South Korean Women’s Efforts and Activities Towards Peace on the Korean Peninsula: Trust-Building with North Korean Women

Kim Jeongsoo
Representative, Women Making Peace

My name is Jeongsoo Kim and I am the standing representative of Women Making Peace, a specialized movement formed to realize reunification and peace on the Korean Peninsula.

It is my hope that this paper will be read by North Korean women for two reasons. First, there is no other way for me to send my message to the women of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK). This publication is currently the only official one in which South and North Korean civilians can share their opinions concerning peace building on the Korean peninsula. So, I am hopeful that North Korean sisters can read my paper in this publication. Second, I hope that North Korean Women will participate in the 64th Non-Governmental Organization Committee on the Status of Women Forum (NGO CSW Forum), which will be held at the United Nations Headquarters in New York City in March 2020. It is my hope that we will be able to work together with the United Nations (UN), using an NGO side event during the CSW as a platform for sharing and delivering North and South Korean women’s voices, hopes, demands and appeals for peace on the Korean Peninsula.

Why do Women Need to Participate in the Korean Peace Process?

There have been many questions and doubts raised regarding the need for women’s participation in peace processes. We women have spent so much energy persuading and proving to others how much women have been victimized and how severe their suffering has been in conflict situations. This is the very reason why women need to participate and be engaged in the peace processes.

Sexual and Gender-Based Violence (SGBV) is the term now used to explain how women have been affected differently or disproportionately in the context of armed conflict. In 2008, United Nations Security Council Resolution (UNSCR) 1820 for Women, Peace, and Security recognized the use of rape and other forms of sexual violence to dominate, disperse and humiliate a population as a weapon of war. Sexual violence and rape is often used as ‘a tactic of war’.

So far, most armed conflicts have been dealt with from political and military perspectives. These approaches do not necessarily take into account people’s pain and suffering caused by these conflicts; including women’s experiences in armed conflicts. In other words, there is a need for armed conflicts to be analyzed from a gender and human security perspective. A gender-based analysis of armed conflicts will likely demonstrate the reason why women have to participate in peace processes and will inform the meaningful participation of women in peace processes.

In South Korea, the 7-decade long division of the Korean Peninsula has also affected women very differently from men. The following chart shows South Korean military spending compared with that of other countries. If we compare the military budget of South Korea with that of Canada, whose GDP is very similar to that of South Korea, we will see the difference in their military spending and the number of soldiers. This is a heavy burden that the South Korean government has to bear in this situation of division.

How does this affect women’s welfare? To answer this question, we can compare in two ways: First, South Korea’s military budget in comparison to the budget of the Ministry of Gender Equality. In 2019 the total military budget is 46.7 trillion USD but the budget for gender ministry for 2019 is just 1.6 trillion USD. These two budgets show how much money South Korean people pay to maintain national security under the situation of division. Second, is South Korea’s military cost burden of the 2019 Special Measure Agreement for US forces deployed in the territory (1,225,840,614.24 USD) in comparison to the 2019 total budget of South Korea’s Ministry of Gender Equality (1,577,971,935.40 USD). The simple truth is that the South Korean government spends significantly more money on UN forces in Korea than on the Ministry of Gender Equality. This is yet another side effect of the division of the Korean Peninsula. We could therefore name this phenomenon the “cost of division to women”.

In addition to this low budget set aside for women’s needs, South Korean women have long suffered because of militarism, dictatorship, sexism, discrimination, violence and misogyny in daily life (as illustrated by the #MeToo movement). So it could be said that South Korean women are in an ongoing state of gender-based violence in the current situation of a divided Korean Peninsula. This violence against women must end right now. This is a key reason why South Korean women are trying to meet North Korean women and appeal to the UN and international society for the end of the Korean War and for a sustainable peace on the Korean Peninsula.

Two South-North Korea Summits & Three North Korea –U.S. Summits

It was a thrilling moment when the South and North Korean leaders appeared together on television after signing the Panmunjom Declaration on Peace, Prosperity and Reunification of the Korean Peninsula on 27th April 2018.4 In the document, the two leaders solemnly declared before 80 million Koreans and the whole world that there would be no more war and that a new era of peace had begun on the Korean Peninsula. Like any other Korean, I was really excited and happy since this seemed to be a de facto declaration of the end of the Korean War.

In the Joint Statement of President Donald J. Trump of the United States and Chairman Kim Jong Un of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea at the Singapore Summit the following June, the leaders recognized that “mutual confidence building can promote the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula”. Having read this, I came to the conclusion that trust-building between South and North Korean women would be a prerequisite for the development of further relations.

In essence, the work of Women Making Peace has been about building a bridge of trust and confidence between South and North Korean women; women who will live together on the Korean Peninsula during the Korean peace process and after finally having built a peace regime and achieved reunification.

After the two summits between South and North Korean leaders in 2018, there has been much change on the Korean Peninsula, and military tensions have decreased significantly. However, overall inter-Korean relations have not made progress because of the stalemate in the denuclearization talks between North Korea and the United States. In particular, due to the UN and international sanctions against North Korea, even the provision of urgent humanitarian aid to the North Korean people in crisis has not been possible. We all know the most vulnerable people in North Korea are the sick and elderly, the children and women: these are also the vulnerable ones who need humanitarian aid most urgently.

Women’s Activities for Peace on the Korean Peninsula (2018~2019)

Korea Peace Now! is a global women’s campaign to end the Korean War and bring peace on the Korean Peninsula. Launched officially in 2019, this campaign is led by Women Cross DMZ, the Nobel Women’s Initiative, the Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom (WILPF) and the Korea Women’s Network for Peace. (Korea Women’s Network for Peace itself is a network of four South Korean women’s groups consisting of Women Making Peace, Korean Women’s Association United, Korea YWCA and the National Women’s Alliance.)

The goal of the Korea Peace Now! campaign is to achieve the official end of the Korean War and a Peace Treaty between North Korea and the US. This campaign is based on the concept of human security5, as opposed to military security, national security or security based on military alliances. The campaign is expected to be a model for the meaningful participation of women in the Korean peace process.

1) Efforts to Resume South-North Korean Women’s Dialogue and Exchanges

After the Panmunjom Declaration, South Korean women’s groups had several opportunities to think about, discuss and share ideas on future dialogue and exchanges between South and North Korean women. In seminars, symposia and workshops, we have shared ideas on how to prepare dialogues and exchanges between women from the North and South. Most importantly, women in South Korea had to ask the following questions:

• When will we have a chance again to meet North Korean women?
• What issues do we have to deal with and what project could we work on together?
• When the Korean peace process is concluded successfully, would it be possible for women of both South and North Korea to achieve sustainable peace and gender equality both politically and economically?

Through this process of reflection, South Korean women’s groups consolidated their position on the future of women in South and North Korea.

First, gender equality has to be guaranteed in the Korean Peace Process. When peace comes to the Korean Peninsula, women’s peace and the quality of their lives should also be improved. Women should not be left behind in the context of peace and prosperity in the Korean Peninsula.

Second, when South-North economic cooperation projects are realized, North Korean women in particular also have to actively participate in them so as to improve their economic standing and power just as other groups in North Korea will advance theirs. Specifically, when the Kaeseong Industrial Complex, a joint project between North and South, resumes operations, it will be necessary for the number of women managers to be increased and the labor conditions for women workers to be improved as well.

In order to realize these goals, two conditions must be fulfilled.

First, there needs to be a Department for Women’s Affairs with co-directors from both sides in the South-North Kaeseong liaison office, so that South and North Korean women can work together in the peace process.

Second, there should be a fixed budget for gender issues in the South Korean Ministry of Unification’s Fund for South-North Exchange and Cooperation, because without a gender budget, women’s activities and programs for dialogue, exchange, and cooperation could not work effectively.

2) South-North Korean Women’s Meeting on Mt Kumgang on February 12, 2019

On 12 February 2019, a delegation of 16 women (8 from the South, 5 from the North, and 3 from abroad) met and had chance to share and exchange their concerns and suggestions to each other. I myself was able to represent South Korea, and although it was my 4th visit to Mt. Kumgang, I was full of emotion when the South Korean delegation crossed into the northern side of the DMZ and finally came to see Kumgang Mountain.

Before the South-North women’s meeting, more than 100 South Korean women’s organizations and over 1,000 individual South Korean women released a Women’s Statement for Sustainable Peace and Prosperity of the Korean Peninsula to the Hankyoreh Newspaper on January 28, 2019.

In this statement, the women stated that sustainable peace and the reunification of Korea should be achieved through democratic processes guaranteeing the meaningful participation of women and featuring their voices and concerns. They also stated that the quality of life of South and North Korean women should be improved through regular meetings and cooperation between them. Finally, they also expressed their belief that sanctions against North Korea, which hinder the productive development of South-North relations, should be lifted immediately.

The delegation of South Korean women delivered the statement to their North Korean sisters and proposed holding a large exchange event in Pyongyang in 2019 so that South and North Korean women from diverse regions, separated for so long that they know nothing of each other, could meet and talk together, share ideas and learn to understand each other.

3) South Korean Women’s Peace Campaign to End the Korean War, March 2019

In March 2019, three lawmakers and several women activists from South Korea visited Washington D.C to appeal for the end of the Korean War and the signing of a Peace Agreement. There, they met some members of Congress and Senator Bernie Sanders (Vermont), a presidential candidate for the Democratic Party. This tour was made possible by the “Korea Peace Now” campaign group, the abovementioned coalition in which four South Korean women’s groups, including Women Making Peace, Korea Women’s Associations United, YWCA Korea and the Korea Women’s Alliance, have worked together since the 2015 Women Cross DMZ event.

South Korean women also appealed for peace on the Korean Peninsula at in an NGO side event to the 63rd CSW “Northeast Asian Women Lead: Peace on the Korean Peninsula”. I was one of the panelists for this event, also coordinated by the Korea Peace Now campaign, in which more than 200 female participants from around the world, including prominent peace activists, participated. They registered numerous concerns about the 2nd North Korea-US Summit in Hanoi, which had just taken place, and asked how women could participate meaningfully in the Korean peace process.

Through these two events, we South Korean women realized that it is very important or even essential for us to make the reality of the division of the Korean Peninsula and the negative impact of sanctions against the vulnerable people of North Korea be known to citizens of the United States and especially, to so-called opinion leaders and the policy community in Washington D.C. so that they can see the necessity of a Peace Agreement between Korea and its surrounding countries.

4) South Korean Women’s Groups Demand that the Korean Government Provide Food Aid to North Korea

On May 16, 2019, 20 South Korean women’s organizations issued a public statement on food aid to North Korea, in which they demanded that a) food be sent to North Korea without any hesitation; b) that regular food aid programs for North Korea be governed in cooperation with civil society groups; and c) that issues surrounding food aid be separated from other issues being dealt with in the Korea-U.S. working group, allowing the South Korean government to make decisions about food aid on its own.

5) Women Making Peace’s Projects for 2019

Women Making Peace plans two major projects this year:

First, the Women, Peace, Security (WPS) workshops, a series of six networking workshops for young women who want to learn about and understand the relationship between the WPS (UN Security Council Resolution 1325) agenda, the Korean peace process, and the meaningful participation of women in the process. 30 participants from government agencies (including the South Korean Ministry of Gender Equality and the Ministry of National Defense, as well as the Korean International Cooperation Agency (KOICA)), academic institutes, media and civil society groups will be working together after the workshops to plan a Peace Talk Show for ordinary people and will publish a workbook for citizens.

The second project is a “Train the Trainers” program. This is a participatory peace and reunification program for 30 participants who want to learn conflict resolution skills and methodologies for use in the context of peace and reunification. This project consists of a series of seven workshops and a two-day day residential program. Participants who complete this program will become Women Making Peace-certified facilitators for peace and reunification education.

Two Calls-to-action for North Korean Women

1. I hope that South and North Korean women will launch a joint program during the 64th NGO CSW Forum in March 2020. That year will be a very important one for the global women’s/feminist movement as it will be the 25th anniversary of the Beijing Declaration and Platform and Action Plan (BDPA, 1995)6, and 20th anniversary of the adoption of UNSCR 1325 for Women, Peace, and Security. Therefore, UN Women has chosen “Women, Peace, and Development” as the theme for the 64th NGO CSW Forum which will feature numerous governmental and NGO events. Women Making Peace, Korea Women’s Associations United, and the Korea Peace Now Campaign group will also organize several events to raise public awareness of peace issues on the Korean Peninsula. Members of the South Korean women’s peace movement hope that North Korean women will participate and undertake joint programs to make the collective voice of Korean women heard and the face of Korean women visible to the UN, to global civil society, and to the United. It would be especially effective, if North Korean women could use this opportunity to express how much they want peace and the end of the Korean War, how severely the sanctions have affected them, and how inhumane their impact has been so far.
2. The adoption of a National Action Plan (NAP) for UNSCR 1325 for Women, Peace, and Security by the DPRK would be momentous. The South Korean government adopted its first NAP for UNSCR 1325 in May 2014. The second NAP (2018–2020) is currently in effect. As of December 2018, 78 member states of the UN (around 40% of its members) adopted NAPs. Before the adoption of the ROK NAP, South Korean women’s civil society groups organized the “1325 Network” with 45 organizations and demanded that the National Assembly and the government adopt the NAP. This finally happened in 2014 and now 10 civil society groups, including Women Making Peace, participate in its governance, in the form of an NGO advisory group. South Korean women want North Korean women to work towards adopting a DPRK NAP for UNSCR 1325, so that both South and North Korean women will have more common ground in their work on the Women, Peace, and Security Agenda, especially in the UN and global context.

What South Korean women want from the Korean peace process is simply sustainable peace and prosperity, and well-being which both South and North Korean women can enjoy together with no more fear of war. My hope will finally be realized when South and North Korean women work together, with full commitment and great confidence, for peace.

1 Source: World Bank 2018. https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/ny.gdp.mktp.cd.

2 Source: Military budget, MB/GDP and MB per capita: SIPRI Military Expenditure Database, 2018 figures (released 2019). https://www.sipri.org/databases/milex.

3 Number of soldiers: International Institute for Strategic Studies (14 February 2018). The Military Balance 2018. London: Routledge. ISBN 9781857439557.

4 Panmunjom Declaration on Peace, Prosperity and Reunification of the Korean Peninsula, accessed April 27, 2018. http://english1.president.go.kr/BriefingSpeeches/Speeches/32.

5 Human security vs. National Security. The concept of human security emerged as a challenge to traditional ideas of security. Traditional approaches to security prioritize the nation state’s right to defend itself from external threats. Human security is a people-centered approach focused on the protection and empowerment of individuals. Human security also expands the scope of what constitutes a security threat to address economic, food, health and environmental insecurity. While traditional approaches focus on defending the state’s physical and political integrity from external threats as a way to ensure global stability, human security conceives of individual security as essential for national, regional and global stability. From WOMEN, PEACE & SECURITY MANUAL, www.unwomen,org.au. P. 8.

6 The Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action was drafted at the Fourth World Conference on Women (1995) and exposed the persistence of gender discrimination globally and the lack of focus on gender inequality by member states. The Platform of Action noted 12 ‘critical areas of concern’, labeled A to L, which much be addressed to ensure equality and women’s empowerment. Critical Area E is particularly relevant to the Women, Peace, and Security agenda. It draws attention to the human rights abuses that arise in conflict and militarized settings. Critical Area E calls for: (1) Increased participation of women in all areas of conflict related decision-making, (2) Protection of women living in conflict zones, (3) Reduction in military spending, (4) Promotion of non-violent conflict resolution, (5) Recognition of women’s peace building contributions, and (6) Specific support for displaced women and women living under colonial occupation. From WOMEN, PEACE & SECURITY MANUAL, www.unwomen,org.au. P. 16.