Women activists cross DMZ to mixed reception on South Korean side

A group of international women activists crossed the heavily-fortified Demilitarised Zone (DMZ) between North and South Korea on Sunday in what they said was a symbolic act for peace. North and South Korea are still technically at war after the 1950-53 Korean War ended in a truce, not a peace treaty. The group, which set out to walk across the DMZ at the Panmunjom “Truce Village”, instead crossed from North Korea in a bus flanked by South Korean military and police cars at a customs area which connects to the jointly-operated Kaesong Industrial Zone.

We feel very celebratory and positive that we have created a voyage across the DMZ in peace and reconciliation.

U.S. activist Gloria Steinem, honourary co-chair of the WomanCrossDMZ group, which is calling for a permanent peace treaty to replace the armistice that ended the war

On the South Korean side, the group united with a larger group of South Korean activists, and held a rally at a pavilion just south of the Demilitarised Zone. But a few hundred metres away, between lines of South Korean police, the reception was more frosty as around 500 conservative protesters greeted the WomenCrossDMZ group with placards telling them to “go to hell”, “get out” or go back to North Korea.

This is about human relationships, this is about us seeing our common humanity in each other.

Mairead Maguire, Northern Ireland peace activist and Nobel Laureate, at a press conference on the southern side of the inter-Korean border

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