Guest Post: Join the music festival on the DMZ June 23 and 24!
On August 14, 1945, US Army colonel Dean Rusk and Army staffer Charles Bonesteel went into a room with a copy of National Geographic as their guide and drew a line on a map that divided Korea at the 38th Parallel. This line was never meant to be permanent, but 73 years later the peninsula is still severed by the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ), the four kilometer buffer that separates the people of North Korea from the people of South Korea.
In recent years, loud music could occasionally be heard along the DMZ in the form of psychological warfare operations in which the South Korean Army blasted K-Pop music at the enemy (it’s unclear whether this was meant to attract or repulse them). But during the last weekend of June, the Peace Train Music Festival will bring a very different kind of noise to the DMZ, as artists from around the world and South Korea will come together with thousands of partiers to make a loud and clear statement that people are tired of unending military escalation, apocalyptic threats, and divided families. People are sick of war and want peace for Korea. Some are calling this Korea’s Woodstock (although I doubt there will be much brown acid in circulation).
Last September, standing in front of the UN, Donald Trump threatened to “totally destroy” North Korea. This was the first time during my 12 years of living in South Korea that I began to seriously contemplate the possibility of a return to all-out war. But the times most definitely are a changin’. One of the first signs of change appeared during the 2018 PyeongChang Winter Olympics. Images of North and South Korean athletes walking together under a united flag and playing hockey together on a unified women’s team became an event in which the possibility for genuine reconciliation between the Koreas could be imagined. The Olympics prepared the way for a cascade of historic meetings between South Korean President Moon Jae-in and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, and most recently, between Donald Trump and Kim in Singapore.
An overwhelming majority of South Koreans have expressed support for both the April 27 Panmunjom Declaration for Peace signed by Moon and Kim and for the Trump-Kim summit. This support was made clear in June 13 local elections, in which Moon’s Democratic Party crushed the opposition in record-setting fashion. Despite this deep and widespread support for peace and reconciliation between the Koreas, many liberal politicians and pundits in the US appear to be trying to sabotage the peace process. Democrats have been completely ineffective at opposing Trump, but are now attempting to show some backbone by criticizing the summit with Kim, hawkishly complaining that Trump “gave away too much,” made “too many concessions.”
One of the most stunning moments of the summit came when Trump announced that the US would be suspending joint military exercises, calling them “provocative.” This is something that progressive peace activists and organizations from around the world have been arguing for many years, that the simulation of “decapitation strikes” and drills in which B-52s drop dummy nuclear bombs on South Korean islands are blocking any possibility for dialogue and mutual trust.
Provocative is actually a pretty tame word for these “games.” Given the ugly, destructive, traumatic histories of colonialism, division and war in Korea, joint military exercises are offensive and outrageous and need to end immediately. This would be a major victory for the people of both Koreas, and for the environment. Don’t get me wrong. I think Trump should be opposed on all fronts, but not this one.
This is an exciting time to be living on the Korean Peninsula. Like the Berlin Wall in 1989, the DMZ is finally headed toward the dustbin of history. Of course things could change dramatically, who knows what presidential tweetstorm is on the horizon. But at this particular historical conjuncture, the peace process has the momentum. I look forward to the day when the DMZ Peace Train Music Festival is held along an open border so that my friends and I can dance and celebrate with our North Korean brothers and sisters. We hope you will join us.
The DMZ Peace Train Music Festival will be held in Cheorwon in Gangwon Province near the DMZ from June 23-24, and includes Glen Matlock of the Sex Pistols (Scotland) and Vaudou Game (France/Togo), along with local indie rock legends Galaxy Express and Jambinai, who performed at the closing ceremony of the 2018 Winter Olympics. Click here for the full schedule.
John R. Eperjesi is an Associate Professor of English Literature at Kyung Hee University in Seoul. He is the author of “The Unending Korean War in Film: From The Bridges at Toko-Ri to Welcome to Dongmakgol,” Journal of American Studies (May 2017).
Note: The photos are Dorosan Station, the last station in the south for trains running to North Korea, and were taken in 2013 by Tim Shorrock. The caption above reads: “Not the last station from the South, But the first station toward the North.”
