Peace activists make rare crossing of North-South Korea border

An international group of women peace activists, led by American feminist Gloria Steinem, made a rare crossing Sunday of one of the world's most militarised borders between North and South Korea.
The group of 30 activists rode by bus through the demilitarised zone (DMZ) separating the two Koreas in what Steinem described as a "triumph" for peace and reconciliation, dismissing criticism that the women had allowed themselves to be used as propaganda tools by the North. "I'm so confident that once it is clear what we have experienced, these objections will go away," Steinem told reporters on the South Korean side of the border. Detractors argued that the group's peace mission had played into the North's hands by refusing to directly criticise Pyongyang for its dismal human rights record.
They also suggested the activists' interactions with North Korean women in Pyongyang were meaningless given that those women were likely specially selected by the authorities.
"I know we had real human exchanges with North Korean women," Steinem insisted.
"Nothing we do can change the image of North Korea. We are trying to make person by person connections, so that there is understanding," she added.
The group had originally wanted to cross the DMZ through the Panmunjom "truce village", where North and South Korean soldiers stand just metres apart in a permanent, Cold War face-off over the border. But South Korea opposed the plan and the women finally agreed "with regret" to Seoul's preference for a road crossing on the western part of the border. They were also prevented from walking on foot over the actual border line, and had to move by bus instead.
Despite its name, the DMZ is one of the world's most heavily militarised frontiers, bristling with watchtowers and landmines, and crossings through the land border are extremely rare.
With this year marking the 70th anniversary of the division of the Korean peninsula, the women said they wanted to draw attention to the need for a permanent peace treaty to replace the armistice that halted - but technically never ended - the 1950-1953 Korean War.