Report on People's Summit for Korea

By Peoples Dispatch 

For Korean anti-imperialist organizers that organized the People’s Summit for Korea in New York City, the stakes of US militarism and escalating tensions in the Pacific region could not be higher.

Ju-Hyun Park, a lead organizer of Nodutdol for Korean Community Development, a Korean diaspora organization fighting for national liberation, told Peoples Dispatch that the struggles against US militarism in Korea “are really concerning the survival not only of the Korean people, of peace and development in East Asia, but really the future of humanity itself.”

From July 25 to July 26, Nodutdol, (alongside other groups including Koreans for Anti-Imperialism and Sovereignty, Korea Peace Now Grassroots Network, Koreans 4 Decolonization, Korea Policy Institute, The People’s Forum, ANSWER Coalition, Anti-War Action Network, Dissenters, and the United National Anti-War Coalition) held the inaugural People’s Summit for Korea.

A large delegation of activists and movement leaders traveled across the Pacific from South Korea to present lessons learned from struggles on the peninsula.

Kyung-wan Ryu of the Korea International Peace Forum spoke on how South Korea serves as a key lynchpin of US imperialism in the region, labeling the country “a permanent outpost in the US strategy of global East Asian dominance.”

Ryu detailed the decades of history of the Korean movement opposing US militarism. “The 2002 death of a middle school girl in an armored US military vehicle sparked nationwide anti- American sentiment. The 2008 candlelight vigil against the US-Korea Free Trade Agreement was the largest movement of its kind, lining the streets of Seoul with one million people, and rekindling memories of the defense of economic sovereignty.”

Yeon-hee Lee of Action for Peace Sovereignty, Beyond Peace spoke on the Mutual Defense Treaty between the United States and South Korea that was signed in October 1953. She highlighted that in the last 72 years since its signing, “the US military bases on the Korean Peninsula and the US military have caused a lot of damage and problems, including various crimes, environmental pollution, and military accidents.” According to Lee, “It is up to us, the people of South Korea, to bring the new government and the ruling party to the side of self-determination and sovereignty in our square. The alliance and bases movement to stop the US outposts in the masses is a fundamental movement that encompasses all issues, including alliances and bases, because we are living in such a time and in such a region that World War III could happen in Northeast Asia.”...

Following the summit, Korean national liberation organizations joined forces with representatives from the Korean left and trade union movements, as well as other anti-imperialist groups based in the United States, to hold a rally and march in Times Square on July 28. Hundreds of demonstrators held banners reading “US out of Korea” and “Armistice then, liberation now!”

Mee-Hee Son, of the Korean Alliance for Progressive Movement, united front organizations of students, peasants, workers, and activists in South Korea, spoke at the rally. Son declared that the Korean struggle is “is not just about one nation.”

“It is a fight of international solidarity against the domination, war, and exploitation imposed by imperialism on the peoples of the world,” she asserted.