The Korean War is 75 years old this month. That’s right. Because there was never a formal peace agreement, wartime rights to use force are still in place on the Korean Peninsula. Many Americans have forgotten this war is ongoing, but American troops know. 28,500 US troops are deployed in South Korea, and I hear them all the time – over and over again – flying military drills over the small mountain town where I live in South Korea.
South Korean young men must all serve in the military because this war has never ended, and North Korean (DPRK) people live in fear that the constant war drilling could lead to renewed violence at anytime. The root of the DPRK’s nuclear development is a desire to deter any attack by the US military. Nuclear weapons are not the root of the Korean War, but a result of the war never ending. The answer to the nuclear crisis is a peace agreement and normalized relations.
A peace agreement to FINALLY end this war would benefit all of us. In a past conversations with Congressional staff, I focused on how nuclear proliferation and security concerns are rooted in the unended war, but this year, I focused on the American veteran families who are still impacted by the unended war.
When the USA and the DPRK were talking to each other in the last Trump term, the DPRK took the initiative to send many boxes of remains of fallen US soldiers back to the USA. This matters to the families of thousands of soldiers who went missing in action in the North during the active phase of the Korean War from 1950-1953. Imagine the families’ and fellow soldiers’ heartache that these men were left behind. Imagine how families feel knowing this war persists after 75 years despite their family’s sacrifice. Because our countries have not formalized a peace agreement and have no formal diplomatic relationships, the state of war keeps these soldiers’ remains from being recovered and returned. However, when our two nations paused our war games and weapons’ testing and sat down around the negotiation table in President Trump’s last term, the DPRK unilaterally sent US solider remains home as an act of goodwill.
I know a Missourian who is waiting for news that her father’s remains have been found. She’s been waiting her entire life for this closure. She knows the location where her father’s plane crashed in the DPRK, and she is part of the Coalition of Families of Korean & Cold War POW/MIAs who used to send representatives to the DPRK, where they worked alongside North Koreans to recover remains of US soldiers. However, in 2017, the US blocked travel to the DPRK, impeding further cooperation toward this goal. This is just one of many consequences of the travel ban.
And, so, we ask Congressional Representatives to cosponsor the Peace on the Korean Peninsula Act (H.R. 1841). In addition to evaluating the effects of the travel ban and establishing liaison offices for normalizing relations between our nations, this bill calls for a peace agreement to FINALLY end the Korean War. We can end our hostility, remove the underlying cause of the security tensions between our nations, and transform the future for our people.
While we spent our time during advocacy week making requests of Congress, President Trump has the authority to unilaterally declare an end the Korean War. I certainly hope he will.
May the souls of all the soldiers who died on Korean land find peace with the end of the Korean War, and may all those who lived on, honoring their memory, also find peace when their remains are recovered and returned home.
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American friends, please follow these links to email your Representatives in support of peace on the Korean Peninsula:
Seeds Will Grow 
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