Korea studies scholars gather for a “peace journey”

Posted on : 2013-07-20 10:43 KST Modified on : 2019-10-19 20:29 KST
Group of scholars comes together to educate on how the Korean War has not yet ended
 North Chungcheong Province on June 29 as part of their when a 60th anniversary “peace journey” to Korean War sites around the country
North Chungcheong Province on June 29 as part of their when a 60th anniversary “peace journey” to Korean War sites around the country

By Kim Bo-geun, Director of the Hankyoreh Unification Institute

July 27 marks the 60th anniversary of the armistice agreement that stopped the 3-year combat phase of the Korean War in 1953. Many are now clamoring for a new agreement, specifically a peace treaty. But getting one is going to take more than calls from South Koreans. No agreement is likely to be reached without the consent of the major powers that fought in the conflict, namely the US and China.

But many in the US, including a large number of intellectuals, are said to be unaware that the Korean War never actually ended. Mention of a peace treaty is often met with a quizzical response: “What are you talking about? The Korean War ended decades ago.” Calls to replace the armistice agreement with a peace treaty may come across as strange. This means that establishing a peace regime will require broader awareness in the US and China that the Korean War is still technically ongoing.

It drew some notice, then, when “peace journey” to commemorate the 60th anniversary of the armistice was staged on June 28 to July 2, with 28 US scholars and doctoral candidates participating. They were members of the Alliance of Scholars Concerned about Korea (ASCK), which has been campaigning for the past three years to have information about the Korean War included in university lectures around the world.

The organization was launched in 2002, the same year that then-US President George W. Bush gave a State of the Union address putting North Korea in the so-called “Axis of Evil”, along with Iraq and Iran. The belligerent rhetoric had many academics in the US concerned that war might break out on the Korean Peninsula. Some two hundred scholars took part, including Bruce Cumings, a chair professor at the University of Chicago, and John Duncan, head of the Center for Korean Studies at the University of California, Los Angeles. Many of them were Korean-Americans. They staged a “Korean Peninsula Peace Day” event, along with a host of academic activities aimed at promoting peace, including academic debates urging a change in Korea policy from Washington.

In 2010, for the 60th anniversary of the outbreak of the Korean War, a new campaign was launched to include information about the Korean War in university courses. According to ASCK, around 70 scholars from the US, Australia, France, the UK, and elsewhere have participated to date.

The peace journey was organized by number of groups, including ASCK, the Institute for Korean Historical Studies, the Saram Human Rights Foundation, People‘s Solidarity for Participatory Democracy (PSPD), and the May 18 Memorial Foundation. The April 19 Unification and Peace Foundation sponsored the event.

A number of scholars and activists from South Korea also took part, including PURN Production president Kim Dong-won, Sungkonghoe University professor Kim Dong-chun, Peace Foundation planning committee member Yu Jeong-gil, PSPD secretary-general Lee Tae-ho, and Sungkyunkwan University professor Chung Hyun-back.

As it finished up its three-year campaign, ASCK began thinking about what was next. It decided that the important thing was to share the experience of a divided nation directly. It was around the same time that anti-war groups in South Korea were insisting that calls for a peace treaty should not be limited to within the country.

The participants said they hoped the peace journey together would be “a first step in creating a different path from the last 60 years of war.”

The schedule was grueling. Lasting for five days and four nights, the long march took them from the former site of the Agency for National Security Planning at Namsan in Seoul to the “enemy cemetery” in Paju, the entrance of Story Range for US forces at the Civilian Control Line, and the DMZ at Gangwha Island on June 28; the Daechu Village US military base site in Pyeongtaek and the scene of a massacre and peace park at Nogeun Village in Yeongdong, North Chungcheong Province on June 29; a memorial park for a civilian massacre at Geochang, South Gyeongsang Province and historic sites from the Gwangju Democratization Movement on June 30; Alddreu Airfield and Gangjeong Village in Jeju on July 1; and the Jeju April 3rd Peace Park on July 2.

Geographically, the sites covered the entire length of the country. Historically, they stretched from before the Korean War to the present day. After their grueling schedule, participants got together at evening seminars on topics such as “division, life, and peace,” “USFK and peace on the peninsula,” and “war and massacres.” Once everything was finished, they issued a peace declaration at Gangjeong Village in Jeju. Agreeing that the war was still not over, they pledged to “find a way to tear down the walls of division and end the hatred.”

After the march, participants said the journey would be helpful to the peace campaign in the US.

Kelly Yoojeong Jeong, who teaches comparative literature at the University of California, Riverside, said it was a “schedule I could never imagine doing on my own. It feels like I went to the theater and saw ten movies in one sitting”.

Kim Hye-young, who is studying for her doctorate under Bruce Cumings at the University of Chicago, said, “I had read a lot about it in books, but it feels so much more real to come and see for myself.”

Seunghun Lee, a University of Virginia professor and the only natural scientist in ASCK, said the experience “made me think about how precious each life is. What I got from this journey was the sense that war really must never happen again”.

Some participants went to work thinking about how information from the journey could be used for education.

Suzy Kim, a professor at Rutgers University in New Jersey, said the journey was “very meaningful in that it was concerned people from here and abroad, all working together. I plan to think about how the oral materials and videos from the peace journey can be used for teaching”.

Participants also said an expanded version of the journey should be staged next year.

One of the planners, Johns Hopkins University professor Jae-Jung Suh, said this year’s event was “noteworthy in that we could do it ourselves, without depending on government support.”

He also expressed hope to see more scholars and students of Korean issues in places like Europe participating in the future.

“I hope it becomes a regular event with a wider range of participants, helping people consider peace rather than promoting hostility at the places where our division can be felt,” he said.

 

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