[Exclusive] Government denies entry to 'Women Walking in the DMZ' organizer Christine Ahn again

[단독] 정부, ‘DMZ 걷는 여성들’ 기획자 크리스틴 안 또 입국 거부

by Minhee Park, Hani-co.kr, 2024-10-31 (excerpt)

Christine Ahn, (Honolulu based) co-president of WomenCrossDMZ, who has been carrying out peace activism, including organizing the "Women's Walk in the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) for Peace on the Korean Peninsula," was denied entry.

Korean-American peace activist Christine Ahn was in Honolulu on October 30 (local time) at Daniel K. Inouye Airport.  She told Hani-co.kr that she was denied boarding at Inouye International Airport … due to the decision of the South Korean immigration authorities.

In an e-mail interview with Hani-co.kr on the 31st, Ahn said, "When I was checking in for Asiana Airlines, the staff told me that my boarding pass could not be printed, so I contacted the Korean immigration authorities and they told me that they had received confirmation that I was banned from entering Korea."

Ahn was scheduled to deliver a keynote speech at the 'International Youth Forum Peace Leader 2024' hosted by the Gyeonggi Peace Education Center in Paju, Gyeonggi City on November 2.  ….

In May 2015, Ahn organized the Women's March for Peace on the Korean Peninsula across the DMZ with about 30 women peace activists, including Gloria Steinem…and Nobel Peace Prize winners Mariad Maguire and Lima Bowie.

However, when the Nodong Sinmun, the official newspaper of the Workers' Party of North Korea, reported that Ahn had praised the Kim Il-sung family during his visit to Kim Il-sung's birthplace, a controversy arose in Korea about Ahn's trip. …South Korea's conservative government continues to take issue with this.

Even in 2017, during the Park Geun-hye administration, the Ministry of Justice banned Ahn from entering the country on the grounds that he "had sufficient potential to threaten national interests and public safety." Then, when international criticism spread due to the New York Times' coverage, it was withdrawn….

read … Full Report

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The Phony Korean ‘Peace’ Movement -- WSJ 2023

…in the U.S. there are people and organizations who favor the North Korean regime. Their long-term goal is the withdrawal of U.S. forces from South Korea. That would likely lead to Korean reunification on Kim Jong Un’s terms.

One of the main organizers of this week’s mobilization, Christine Ahn of Women Cross DMZ—whose advisory board includes celebrities such as Abigail Disney, Gloria Steinem and Alice Walker—has said that she is “trying to liberate Korea” from “the yoke of U.S. imperialism” and that America is “the world’s aggressor and empire.” She also urges the removal of all U.S. military bases and forces from the Asia-Pacific region—even Hawaii, which she describes as “occupied territory.”

Ms. Ahn has opposed North Korea-related human-rights legislation in the U.S. and South Korea. Women Cross DMZ’s policy statements seem to blame all of the world’s problems on American “imperialism” and Israeli “apartheid.”  Its statements condemn sanctions against North Korea, Iran, Venezuela and Zimbabwe ….

read … Wall Street Journal

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North Korean Stooges Step Into the Light

Newsweek, 2023: … Among its bad ideas, the bill calls for the United States to accept the North's demand for a no-preconditions "peace agreement," while asking nothing from the North in return.The bill fails to mention any demands by the U.S. or the international community for the North's complete, verifiable, and irreversible denuclearization; an end to its horrific crimes against its own people; its proliferation of weapons to other rogue and terrorist regimes; its military attacks against South Korea; its assassinations, or its cyber-crimes targeting the U.S. and South Korea.

Worse than the glaring omissions of H.R. 1369 is the pro-North Korean, anti-American, racist, and antisemitic nature of some of the official sponsoring/organizing groups participating in the D.C. lobbying and other events in late July. The dirty secret of this campaign is the involvement of groups that support the North Korean regime, such as the Korean American National Coordinating Council, the June 15 U.S. Committee for Reunification of Korea, and Nodutdol. These fanatically pro-North Korean, anti-American groups, as well as Women Cross DMZ, are headed by individuals who have for years been communicating and collaborating with intelligence agents of North Korea's United Front Department stationed at the North's Mission to the United Nations.  To expose this deception, questions should be posed to those directly involved in this campaign or indirectly involved in it through their support for some of its sponsors. These are questions to those who are not pro-North Korea, but who do not know, or do not care to know, the true nature of the groups/individuals they are involved with and supporting in this campaign.

Women Cross DMZ leader Christine Ahn has said that she is "trying to liberate Korea under the yoke of U.S. imperialism," that the "U.S. military is there to protect the corporate interests of U.S. corporations" and she describes the U.S. as "the world's aggressor and occupier." She has also said, regarding the U.S military, "the U.S. and South Korean governments control and suppress dissent through the infrastructure of bases, particularly Pyeongtaek and Osan."

Are Retired Air Force Lieutenant General Dan Leaf and scientist Dr. Sigfried Hecker aware of the fact that they will be speaking at a Washington event alongside not only Ahn, but Ann Wright, who has said that "There are powerful influences in the United States, key Jewish persons with lots of money, who use that money and influence to influence our U.S. Congress, and to influence every U.S. president?" ….

read … North Korean Stooges Step Into the Light | Opinion - Newsweek

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‘The pro-North Korean movement in the USA’

excerpts from power point presentation by Lawrence Peck, American Enterprise Institute, 2023

…Here's a case study in the form of the group Women Cross DMZ / Korea Peace Now, Women Cross DMZ, it was a classic pro-North Korean front organization as I characterize it and it recently not too long ago a couple of years ago established a lobbying arm under its control called Korea Peace Now. So I usually refer to the groups as Women Cross DMZ / Korea Peace Now. And on the right side in the center you can see the leader and founder of that group and previous other pro-North front groups, previous ones that she had less success with but this current one which she's had much more success with her name is Christine Ahn and she's in the center there and as I said she's been involved with or an alumnus of many, such pro-North groups, having the most success in the current incarnation of Women Cross DMZ / Korea Peace Now.

This was in an event in Seoul, Korea hosted as you can see on the right side. The gentleman there, the Korean gentleman was the late mayor of Seoul, Mayor Park, who hosted a gala event at City Hall in Seoul for these groups when they had their 2015 cross border march across the DMZ after holding a number of propaganda events in Pyongyang at which the USA was described as a kingpin of international terrorism to the applause of the members. They then crossed the border and came into Seoul. On the left, of course, you see one of the VIP supporters who's been very active in the group and defending them against any and all criticism: the feminist icon Gloria Steinem. In the back actually directly behind Ms. Ahn in the center you see an academic, Professor Suzy Kim of Rutgers who's been involved with attempts at historical revisionism in attempting to beautify some of the, even some of the old-fashioned Korean War era pro-North Korean front groups.

The reason I put up that photo is to juxtapose it with the photo on the left side, which shows one of the doors to the North Korean UN mission in New York.

In front of it, you see the flower cortege there, the flower ring, and on the label you'll see 6.15, that refers to a pro-North Korean organization one of those which actually has a branch in Pyongyang but is really most active in in Seoul in South Korea, Yug-il Shil-chun Ui-won-hoi, the 6.15 Implementation Committee, of course its name reflecting the June fifteenth agreement between North and South, but it is a pretty much an openly pro-North Korean group which has branches in cities throughout the US. And here in New York, this was the anniversary of the time of the death of Kim Jong Il and one of their representatives delivered to the North Korean mission, these flowers in condolence.

And the gentleman you see there, the bald man in the suit and tie, his name is Pak Chol, and he was at that time, this happened to be late 2011, he happened to be the United Front Department agent at the North's mission, the one who was responsible for liaising with, communicating with, assisting, advising, pro-North Korean forces, including Christine Ahn and her group, because it was with him whom Christine Ahn collaborated and communicated to organize her 2015 march. She had known him before then for many years she had first met him in North Korea on a tour with another pro-North Korean group and she had been in contact with him and then when he came to the US she was in contact with him to arrange that effort. As a matter of fact, in one email to her, which was perhaps accidentally or imprudently posted online, he even instructs her to focus her march on the need for peace agreement, which she then proceeded precisely to do.…

read … Full Report

2023: Christine Ahn Awarded Honolulu City Council Honorary Certificate