Prevent War with North Korea: Build on the Olympic Truce

Action alert from Joseph Gerson of the American Friends Service Committee (AFSC) re: "Peace and Economic Security":

The Olympic Truce, engineered by South Korean President Moon Jae-in and North Korea's Kim Jung-un, has for the moment sidelined President Trump's threats of war and given us the "gift of time" to build on it for broader diplomacy, for peace, not catastrophic war, in Korea.

Please take a look at my friend and colleague Kevin Martin's article about the Olympic Truce and steps that you can take with AFSC, Peace Action and a host of other organizations to build on this opportunity. Click here to find related resources.

For peace and survival,

Joseph

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Update on January 31, 2018 by admin

As reported by CNN, Victor Cha, the presumptive nominee to serve as U.S. Ambassador to South Korea, has been summarily "fired" by the Trump administration for his resistance to a U.S. "bloody nose" pre-emptive military strike on North Korea.

The withdrawal by the Trump administration of Cha's nomination came just one day after Cha's op-ed on Jan. 30th, "Giving North Korea a 'Bloody Nose' Carries a Huge Risk for Americans," published in the Washington Post.

Frank Aum of the U.S. Institute of Peace, a North Korea expert interviewed by NPR, warned that Cha's dismissal indicates the Trump White House is seriously considering a military strike against North Korea.

The dire warning echoes an article in Business Insider published Jan. 24th, "U.S. stealth bombers in Guam appear to be readying for a tactical nuclear strike on North Korea."

Update on February 1, 2018 by admin

Ishaan Tharoor has published an article in the Washington Post entitled "In confronting North Korea, Trump risks disaster."

Nuclear Age Peace Foundation Alert: Take Action. This is not a drill.

Take Action for Peace on the Korean Peninsula

"THIS IS NOT A DRILL." Fortunately for humanity and the people of Hawaii, those five words were part of a false alarm warning of an incoming ballistic missile attack. But with tensions between the U.S. and North Korea higher than they've been in decades, we must act now to reduce the dangers and achieve a lasting peace on the Korean Peninsula.

Here are three things that you can do right now to help:

1. Tell your senators and representative to co-sponsor legislation that would prevent a military strike against North Korea without congressional authorization. These bills, H.R.4837 and S.2016, urgently need more co-sponsors. Click here to encourage your elected officials to join this common sense legislation.

2. Sign the People's Peace Treaty with North Korea. The Korean War ended in 1953 with an Armistice Agreement. Today, 65 years later, there is still no peace treaty. Sign the People's Peace Treaty as your personal declaration of peace!

3. Support the Olympic Truce. From Ancient Greece to today, the Olympic Truce has aimed to ensure safe passage for athletes and spectators during the Olympic Games. As the 2018 Winter Olympics in PyeongChang, South Korea, draw near, we must ensure that peace prevails on the Korean Peninsula. We encourage you to gather with friends over the next couple of weeks and watch the film "Games of Their Lives," about the 1966 North Korean World Cup soccer team and the unifying power of sports.

Earlier today, the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists moved their Doomsday Clock up to two minutes until midnight. We all must act to bring humanity back from the brink.

Leak of Trump's "2018 Nuclear Posture Review" reveals Doomsday Plan

A leak of the unclassified version of the Trump Administration’s Draft Report of its “2018 Nuclear Posture Review” reveals this Administration’s plan to build up the nation’s nuclear weapons arsenal and expand the circumstances for first use of nuclear weapons.  The build-up includes the manufacturing of new “low-yield” (one to two kilotons) tactical nuclear warheads for sea-launched Trident D-5 missiles intended to make nuclear weapons more “usable” for military conflict. The President’s plan also clears the way for the United States to resume nuclear weapons testing “if necessary” in a move that would further enhance the global threat of nuclear war fighting.

The United States is already in the process of refurbishing its entire nuclear arsenal at a cost of $1.2 trillion over the next 30 years, a violation of Article VI of the United Nations Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) calling on nuclear states to negotiate in “good faith" to abolish their nuclear weapon arsenals. The Trump Administration’s move to rapidly expand both the production of new tactical nuclear warheads and justification for their first use intensifies the potential imminence of nuclear war and the unacceptable consequences.  

The threat of a nuclear war is drawing more and more attention and concern. Nuclear war has climbed as a concern of man-made global threats according to the World Economic Forum’s Global Risks Report published in January 2018.  The survey of 1,000 international leaders in business, government, academia and civil society recognized the mounting political and military tension between North Korea’s President Kim Jung Un and U.S. President Donald Trump are bringing the world closer to nuclear war. Pope Francis similarly voiced the Vatican’s concern that the world was perhaps “one step away from nuclear war.”

The threat of nuclear war has also renewed efforts and activism “to negotiate a legally binding instrument to prohibit nuclear weapons, leading towards their total elimination.” There is no choice other than nuclear weapons leading to the elimination of life on Earth. On July 7, 2017, 122 countries in the United Nations signed the “historic” first international nuclear weapons ban treaty with the nine nuclear weapons holding nations conspicuously absent. As the 2017 winner of the Nobel Peace Prize, the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN) has published an informative booklet that aims to focus the education and  of citizens and mobilize them to get their non-signatory countries to join the UN nuclear weapons ban treaty. 

Beyond Nuclear on Sputnik Radio's "Loud & Clear" program

A newly drafted United States nuclear strategy that has been sent to President Trump for approval will permit an expanded use of nuclear weapons. This document is called the Nuclear Posture Review. The following is a 30-minute except interview on the issue of nuclear weapons. The program was recorded one week ago in the studio of Radio Sputnik. Brian and John speak with Greg Mello, the executive director of the Los Alamos Study Group, and Kevin Kamps, the Radioactive Waste Watchdog at the organization Beyond Nuclear.

Listen to the audio recording here.

The show is hosted by Brian Becker and John Kiriakou.

Update on January 24, 2018 by admin

"Loud & Clear" had Beyond Nuclear and Los Alamos Study Group back on for its Jan. 24th broadcast, talking about the safety and security risks of age-degraded atomic reactors in the U.S. Preceding that interview, "Loud & Clear" interviewed Dan Ellsberg on his new book, The Doomsday Machine: Confessions of a Nuclear War Planner. Listen to the audio recording of that entire Jan. 24th broadcast, here.

Correspondence between Ruth Thomas, Environmentalists, Inc., et al., and DNFSB

Link to letters, dated October 25, 2017 (signed by Ruth Thomas of Environmentalists, Inc. and Ellen Thomas of Proposition 1 Committee), and October 18, 2017 (signed by Ruth Thomas), to the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board (DNFSB); and attached, a May 18, 2017 DNFSB letter, to Dr. Ronald Wilder (this letter is also included in the link).

(Same documents as above, only in .pdf format.)

Link to DNFSB response to Ruth Thomas, dated Jan. 4, 2018.