St Paul, MN – On a cold and rainy April 10, several dozen people joined a Minneapolis-Saint Paul peace vigil to speak out against the danger of a new Korean war.

Every Wednesday, a peace vigil is held on the Lake Street/Marshall Avenue Bridge over the Mississippi River between Minneapolis and Saint Paul. Due to the urgent situation in Korea, the organizers of the vigil designated April 10 as a day to focus on the crisis with an anti-war response.

Participants held signs as busy rush hour traffic went by. Many people waved and honked their car horns in support of the anti-war message.

Signs carried by participants included slogans such as: “No new Korean War,” No U.S. war in Korea,” and “Stop war games in Korea,” referring to the ongoing war games conducted by the U.S. and south Korea. Another sign read, “Say no to war – let DPRK live.” DPRK is the Democratic Peoples Republic of Korea, the name of the northern Korean state.

Women Against Military Madness End War Committee and the Twin Cities Peace Campaign organize the weekly vigil.

On short notice, several other organizations signed on to the call for the April 10 vigil to respond to the Korea crisis and helped publicize the event. Groups endorsing the event included Anti-War Committee, Emergency Committee to Stop U.S. War in Korea, Minnesota Peace Action Coalition and Veterans for Peace.

A statement issued by organizers says in part, “The Korean peninsula is at a flash point. U.S. war games, including sending nuclear bombers on a mission simulating the bombing of North Korea, only serve to bring Korea to the brink of a new war. We call for an end to the U.S. war games, for the U.S. to make a peace treaty to end the Korean War, and for an end to the sanctions on North Korea.”

At the end of the vigil participants gathered to hear brief remarks from organizers.

Chris Getowicz of the University of Minnesota chapter of Students for a Democratic Society said, “The government and the media in the U.S. continue to beat the war drums of agitation on the Korean peninsula. The government and media are building and maintaining the myth of North Korean hostility, when it is in fact the U.S. military presence that has maintained a divided Korean peninsula for 60 years. It is U.S. imperialism that has provoked hostilities on the Korean peninsula and we must challenge the notion that anyone other than the U.S. is maintaining a militarized and divided Korea.”

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