People participate in a peace rally in Seoul, South Korea, July 22, 2023. (Photo by Yang Chang/Xinhua)
South Korean civic activists on
Saturday shouted for peace on the Korean Peninsula and in the world ahead of the 70th anniversary of the armistice agreement that ended the 1950-53 Korean War.
Peace activists and ordinary people marched hundreds of meters from the Seoul plaza to the Gwanghwamun Square in central Seoul to demand eased tensions on the peninsula and settlement of the peninsula issues through dialogue.
The participants chanted slogans and held placards saying "Stop hostilities and go for peace now," "Let's open the door to dialogue by stopping combined South Korea-U.S. military exercises," and "Oppose South Korea-U.S.-Japan military cooperation."
The march opened a peace rally, organized by the Korea Peace Appeal which is composed of hundreds of civic and religious groups in South Korea as well as tens of overseas anti-war groups.
The association was launched to actively stage a peace movement marking the 70th anniversary of the armistice treaty that falls on July 27.
The festive demonstration continued with performances by traditional and contemporary music bands. Between the performances, politicians and activists made pro-peace remarks.
The Korea Peace Appeal said in a statement that the participants marched and shouted the slogans to remove the dark clouds of war, which shrouded the peninsula, and create a new history of peace in the world.
The peace association urged every party concerned to stop hostilities, which only brought about a vicious cycle of endless arms races and military threats, stressing that unilateral sanctions and military pressure led to a new level of military crisis.
It noted that the South Korea-U.S. military exercises, which are an aggressive war game, should be stopped for the resumption of dialogue, emphasizing its stern opposition to the South Korea-U.S.-Japan military cooperation triggering a possible confrontation with other neighboring countries.
Separately, civic activists from South Korea and Japan held a joint press conference in central Seoul to call for peace on the Korean Peninsula and in the region.
The activists said in a statement that South Korea and the United States had recently conducted the maximum scale of combined military drills by mobilizing nuclear-capable strategic bombers and nuclear-powered aircraft carriers.
They pointed out a U.S. strategic nuclear submarine docked earlier this week at South Korea's southeast port of Busan for the first time in over four decades, saying the military escalation was made routine around the peninsula.
Another factor threatening peace in the region was Japan's stronger push for increased military power, such as a plan to raise the proportion of its defense budget to GDP from 1 percent to 2 percent, the activists noted.
They demanded South Korea should immediately withdraw its policy of integrating with the U.S. nuclear policy and Japan should stop its arms buildup to defend article 9 of its constitution, the core of Japan's peace policy after World War II.
