Nobel Peace Laureates visit DMZ before gathering in Pyeongchang, South Korea
38’ parallel, DMZ zone. – “We will keep these emotions close to our hearts, and it will also re-empower us and recommit us to speak out against wars. Solution lies in peace, solution lies in dialog, not in making the distance“- said Nobel Peace Laureate Kailash Satyarthi today at the Nobel Peace Laureates’ visit to DMZ.
Just one day before the opening ceremony of the 18th World Summit of Nobel Peace Laureates the recipients of the famous award from different years met at the Goseong Unification Observatory of DMZ in Gangwon province. Recognised as the most symbolic place of the Korean war that led to the division of the country into two parts: an artificially drawn straight line, the result of the 1953 armistice after a conflict that had claimed the lives of more than three million people, which the irony of nature has transformed into a picturesque coastline.
In his emotional speech, Satyarthi gathered the meaning of their visit while at the same time responded to the testimony ofHan Mimi, whose family suffered from the Korean War.
“It’s 70 years anniversary of the Korean war, and the war is not over, we still don’t have our peace… “He stated in his speech. “We need peace, we want peace now. Peace is the only solution; war can never be the solution. We know that nuclear weapons are not the answer. The power of military is not the answer. We need dialogue“.
The delegation of Nobel Peace Laureates and other attendees gathered today not far from the World Peace Bell Park that was inaugurated by Nobel Peace Laureate Mikhail Gorbachev himself, the creator and main driving force of the Summit for many years.
The delegation included Nobel Peace Laureates Shirin Ebadi, first Iranian jurist and the first Muslim woman ever to receive the Nobel Peace Prize; Tawakkol Karman, Yemen human rights activist and founder of Women Journalists Without Chains, known also as “The Mother of the Revolution”; Leymah Gbowee, the most committed peace activist of Liberia, whose role was crucial in putting an end to the civil war; Kailash Satyarthi, children’s rights activist from India who has released 100,000+ children slaves.
Later that day Nobel Peace Laureates visited not only Goseong Unification Observatory in Gangwon Province but also the DMZ Museum to leave their words of support and encouragement for the people of Korea.
