A news conference on July 27 in front of the U.S. Capitol featured a broad array of activists and organizations: Christine Ahn, Women Cross DMZ; Joy Gebhard, Divided Family Member; Rick Downes, Coalition of Families of Korean & Cold War POW/MIAs; Lt. General (Retired) Daniel P. Leaf, U.S. Air Force; Joyce Ajlouny, American Friends Service Committee; Hana Marie Kim, 30 Under 30 activist and high school student; and Barbara Lee, U.S. Congress member from California.

Following the press event, an emotional Han ceremony at the Foundry United Methodist Church gave the many participants of Korean ancestry an opportunity to express and manage the complex emotions of sorrow, resentment, grief, sadness and hope that afflict many members of families separated during the Korean War and the following seven decades of a divided Korea.

Later, a rally in front of the White House featured Echo Hyunsook Cho, Women Cross DMZ; Medea Benjamin, Code Pink; internet personality Nick Cho, “Your Korean Dad”; and other speakers. It was followed by a spirited mile-long march past the Korean War Veterans Monument to the steps of the Lincoln Memorial, where an interfaith vigil was held.

  • themeatbridge@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    Read the article. They are calling for a united Korea. How does that work? Like you said, hostilities have been over for decades. “Ending the war” means American forces leave the country. Who benefits from that besides Kim (and China)? How does that help Korean families separated by the DMZ?

    • Beat_da_Rich@lemmygrad.ml
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      1 year ago

      Just gonna drop this, for the sake of all the new people coming to this instance

      For anyone that wants an anti-imperialist commentary on the background and aftermath of the Korean War, read the book Patriots Traitors and Empires.

      Just one of the nuggets in the book that you’ll learn is that Kim Il-Sung was actually willing to entertain the idea of a unified Korea but with two political systems as long as the American military gtfo. Of course America obstructed that peace deal and many others.

      The Korean people on both sides of the peninsula are more than capable of figuring out what reunification looks like without further Yankee meddling or Western concern trolling.

      • albigu@lemmygrad.ml
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        1 year ago

        The Nationality people on both sides of the peninsula are more than capable of figuring out what reunification looks like without further Yankee meddling or Western concern trolling.

        This should be a copypasta for every civil war/internal conflict the USA shoved itself into.

    • 🏳️‍⚧️ 新星 [she/they]@lemmygrad.ml
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      1 year ago

      How does that work?

      Many people in both Koreas would like to see reunification one day. That doesn’t mean there’s any plan to do so yet.

      “Ending the war” means American forces leave the country.

      That would depend on the specific details of the treaty, wouldn’t it?

      • themeatbridge@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        So let Kim take the South then? That’s the plan? Unite Korea under a despotic cult leader who is starving his own people?

        • IntoDaLagoon@lemmygrad.ml
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          1 year ago

          Hell yeah, I too get my information about my country’s rivals from propaganda outlets and seth rogen movies

          • themeatbridge@lemmy.world
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            1 year ago

            Sorry, are you suggesting that any of the Kims have not been despots? You know that we have access to more than one source of information, right?

            • IntoDaLagoon@lemmygrad.ml
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              1 year ago

              Sorry,

              No you’re not, you love this shit

              You know that we have access to more than one source of information, right?

              Would these be the same sources of information that said covid is over, there’s not a recession, Ukraine doesn’t have a nazi problem, Russia is about to lose the war, China is sending balloons to spy on you, and Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction?

        • deft@ttrpg.network
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          1 year ago

          i literally don’t understand why people are arguing with you. fuck kim and north korean government. he needs to step down

            • deft@ttrpg.network
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              1 year ago

              lmfao because they’re a puppet state for china that threatens nuclear bullshit and violence all the time?

              no democracy, the people are starving and there’s government issued meth

              what the fuck are you even talking about you numbskull?

              why do YOU think you know more about how the DPRK(ironic name) should work than I do? you don’t but you’re supporting a fat fascist fuck so off the bat i know you got shit for brains

                • themeatbridge@lemmy.world
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                  1 year ago

                  Are these not the ten principles upon which the nation and its one party operate?

                  • We must give our all in the struggle to unify the entire society with Kimilsungism and Kimjongilism.
                  • We must honor the great Comrades Kim Il Sung and Kim Jong Il as the eternal leaders of our Party and the people and as the Sun of Juche.
                  • We must make absolute and desperately defend the authority of the great Comrades Kim Il Sung and Kim Jong Il and the authority of the Party.
                  • We must be thoroughly armed with the revolutionary ideas of the great Comrades Kim Il Sung and Kim Jong Il and the Party’s lines and policies that are the realization of these ideas.
                  • We must adhere strictly to the principle of unconditional obedience in accomplishing the instructions passed on by the great Comrades Kim Il Sung and Kim Jong Il and in the Party’s lines and policies.
                  • We must strengthen by all possible means the entire Party’s ideology, willpower, and revolutionary unity, centering on the Leader.
                  • We must learn from the great Comrades Kim Il Sung and Kim Jong Il and adopt the noble mental and moral presence, revolutionary work methods, and people-oriented work style.
                  • We must value the political life we were given by the Party and the Leader and loyally repay the Party’s trust and thoughtfulness with heightened political awareness and work performance.
                  • We must establish strong organizational regulations so that the entire Party, nation, and military move as one under the one and only leadership of the Party.
                  • We must pass down the great achievement of the Juche revolution and the Songun revolution, pioneered by the great Comrade Kim Il Sung and led by Comrades Kim Il Sung and Kim Jong Il, from generation to generation, inheriting and completing it to the end.

                  Doesn’t sound like a democracy to me.

                • deft@ttrpg.network
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                  1 year ago

                  fuck you idiot shill for the fascists harder lmfao you’re arguing with yourself because everyone else knows this situation

                  i literally know people who escaped that awful country, do you?

          • themeatbridge@lemmy.world
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            1 year ago

            Big internet, lotta people, many viewpoints. I don’t mind an honest discussion of opposing ideologies. But I don’t think that’s what’s happening here. I suspect there’s a concerted effort to make certain ideologies seem more popular than they actually are.

            • SovereignState@lemmygrad.ml
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              1 year ago

              Who’s concerting this effort?

              This line is one of the most offensive from you bourgeois fuckers. So many of us are struggling workers. Where are these CPC checks? Where are these millions of rubles I’m owed?

              Shut the hell up. We’re human beings.

            • deft@ttrpg.network
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              1 year ago

              nah fuck your conspiracy mind. the dprk is shit and kim is a trash leader who needs to be ousted before progress can happen