Korean Peace Day

I attended Korean Peace Day on Thursday, December 3rd for 2 hours at the Silver building at NYU. This event was sponsored by the National Coalition to End the War, Veterans for Peace, Korea Peace Campaign, Alliance of Scholars Concerned about Korea, Freedoms 4 North Korea, and Nodutdol.

The event started by munching on Korean food like Jun, Kim-Bap Sushi, and Korean dumplings which were absolutely delicious! Professor Henry, who is a professor at NYU, then gave us a brief history about North Korea and brought awareness to the recent controversial events involving North Korea and the Obama administration. In April, North Korea tested a rocket and was then singled out by Obama and accused of firing missiles; later being named as the exemplar violator of the U.S. Non-Proliferation Regime. Professor Henry spoke about how “raising suspicion of the suspect [Korea] adds to the tension” and how important it is for the United States and Korea to stop being enemies.

One of the most interesting parts of the event was when Peter the Veteran spoke to us. He spoke about the “National Campaign to End the Korean War” and is part of “Veterans for Peace.” Their aim is to reunify the families of South and North Korea. Peter also brought to our attention that every war, including the War in Iraq and the War in Afghanistan, brings bigger devastation to those countries than to the United States. It was very powerful to see that Veterans are working towards ENDING wars and not SUPPORTING them.

The part of the event that I loved the most was when we heard the stories from the people who went on the “Korea for Peace Trip” for 10 days. Three members who went were a Special Education Teacher, a Social Worker, and a Columbia Grad Student. They all spoke to us about their preconceptions they had before going to North Korea and the adventures they had. They told us how they imagined hungry people and marching soldiers; they were also very scared of violence and hostility they might have to face.

Two of the panelists where from South Korea and the Social Worker even grew up there until he was about 11. It was interesting to see how their perceptions of North Korea were completely inaccurate and that they were surprised to see how alike they were. One of them said, “North Korea seemed to be at the other end of the world even though it was only two hours away.” It is sad to see how the same culture can be so far apart from one another. The positive aspect of this trip was that the people involved with the trip on both ends were able to realize that their preconceptions were inaccurate and that there were misconceptions on both sides. This relates to the theme we’ve been learning in class that perceptions and portrayals of people can be extremely inaccurate and hold us back from change.

I was glad over the fact that at the end of the event we were given specific steps or guidelines on how to help this cause. Some of the options they gave us were of signing a petition on their website, signing up for the list-serve, and joining the NY Working Group. These are also feasible things for my future students to do and be part of the change.