Women's Walk Across Korea's DMZ Denied; They Cross By Bus

From second left, Nobel Peace Prize laureates Mairead Maguire and Leymah Gbowee, U.S. activist Gloria Steinem and other woman activists smile upon their arrival from North Korea at the office of the customs, immigration and quarantine in Paju, South Korea, near the border village of Panmunjom, Sunday, May 24, 2015. International women activists including Steinem and two Nobel Peace laureates on Sunday were denied an attempt to walk across the Demilitarized Zone dividing North and South Korea, but were allowed to cross by bus and complete what one of them called a landmark peace event. (AP)

DORASAN STATION, SOUTH KOREA (AP) — Female activists including Gloria Steinem and two Nobel Peace laureates were denied an attempt to walk across the Demilitarized Zone dividing North and South Korea on Sunday, but were allowed to cross by bus and complete what one of them called a landmark event.

The group of 30 women from 15 countries made a final appeal to authorities on both sides to allow them to walk across the demarcation line, but were turned down. The North allowed a South Korean bus to cross the demarcation line to pick them up on the North side of the DMZ and transport them over the border to South Korea.

United Nations Command officials met the group inside the DMZ after they crossed the demarcation line, and allowed them to march again after the final checkpoint on the southern side. "We were able to be citizen diplomats," said Steinem, the 81-year-old feminism pioneer and author.

"We are feeling very, very positive. We have received an enormous amount of support," she said after passing through South Korean immigration. The group included Nobel Peace laureates Mairead Maguire, from Northern Ireland, and Leymah Gbowee, from Liberia.

The women walked, carried banners and sang on the North Korean side of the first checkpoint leading into the DMZ. They were then met by a large contingent of media on the South side. The Koreas have remained divided since the 1950-53 Korean War ended in an armistice, not a peace treaty. The DMZ that divides them is one of the most heavily fortified borders in the world. Authorities on both sides said they could not guarantee the safety of the women had they walked across.

Organizer Christine Ahn, a Korean-American peace activist, said the group initially wanted to walk through the symbolic truce village of Panmunjom, where the armistice was signed. Still, she said the crossing itself was a success and a "historic event" despite "governments setting boundaries."

Some members of the group expressed disappointment that the walk inside the DMZ was denied. But Ahn said she was satisfied that they were able to meet with North Korean women during their several-day stay in Pyongyang, the North's capital, and to cross through the DMZ, which is rarely allowed in any form to civilians.

The women will also meet with South Korean counterparts. Ahn said the group went to the two Koreas to call for an end to hostilities on the Korean Peninsula, push for a reunification of families divided by the war and promote dialogue between the two enemies.