The Korean Women’s Movement for Peace — the South Korean partners of the global campaign Korea Peace Now! — have been named one of the 2019 recipients of the Women Have Wings Award.
The award, which was started in 2012, “honors women of courage who have taken bold risks to ensure a more just and peaceful future for us all.” About the Korean Women’s Movement for Peace, the judges wrote:
This alliance is the product of tireless efforts from its members, in a dangerous and complex context of US-North Korea relations, and is a testament to their courageous and powerful commitment to peace on the Korean Peninsula…
These visionary women have not hesitated to make courageous calls for humanitarian assistance to North Korea to address chronic food shortages — free from U.S. constraints and influence — at a time when it is risky and controversial for the government to do so without aligning closely with the Trump administration. They have been instrumental in breaking the war narrative in the Korean Peninsula, broadening the vision of peace beyond national borders, and building bridges between women in Seoul, Pyongyang and Tokyo who would never have been together in the previous years. Despite years of threats, harassment and accusations of violating security laws while working for peace, they immediately seized the window of democratic political space that opened to make the most of it, without fear of consequences should it turn out to be shortlived.
The Korean Women’s Movement for Peace is a coalition of four South Korean women’s organizations — Korean Women’s Association United, Women Making Peace, National YWCA of Korea and Korea Women’s Alliance — and launched the Korea Peace Now! campaign in South Korea on May 24, 2019, International Women’s Day for Peace and Disarmament. The goals of the Korea Peace Now! campaign — which also includes the Nobel Women’s Initiative, Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom, and Women Cross DMZ — include ending the 70-years-long Korean War with a peace agreement, and making sure women are included in the peace process.
Read the full announcement here.