Summer Reflections and Looking Ahead | KPNGN August 2024 Newsletter

We are skipping our August KPNGN meeting, but will resume with our regular schedule of meeting the second Thursday every month on September 12 at 5pm PT // 8 pm ET! September’s meeting will also resume the KPNGN New Member Orientation three-part series. Please mark your calendars. Registration link to follow.

WATCH: New Interview with KTOWN SOCIAL CLUB, “End the Travel Ban to North Korea”

Women Cross DMZ Co-Directors Christine Ahn and Cathi Choi sat down with KTOWN SOCIAL CLUB’s Michael Kim and Michael Won to discuss ending the US travel ban to North Korea and movement-building for Korea peace. Watch the interview here!

RECAP: July 27 Armistice to Peace Rally in Washington D.C.

On the 71st Anniversary of the Korean Armistice Agreement, members from Korea Peace Now!, Korean American Peace Fund, Candlelight Vigil Washington DC, Veterans for Peace, ANSWER Coalition, Ending Korean War Teaching Initiative, and Korean drumming troupe Han Pan joined together for a rally and a march from the White House to the Lincoln Memorial. We called for the United States to end its longest-running conflict by ending the Korean War with a peace agreement.

Photo by HK Suh

Photo by Monica Chang

REGISTER: “Humanitarian Engagement with the DPRK in the Midst of a Hardening Political Climate” with Joy Yoon

Join us for a webinar with Joy Yoon on her work providing humanitarian aid to North Korean people on Thursday, August 22 at 5pm PT/8pm ET. Register here!

Joy Yoon is the co-founder of Ignis Community, a nonprofit organization that specializes in treating children with developmental disabilities. She is one of the few Americans who has actually spent over ten years living and working in the DPRK and is the author of the books, Discovering Joy: Ten Years in North Korea and Crossing the Divide: Learning to Love in North Korea. She and her husband’s work inside the nation has included humanitarian outreach, social enterprises, and medical treatment and education, which has been featured in TIME, Mission Frontiers, and the Wall Street Journal. Joy specializes in Educational Therapy and is the Director for Special Education at the Pyongyang Spine Rehabilitation Center in North Korea where she works with children who have cerebral palsy, autism, and other developmental disabilities.

WATCH: Midsummer Dreams for Korea Peace: Celebrating Our Narrative Changemakers

ICYMI: Women Cross DMZ’s July 2024 fundraiser is now available on Youtube!

Photos by Taylor Kaltman

We honored three pre-eminent champions of narrative change for peace: Bruce Cumings, foremost historian on the Korean War; Deann Borshay Liem, Emmy award-winning documentary filmmaker; and Viet Thanh Nguyen, Pulitzer Prize-winning author. Their artistry and scholarship have reshaped our memories of the Korean and Vietnam Wars by uplifting the voices of those most directly impacted.

We also heard from intergenerational feminist leadership from Women Cross DMZ — Christine Ahn and Cathi Choi — whose work is charting new paths for Korea Peace. Dohee Lee, renowned multidisciplinary artist, nourished our souls with a special performance with music, song, and dance. Thank you so much to our community for supporting our work to end the “forgotten” Korean War and cultivate the next generation of Korea Peace activists!

SIGN BY AUGUST 23: Petition to End the Travel Ban on North Korea

Since 2017, U.S. citizens have been prohibited from traveling to North Korea, a draconian holdover from the Trump administration. This overly restrictive policy has prevented Koreans from returning to their hometowns and visiting their loved ones in North Korea, and time is running out for many of them.

The travel ban on North Korea has also hindered humanitarian workers from delivering urgently needed assistance, and others from engaging in meaningful educational and cultural exchanges, which are crucial to fostering trust and understanding between two nations that have been at war for seven decades.

Ending the travel ban would also be a good-faith action and signal that the United States wants to engage in diplomacy toward peace — which would benefit both Americans and Koreans. We call on President Biden to fulfill his campaign promise “to reunite Korean Americans separated from loved ones in North Korea for decades” by ending the 2017 ban and allow U.S. citizens to once again travel freely to North Korea.

The deadline to sign onto the petition is August 23. Add your voice to demand the US stop separating Korean families here and share with your communities.

LIVE: Crossings is now available to watch for free until August 31!

The film, by Emmy award-winning filmmaker Deann Borshay Liem, follows 30 women peace activists from around the world who crossed the DMZ from North to South Korea, calling for peace on the Korean Peninsula. The groundbreaking mission of Women Cross DMZ is framed with historic newsreels and punctuated with contemporary news coverage.

To date, we have screened Crossings over 75 times to thousands of people around the world. At each screening, participants consistently tell us that this film provides important context about the Korean War and that they are inspired by our activism and organizing. While it is a herculean effort to end a more than 70-year war, we know that the more people who are educated about this issue, the more support we will gain to finally end the Korean War.

Crossings is currently streaming on the PBS app and Youtube with captions and Korean subtitle options, available to watch for free until August 31. Crossings is also available on:

STAY TUNED: Korea Peace Now!’s Intergenerational Learning and Healing Series will be back this fall! In the meantime, our first two events are available to watch now on Youtube:

In peace,

Cathi Choi

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