Just two weeks ago the headlines were about South Korea’s president declaring martial law. It was a move that was quickly reversed.
The headline this week is that the National Assembly of the Republic of Korea voted to impeach President Yoon Suk Yeol.
Just last month Hawaiʻi resident and peace activist Christine Ahn was banned from entering South Korea. It was the second time her activism put her on a do-not-travel list.
Ahn said it was déjà vu when she tried to check in for her Asiana Airlines flight from Honolulu. She was on her way to deliver the keynote address at the International Youth Peace Forum.
"So many people say, ʻOh, it's a badge of honor, you've been banned twice now by very right-wing and impeached presidents who have quashed democracy, who have worsened situations for workers and journalists and women,'" she said.
Ahn was born in South Korea and immigrated to the U.S. when she was 3 years old. However, her parents are buried in South Korea and she has family there.
"I think what's so hard and painful about being banned is their ashes are at a temple outside of Seoul in the mountains. So every time I go to Korea, I always pay tribute to my parents," she said.
She was banned prior for leading 30 international women peacemakers in 2015 across the Korean Demilitarized Zone, the buffer between the two countries, to raise awareness of the need for a peace treaty.
Ahn is also the founder and co-director of Women Cross DMZ, a movement mobilizing peace on the Korean Peninsula. She said there's "poetic justice" that the movement to impeach President Yoon Suk Yeol was led by young women.
"They were the predominant bodies at these two million-person protests," she told HPR. "I just think that's another side of the story that I think really deserves a lot more spotlight — is just the power of women and young women and feminists as a really important antidote to authoritarianism."
A petition to reverse Ahn's travel ban has more than 1,200 signatures so far.
This interview aired on The Conversation on Dec. 17, 2024. The Conversation airs weekdays at 11 a.m. on HPR-1.
