Nobel Peace Laureates and South Korean civil society leaders held a press conference in Pyeongchang, South Korea, to call for an immediate de-escalation of tensions on the Korean Peninsula, a return to diplomatic talks, and, most crucially, replacing the 1953 Korean War Armistice with a formal peace agreement.
Speakers included Nobel Peace Laureate Leymah Gbowee, a Liberian peace activist who in 2015 crossed the DMZ with a delegation of women peace activists calling for an official end to the Korean War; Ouided Bouchamaoui, whose organization National Dialogue Quartet won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2015 for helping to halt a civil war in Tunisia; Ira Hefland, MD, chair of the Physicians for Social Responsibility’s Nuclear Weapons Abolition Committee and Ruth Mitchell, of the International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War. From civil society, Yoon Jung Sook of the Korea Peace Appeal (ROK); and Ann Wright, a Board Member of Women Cross DMZ (USA) who also crossed the DMZ in 2015 and a former U.S. Army Colonel and U.S. Diplomat who resigned in protest of the U.S. war on Iraq.
At the press conference, the speakers also announced a letter signed by civil society groups in the United States, South Korea, and around the world to be sent to President Joseph Biden, Chairman Kim Jong Un, and President Yoon Seok-Yeol urging them to stop the destructive arms race, take steps now to prevent a potentially catastrophic war, and set the table for peace talks.
Read the statement here.