Open Letter to Hon. Kim Dae-Jung

(Monday 29 October 2001 Seoul, Korea) Asia-Pacific Members of the ICBL, gathered in Korea, send message to the President of the Republic of Korea

Dear Mr. President:

We are very pleased to inform you that some twenty members of the International Campaign to Ban Landmines (ICBL) from Asia-Pacific countries have come to Seoul to meet and discuss their research for the Landmine Monitor, an annual publication of the ICBL. We have just concluded our research meeting, which took place Oct. 25-28.

We would like to express our deep thanks to your excellency, the Korean government officials, the Korea Campaign to Ban Landmines (KCBL) staff, and the Korean people for the warm hospitality and kind assistance extended to us while we held our meeting here. We have learned much about the landmine problem in Korea by visiting the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) and meeting with civilian landmine victims.

In particular, we would like to convey our special thanks to your excellency for your strong interest in the landmine issue: South Korea’s ratification of the Convention on Conventional Weapons (CCW) Amended Protocol II and raising the landmine issue at the June 15 summit meeting with Chairman Kim Jong-Il of North Korea last year.

Since the historic summit meeting, much progress has been made in the improvement of mutual relations between the North and South, including a governmental agreement to build a transportation connection across the DMZ, requiring removal of thousands of antipersonnel landmines in its pathway. We sincerely hope that both governments of Korea will continue to cooperate, overcoming all obstacles, on this important project so that it could be completed in the near future.

Successful completion of such a transportation linkage across the DMZ will not only benefit both Koreas economically but also go a long way in promoting further peace, reconciliation and cooperation on the Korean peninsula—a step toward peaceful reunification of the divided nation.

We hope that you share our sentiment that, like chemical, biological or nuclear weapons, the antipersonnel landmine is also a weapon of mass destruction in slow motion that claims some 20,000 victims each year around the world. In addition, millions of antipersonnel landmines stockpiled or in use in Korea pose a major threat to the future life and welfare of the Korean people, including both civilians and soldiers. We believe that national security should not and need not be established upon the continued use of such indiscriminate and inhumane weapon.

We look forward to working with you, both governments of Korea, and the Korean people on the landmine issue so that the two Korean governments can soon join the 142 nations that have already signed the 1997 Ottawa Mine Ban Treaty. We congratulate you on receipt of the Nobel Peace Prize in 2000. In 1997, our coalition, the International Campaign to Ban Landmines (ICBL) and its Coordinator Jody Williams, were jointly awarded this same prize for our efforts to secure the treaty banning antipersonnel mines.

We wish you good health and further successes in your future endeavors.

Respectfully Yours,

Mary Wareham, United States Campaign to Ban Landmines
John H. Kim, United States Campaign to Ban Landmines
Rafique Al-Islam, Non-Violence International, Bangladesh
Neil Mander, New Zealand Campaign Against Landmines
Saliya Edirisinghe, Sri Lanka Campaign to Ban Landmines
Bambang Subono, Indonesian Campaign to Ban Landmines
Dr. Balkrishna Kurvey, Indian Campaign to Ban Landmines
Shauna M’creevy, ICBL-Australian Network
Tungalag Johnstone, Mongolia Campaign to Ban Landmines
Raza Shah Khan, Pakistan Campaign to Ban Landmines
Alfredo Lubang, Philippine Campaign to Ban Landmines
Siriphen Limsirikul, Thailand Campaign to Ban Landmines
Michiyo Kato, Thailand Campaign to Ban Landmines (Researcher for Burma)
Ny Nhar, Cambodia Campaign to Ban Landmines
Yasuhiro Kitagawa, Japan Campaign to Ban Landmines
Janecke Wille, Landmine Monitor Research Coordinator for Mine Action
Sheree Bailey, Landmine Monitor Research Coordinator for Victim Assistance
Annalisa Formiconi, Landmine Monitor Research Coordinator for Asia-Pacific