hankyoreh

World-renowned activists in the areas of peace and human rights are coming to South Korea early this autumn to call for peace on the Korean Peninsula.

Scheduled attendees for the “Let’s DMZ” event taking place to commemorate the first anniversary of the September 19 Pyongyang Joint Statement between the South and North Korean leaders include Gloria Steinem, a social activist known as the “godmother of the global women’s rights movement”; Phan Thi Kim Phuc, a human rights campaigner known as the “napalm girl”; and Mikis Theodorakis, a Greek composer and democracy activist with a history of resistance fighting.

Gloria Steinem

Let’s DMZ includes numerous different events taking place around the Gyeonggi Province area over the month of September with the aim of transforming the Demilitarized Zone from a symbol of division into one of peace that can be seen, heard, and experienced by everyone. Gyeonggi Vice Governor for Peace Lee Hwa-young described plans for four major events – a DMZ Forum, Live DMZ, DMZ Festa, and Art DMZ – in a Let’s DMZ briefing on Aug. 28 at the Gyeonggi Provincial Office in Suwon.

Gloria Steinem and Phan Thi Kim Phuc are to join Gyeonggi Gov. Lee Jae-myung as keynote speakers at the DMZ Forum, which is taking place at KINTEX in Goyang on Sept. 19–20.

Steinem, who has visited South Korea numerous times in the past, made her journalistic reputation working undercover as a “bunny” at the Playboy Club in 1963. She went on to found the magazine “Ms.” in 1971 and playing a leading role in the feminist movement. In 2005, she co-founded the Women’s Media Center with actor Jane Fonda and actor/writer Robin Morgan. On May 24, 2015, she joined 30 women’s peace activists from around the world for the Women’s Cross campaign, which involved walking over the DMZ from North to South Korea. Women’s Cross also contributed to the July adoption of a US House of Representatives resolution calling for an end to the Korean War.

Phan Thi Kim Phuc

Phan Thi Kim Phuc was hiding with her family in a temple near Ho Chi Minh City at the height of the Vietnam War on June 8, 1972, when the building was engulfed in flames following a US napalm attack. Fleeing naked with burns over her body, the nine-year-old girl was photographed by an AP war correspondent and became a symbol of the “Terror of War.” (The image won a 1973 Pulitzer Prize.) Kim Phuc, who immigrated to Canada with her husband in 1994 while studying in Cuba, has been sharing a message of peace around the world since 1977 as a UNESCO Goodwill Ambassador for culture of peace. She has also campaigned to protect human rights, establishing the Kim Phuc Foundation to support children injured during wartime. In recognition of her efforts, she was awarded the 2019 Dresden Peace Prize.

The DMZ Forum is to consist of three special sessions – “The First Anniversary of the Pyongyang Joint Declaration and the Era of Peaceful Inter-Korean Cooperation,” “Denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula: Prospects and Tasks,” and “Peace on the Korean Peninsula and Multilateral Cooperation in East Asia” – with participants including Moon Chung-in, special presidential advisor for unification, foreign affairs and national security; scholar and former Minister of Unification Lee Jong-seok; former US Special Representative for North Korea Joseph Yun; and former South Korean Ambassador to Japan Na Jong-il. An additional 12 “feature sessions” will also have experts participating from different areas.

Mikis Theodorakis

Making his first visit to South Korea, Mikis Theodorakis is scheduled to debut a new piece dedicated to peace on the Korean Peninsula at a “Peace Maker Concert” taking place at the Peace Plaza of the Gyeonggi Province Northern Government Complex in Uijeongbu at 7 pm on Sept. 22. Born in 1925 on the Greek island of Chios, Theodorakis was active in the Resistance during the Second World War before gaining a legendary reputation composing songs such as “The Train Leaves at Eight” – about the farewell between a revolutionary fighter and his lover – and the scores for films such as Zorba the Greek, Phaedra, and Z. Celebrating his 94th birthday this year, he recovered from heart surgery this year, drawing cheers from fans in Greece and around the world.

“The Train Leaves at Eight,” which is well known to South Koreans in a version sung by mezzo-soprano Agnes Baltsa, is to be performed by Maria Farantouri, a Greek singer and political activist who is accompanying Theodorakis on his visit. Joint performances are also scheduled by prominent South Korean musical acts including the group Nochatsa and singer Chong Tae-chun.

“With this event, we want to let the people of the world know about the importance of peace on the Korean Peninsula and the value of the Demilitarized Zone,” said Jeong Dong-chae, a former Minister of Culture and Tourism and current chairperson of the Let’s DMZ organizing committee, on Aug. 28.

“The reason we excluded politicians and invited Phan Thi Kim Phuc and Gloria Steinem, who have campaigned for world peace, is because that conforms to our efforts to transform the Cold War space of the DMZ into a symbol of future peace,” Jeong added.

By Hong Yong-duk, South Gyeonggi correspondent

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