At the invitation of the National Council of Churches in Korea, Rev. Jesse L. Jackson, Sr., will deliver the opening prayer at a national vigil for peace next week at the DMZ, during a week-long peace mission and speaking tour of the Korean Peninsula.
Rev. Jackson and the Rainbow PUSH Coalition will lead a delegation of peace activists, Korean Americans and religious leaders to South Korea, July 21 to July 28.
The visit takes place as ongoing high stakes negotiations between North Korea and South Korea, and between the U.S. and North Korea unfold on the Korean Peninsula. The hope is that these negotiations will finally normalize relations between the U.S., North and South Korea, leading to a sustained peace instead of hostility and the threat of nuclear war.
At the invitation of the Minjung Party, Rev. Jackson will lecture at numerous venues in South Korea. He will deliver the opening prayer at the DMZ peace vigil July 23. He has also been invited to address members of the National Assembly on July 24 and will convene with the peace and human rights community from all sectors of Korean society for events on July 27, the 65th anniversary of the signing of the Korean War armistice.
Rev. Jackson, Jong-Kook Lee, the Consul General of the Korean Consulate General in Chicago, and author and theology professor, Dr. Grace Ji-Sun Kim, will discuss the peace mission at a news conference
Thursday, July 19, 2018
1 P.M.
Consulate General of the Republic of Korea
NBC Tower
455 N. Cityfront Plaza Dr.
Suite 2700
Chicago
“For peace to happen, diplomacy, not provocation, is essential,” Rev. Jackson said. “The cycle of fear that has gripped the peninsula since its division must be broken. Four million Koreans died during the Korean War. The civilian death toll exceeded that of the Vietnam War and more than 10 million families remain separated. After 65 years, Koreans on the peninsula and in the diaspora, and the global community, hope to break the cycle of military threat and demand a new era of peace and reunification.”
