News Release

* Korean Americans * Nuclear Protesters

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HYUN LEE, hyunlee70 at gmail.com
CHRISTINE HONG, cjhong at ucsc.edu
Scores of Korean American and allied organizations released a “Statement of Unity on the Upcoming U.S.-North Korea Summit.” Lee is managing editor of Zoom in Korea; Hong is an associate professor at the University of California, Santa Cruz, and an executive board member of the Korea Policy Institute.

See pieces at Zoom in Korea, including the unity statement and “Congressman Ro Khanna Emphasizes Continued Diplomacy with North Korea,” which contrasts Khanna’s stance with the current hawkish Democratic Party leadership of Chuck Schumer. See action alert by Roots Action on that issue.

Their unity statement read: “The United States and North Korea should take immediate mutual steps to prevent military conflict and alleviate tensions. They should establish and maintain a military hotline and communications channel and halt all military exercises and other provocative actions. The United States should withdraw the THAAD missile defense system in South Korea. And in step with North and South Korea, which have agreed to ‘carry out disarmament in a phased manner’ in the Panmunjom Declaration, U.S. Forces in Korea should take corresponding measures to reduce its troops.”

JESSICA STEWART, PAUL MAGNO, kingsbayplowshares at gmail.com
Stewart and Magno are with the Kings Bay Plowshares, seven of whom are imprisoned and being prosecuted for protesting against the U.S. nuclear weapons arsenal.

The group notes: “Seven Catholic plowshares activists entered Kings Bay Naval Submarine Base in St. Mary’s, Georgia on April 4th, 2018. They went to make real the prophet Isaiah’s command to ‘beat swords into plowshares’.

“The seven chose to act on the 50th anniversary of the assassination of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., who devoted his life to addressing what he called the ‘triple evils of militarism, racism and materialism.’ Carrying hammers and baby bottles of their own blood, the seven attempted to convert weapons of mass destruction. They hoped to call attention to the ways in which nuclear weapons kill every day, by their mere existence and maintenance.”

See from America Magazine about their action: “Protesting our country’s nuclear weapons is (still) worth going to jail for.”