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In an earlier post, I reported on the Women's Walk for Peace, involving Gloria Steinem, Nobel laureate Mairead Maguire and a slew of prominent women activists. I argued it could make good political theatre, even if vulnerable to North Korean manipulation and polarization in the South.
But CNN was a lot less forgiving than I was, focusing on the relative silence of march organizer Christine Ahn on North Korea’s human rights record. Sue Mi Terry and Greg Scarlatoiu weigh in on the CNN clip and Christine Ahn's protestation of McCarthyism just isn't very convincing; these are hardly McCarthyites. Particularly damning: the CNN story focuses exactly on the North Korean regime's absues with respect to women.
If the adverse publicity toughens up the march, great. The North Koreans have apparently given their assent. And according to Christine Ahn at the Huff Post, the UN Command has agreed to facilitate the march contingent on South Korean approval. But if the North is on board, you can count on doubts from elsewhere. In response to a question from Yonhap about the march, the State Department reiterated its updated travel advisory (see here and here), which warns against any travel to North Korea.
According to Yonhap, South Korea has now come forward with its doubts too. While the organizers managed to get the North on board, the Ministry of Unification claims it has not seen an official proposal yet. A spokesman stated that the march could raise rather than lower tensions on the peninsula, no doubt referring not only to the false hopes it will raise and North Korean spin, but the flak the Park administration—now wracked by scandal—could face at home for letting the march go forward.
The march is attempting a very complex tightrope that has bedeviled Trustpolitik as well: to focus on the possibilities for detente without falling into the landmines posed by the highly-suspect North Korean narrative on "peace" and the polarization over the issue in the South. Sadly, I suspect that even if the march takes place, it is headed south in the metaphorical sense unless it can pull off some very, very deft footwork. And not only on the peace narrative but on the human rights and women's issues as well.
