Icon, Wonder Woman, GOAT, and a supporter of the Korean Peace movement | By Cathi Choi and Christine Ahn (Summer 2026)
Cathi Choi, Executive Director Women Cross DMZ
Women Cross DMZ mourns the passing of Gloria Steinem who played a central role in the 2015 Women’s Peace Walk and DMZ crossing. Gloria made lasting contributions to feminist movements in the U.S. and around the world, and later in her life developed a special passion for peace on the Korean peninsula.
In 2013, WCDMZ founder Christine Ahn emailed Gloria asking if she would consider a women’s peace walk across the demilitarized zone with a group of international women. Within an hour, she responded, “Yes — my high school classmates went to war there,” and that she wanted to do her small part to help bring healing and closure to the Korean War.
At the 2015 press conference at the United Nations Correspondents Association announcing the DMZ crossing, Gloria Steinem read her statement “Why I Am Walking for Peace and Reunification of Korea” (copied below).
Throughout WCDMZ’s historic crossing — on the road to Pyongyang and across the Demilitarized Zone into South Korea — Gloria helped navigate every step, including many political landmines and entrenched hostilities. As the eldest delegate, she drew on decades of challenging political actions and helped the delegation stay on message. In the end, the delegation succeeded in getting all three governments — the DPRK, ROK and US — to agree on the crossing when they could agree on little else.
At a Women Cross DMZ reunion in 2018, Gloria reflected, “I consider my life in two parts: before the DMZ crossing, and after.”
Her contributions to the Korea peace movement did not end with the crossing. She continued to speak and write about the need to end the Korean War, including in a 2019 Washington Post op-ed with Christine Ahn, “Women marched for Korean reconciliation. Washington is in our way.” She spoke before Congress, at the United Nations, and at various WCDMZ events on Korea peace and women’s leadership. In 2019 she traveled with WCDMZ to South Korea again to deliver the keynote address at the DMZ Peace Forum. She continuously offered her guidance, time, energy, and labor to the Korea peace movement to both Korean feminist leaders in South Korea and across the diaspora.
In 2019, Gloria wrote, “One of the most rewarding things I’ve ever done in my life was a Peace Walk Across the DMZ between North and South Korea, together with thirty women leaders from around the world.”
Thank you, Gloria, for all you gave to the Korea peace movement.
Christine Ahn, Women Cross DMZ Founder
Icon. Wonder Woman. GOAT. She was all that and more, but my nickname for Gloria was “super,” which she was, but more like a building super with a massive set of keys that opened many doors.
I was among the circle of sisters privileged to stay with her when I came to NYC. We clicked the moment we first spoke over our effort to stop the naval base on Jeju Island.
In 2013 when I asked if she’d cross the DMZ with me, she wrote back yes, that she’d lost classmates in the War and she would help to bring healing and closure.
With Gloria on board, we proceeded to assemble a thirty-member international women’s delegation, including partnerships with organizations in the North and South. Gloria’s gift for narrative and effective use of media was crucial throughout our preparations.
While her obituaries lift up her lifelong feminist work, most omit her work for peace in Korea. Gloria spent political capital — and used many of her keys — to help us cross the DMZ. She was masterful in messaging: this was a walk by women for women, demonstrating with our bodies what we hoped would be done politically.
In Kaesong, before the crossing. She wrapped her long arms around me and gave me a pep talk. She reminded me that we’d gotten three governments to agree on our crossing when they could agree on nothing else. This was a huge victory, and our job now was “to hold our heads high.”
At Dorasan Station, as journalists hounded us, Gloria said, “Christine is the heroine of this group, we should all be thanking her!” As I faced deportation and threats, she shielded me then as she did so often.
But our friendship went beyond activism. She was my wise sister who helped me find my own personal liberation. Once I called her before a flight, tearful and guilty about leaving my young daughter Jeju. Gloria said Jeju would know me as someone who pursued her dreams, and be shaped by watching her dad cook, clean, and care for her. And when I struggled to end my marriage, she told me it was important for me to model the relationship I wanted Jeju to see and to later have one day herself.
Gloria helped us raise funds, offered quotes for press releases, reviewed statements, and spoke on webinars and at multiple events. She hosted talk circles at her brownstone, and always welcomed me to stay with her. She loved our movement, which she called a “roving editorial peace committee.”
On one of my last visits, as we lay in bed sharing stories, she held my face and said, “Christine, you are a magical person. I believe you can do anything.” In Gloria fashion, I quipped, “that’s because you’ve sprinkled some of your fairy dust on me.”
I love and miss you, Gloria. Thank you for all you did for me, Jeju and all our movements. RIP to the Super.
Gloria Steinem’s remarks at the UN Correspondents Press Conference, March 11, 2015
Why I Am Walking for Peace and Reunification of Korea
When I was in high school, my classmates were drafted in the Korean War. One of my classmate’s fathers who had been in WWII actually killed his son and killed himself rather than see his son go to war. I never forgot that.
I don’t know if we could have averted the Korean War, but because Americans participated in the war — and in the division after the war – we have an obligation to think about how the war can finally be declared over and a country unified.
I have stood on the South Korean side of the DMZ in a brand new railroad station; a symbol of hope that is empty and unused. It’s so close to North Korea that you can see the buildings on the other side. It symbolizes the separation between families; so close and yet so isolated. For these and many other reasons, when Korean-American women initiated this peace walk across the DMZ, I wanted to join.
I believe it’s crucial that women help initiate and pursue peace efforts. For cultural reasons, we don’t have “masculinity” to prove, and so it’s sometimes easier for us to make connections with other women across divisions. In Ireland, it was the women who crossed the boundaries of religion and region. For generations, those divisions seemed hopeless, yet now Ireland is a peaceful country. Women also crossed lines of religion to unite against warlords in Liberia, and bring about a peaceful election there.
Now we know from massive studies of every modern nation that the biggest indicator of whether a country is violent within itself, or is willing to use military violence against another country, is not poverty, or access to natural resources, or religion, or even degree of democracy; it’s violence and dominance against females. It normalizes all other dominance and violence because it’s the violence and domination we see first, perhaps even inside the family. It causes us to think the domination of one group by another is inevitable. The Women’s Peace March across the DMZ is a symbol of unification for North and South Korea, and peace between women and men. We can no longer afford violence and domination on this fragile Space Ship Earth.
