Korea’s People — Both North and South — Want Peace

Unlike many nations that are comprised of several ethnic groups, Korea’s people — both North and South — are all the same:  They are Koreans.  One ethnic group.  The arbitrary line that divided their nation in the early 1950s has absolutely no basis in ethnicity or culture or geography or any other understandable justification.  It was imposed upon them to provide a temporary division related to the Korean War from the early 1950s.

The Korean War never ended.  We’ve had a cease-fire but no formal peace treaty.

The Korean people — both North and South — have family members on the other side of that artificial line. Overwhelmingly, the Korean people want peace and reunification.  During the 2018 Winter Olympics in South Korea, people in both halves expressed their desire for peace.

In mid-February 2018 the Friends Committee on National Legislation (FCNL, www.fcnl.org), the Quaker-based lobby for peace and other good things, posted this brief announcement:

Olympic Diplomacy – Delayed military exercises, deferred missile tests, unified Korean athletes, and an invitation for South Korea’s president to visit North Korea. These are just some of the diplomatic milestones on display during the Winter Olympics. After the games are over, the U.S. needs to do its part to keep the diplomatic torch burning.

This brief announcement included links to this article:  https://www.cnn.com/2018/02/09/asia/korea-north-south-meeting-olympics-intl/index.html?utm_campaign=thisweek&utm_medium=email&utm_source=ak

and this article:  https://www.reuters.com/article/us-olympics-2018-northkorea-diplomacy-an/north-korea-heads-for-diplomacy-gold-medal-at-olympics-analysts-idUSKBN1FV0JV?utm_campaign=thisweek&utm_medium=email&utm_source=ak

The Olympic Games should be used more vigorously to promote peace, especially between nations whose governments are in dispute.  Recent history has provided other examples of using sports to promote international peace, including a baseball game between players from Cuba and players from the U.S.

 

 

About GlenAnderson 1499 Articles
Since the late 1960s Glen Anderson has devoted his life to working as a volunteer for peace, nonviolence, social justice, and progressive political issues. He has worked through many existing organizations and started several. Over the years he has worked especially for such wide-ranging goals as making peace with Vietnam, eliminating nuclear weapons, converting from a military economy to a peacetime economy, abolishing the death penalty, promoting nonviolence at all levels throughout society, and helping people organize and strategize for grassroots movements to solve many kinds of problems. He writes, speaks, and conducts training workshops on a wide variety of topics. Since 1987 he has produced and hosted a one-hour cable TV interview program on many kinds of issues. Since 2017 he has blogged at https://parallaxperspectives.org He lives in Lacey near Olympia WA. You can reach him at (360) 491-9093 glen@parallaxperspectives.org