I was in Qatar last week presenting a paper on “Comfort Women and Women’s Rights” when Rabbi Bob Kaplan of New York approached me after my paper presentation (Feb 21, 2018).
He said that he has participated in activities with the Korean American Association of Greater New York (KAAGNY) on comfort women. This began the conversation on the possibility of holding a press conference in New York with Rev. Jesse Jackson. Rev. Jackson wanted to build on the peace talks surrounding the Olympics and wanted to continue the conversation on peace on the Korean Peninsula.
I got in touch with KAAGNY President Minsun Kim and we planned a press conference for Monday Feb 26, 2018 at 11:30am.
The press conference went well as Rev. Jesse Jackson shared his vision for peace on the Korean peninsula. The other panelists directed questions to Rev. Jackson and I shared Rev. Jackson’s past work in Korea and how we both worked on the Kenneth Bae’s release efforts with the state department.
There were lots of good questions from the media and those who attended.
Afterwards we paid tribute to the Statue of Peace which was erected in honor of Comfort Women. We laid white roses in honor of all the comfort women who suffered under the Imperial Japanese Army.
We then had lunch with the Korean Consulate Park at a Korean Restaurant in Korean Town to further discuss how we can move forward and continue the conversation on peace building and not war. Here is a link of the event as reported in a Korean paper.
You can watch the short KBS news clip on Youtube covering the event.
You can also read it in the Korean Newspaper.
Also, you can read NewsNJoy article on the Press Conference.
Grace Ji-Sun Kim 