication, and new methods of peace building such as social media, can be used to create means of dialogue and bring us together.
Our own International President, Kozue Akibayashi, helped organise WomenCrossDMZ in 2015, highlighting the important role of women peace activists. A group of 30 women peacemakers walked across the demilitarised zone from North to South Korea, drawing global media attention to this ongoing situation in the Korean peninsula, and helping to revive and renew peace and solidarity movements in the region.
Women, such as our WomenCrossDMZ sisters, have thus shown time and time again the power we hold by coming together in peace, women must therefore be part of the process to resolve this issue.
We finally also propose for The Six-Party Talks to resume, which between 2003 and 2009 brought different nations to the negotiating table to peacefully find a way to resolve the security issues raised by North Korea’s nuclear weapons programme.