S. Koreans call for peace as armistice anniversary nears

SEOUL — South Korean civic activists on Saturday called for peace on the Korean Peninsula and in the world as the 70th anniversary of the armistice agreement that ended the Korean War (1950-53) approached.

Peace activists and others marched hundreds of meters from a plaza to Gwanghwamun Square in central Seoul to demand the easing of tensions on the peninsula and settlement of 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-US military exercises" and "Oppose South Korea-US-Japan military cooperation".

The march opened a peace rally organized by the Korea Peace Appeal, composed of hundreds of civic and religious groups in South Korea as well as tens of overseas anti-war groups.

The organization was set up to call for peace as the 70th anniversary of the armistice treaty falls on Thursday.

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 the participants marched and shouted slogans to remove the specter of war shrouding the peninsula and create a new history of peace in the world.

The organization urged every party concerned to stop hostilities, which it said only produces a cycle of endless arms races and military threats, and said unilateral sanctions and military pressure lead to a new level of military crisis.

The South Korea-US military exercises, which it said are an aggressive war game, should be stopped for the resumption of dialogue, emphasizing its stern opposition to South Korea-US-Japan military collaboration triggering a possible confrontation with other neighboring countries.

Separately, civic activists in South Korea and Japan held a joint media conference in central Seoul calling for peace on the Korean Peninsula and in the region.

South Korea and the US had recently conducted the maximum scale of combined military drills by mobilizing nuclear-capable strategic bombers and nuclear-powered aircraft carriers, the activists said.

A US strategic nuclear submarine docked last week at the South Korean port of Busan for the first time in more than 40 years, it said, and the military escalation was made routine around the peninsula.

Another factor threatening peace in the region was Japan's push for more military power, such as a plan to raise the proportion of its defense budget to GDP from 1 percent to 2 percent, the activists said.

South Korea should immediately end its policy of integrating with US nuclear policy, they said, and Japan should stop its arms buildup to defend article 9 of its constitution, central to Japan's peace policy since World War II.

Xinhua