Peace Activists Cross Demilitarized Zone Separating Koreas
By CHOE SANG-HUN

PAJU, South Korea — A group of 30 female peace activists, including the feminist leader Gloria Steinem and two Nobel Peace Prize laureates, crossed the demilitarized zone from North Korea to South Korea on Sunday, calling for an end to the Korean War, whose unresolved hostility has been symbolized by the heavily armed border for six decades.

It was rare for the two rival Korean governments to agree to allow a group of peace activists to pass through the border area, known as the DMZ.

Yet some of the symbolism the activists had hoped to generate with their Women Cross DMZ campaign was lost when South Korea denied them permission to walk through Panmunjom, a border village where a truce was signed in 1953 to halt, though not formally end, the conflict, leaving the divided Korea technically in a state of war.

Instead, the women, who had traveled from Pyongyang, the North Korean capital, were detoured to a checkpoint southwest of Panmunjom. There, convoys of South Korean trucks go to and from a joint industrial park in the North Korean town of Kaesong. The women, carrying banners, were again barred from walking across the border, and had to cross by bus.

Still, they considered the endeavor a success. “We have accomplished what no one said can be done, which is to be a trip for peace, for reconciliation, for human rights and a trip to which both governments agreed,” Ms. Steinem told the South Korean news media. “We were able to be citizen diplomats.”

The women — including the Nobel Peace laureates Mairead Maguire from Northern Ireland and Leymah Gbowee from Liberia — arrived in Pyongyang on Tuesday for the march, which they hoped would highlight the need to build peace and set the stage for Korean reunification by formally ending the war with a permanent peace treaty.

The crossing, however, took place amid tension over the North’s pursuit of nuclear weapons and ballistic missiles, and over its human rights record.

Just two days before the women’s arrival in Pyongyang, the North’s state-run media hurled one of its harshest — and most sexist — screeds against President Park Geun-hye of South Korea, calling her “a fork-tongued viper” and one “not worth calling a woman” because “she has never given birth to a baby.” Last week, Secretary of State John Kerry said the North Korean government, led by Kim Jong-un, was “one of the most egregious examples of reckless disregard for human rights.”

Some rights activists in the United States and South Korea opposed the women’s trip, saying that it would be used as propaganda by North Korea. They urged the peace activists to call on the North to dismantle political prison camps and end human rights abuses.

When the activists marched in Pyongyang on Saturday, North Korean women in colorful traditional dresses lined a boulevard waving red and pink paper flowers, according to North Korean television footage.

One of the roadside signs said “Let us reunify the divided country as soon as possible!” On the other side of the border on Sunday, hundreds of South Korean activists welcomed the women who crossed into the South Korean city of Paju, north of Seoul. Not far away, however, hundreds of conservative South Koreans, including defectors from the North, also rallied, accusing the activists of “flattering Kim Jong-un” and promoting a “fake peace.”

“Go back to the North!” they chanted.

The conservative protesters cited reports in the state-run North Korean news media that quoted some of the visitors as praising North Korean leaders. In its reports about the activists’ meetings with North Korean women in Pyongyang, the North’s Korean Central News Agency also cited “speakers” who it said called the United States “a kingdom of terrorism and a kingpin of human rights abuses.”

The conservatives said those reports proved that the activists had been used as propaganda tools by the North. But organizers of the trip said that none of the visiting women had uttered any of the remarks that were reported in the North Korean media. The organizers stressed that their trip had been aimed at easing the mistrust and hostility that not only divided the two Koreas but also people in the South.

Several South Korean activists have in the past defied the ban on visiting North Korea without government permission and traveled to Pyongyang to promote reconciliation. When they returned home to face arrest, North Korea gave them a rousing send-off at Panmunjom. South Korean officials did not want Ms. Steinem and her party to cross Panmunjom partly because they did not want North Korea to use the trip for similar propaganda.

美和平主義者 北韓「行腳」入南韓

美國女權主義者葛羅莉亞．斯坦能（Gloria Steinem）廿四日率領卅位女性和平主義者，從北韓搭巴士穿越南北韓非軍事區進入南韓，宣稱此行是促進南北韓和平與和解的「勝利」，但南韓官員和批評者認為她們被北韓利用當成宣傳工具。

兩位諾貝爾和平獎得主，賴比瑞亞的雷蔓．葛波薇和北愛爾蘭的梅莉德．馬奎爾也參與這項「婦女越過非軍事區」活動。她們原本希望從北韓徒步穿越1953年簽署停戰協定的「停戰村」板門店，但南韓當局不同意，只准她們越過板門店西南邊的邊界哨站，而且不准徒步，只能搭巴士越界，以降低這群和平主義者想要達成的象徵意義與宣傳效果。

今年是南北韓分裂七十周年，這群女性表示，她們希望藉此活動引起世人注意，韓戰參戰國有必要簽訂永久和平條約，取代停戰協定，正式結束戰爭，為統一做準備。在1950年到5年的韓戰結束後，南北韓技術上仍處於戰爭狀態，邊界雖名為「非軍事區」，實際上重兵雲集。

北韓一直希望與當年參戰的美國簽訂和平條約，因此，美國和南韓一些人權人士反對這群和平主義者的越界行動，認為她們被北韓當成宣傳工具。

斯坦能駁斥這種說法：「我們做到了沒人能做到的事，這是一趟促進和平、和解與人權之旅，獲得兩韓政府的同意，我們做到了國民外交。」

一行人抵達北韓首都平壤，與北韓婦女團體舉行和平大會。北韓電視畫面顯示，她們廿三日與穿著韓服北韓婦女一起遊行，路旁標語寫著：「讓我們盡快統一這個分裂國家！」

批評者指她們接觸的北韓婦女經過當局挑選，但斯坦能堅稱：「我知道我們與北韓婦女真正交流。」在邊界的另一邊，幾百名南韓統派人士歡迎這群婦女，不遠處，則有包括脫北者在內的幾百名保守派人士抗議她們「阿諛奉承金正恩」，倡議「假和平」。

原文參照：
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/05/25/world/asia/peace-activists-cross-demilitarized-zone-separating-koreas.html

紐約時報中文版翻譯：
http://cn.nytimes.com/asia-pacific/20150525/c25nkorea/zh-hant/

2015-05-25．聯合報．A13．國際．編譯田思怡