History of the Process
Dr. Glenn D. Paige, Professor Emeritus of the University of Hawaii, created and circulated a petition to the United Nations in 2015.
Background
I had a chance to interview many Korean War veterans in Honolulu, Hawaii in 2012 and met a renowned scholar on the Korean War, Korean War veteran and Professor Emeritus of the University of Hawaii, Dr. Glenn D. Paige. His book, The Korean Decision, June 24-30, 1950, examines President Truman’s decision-making process and how the US mobilized the United Nations to intervene in the Korean War. Dr. Paige also established the Center for Global Nonkilling (CGNK, https://nonkilling.org/center/). During my interview with him for the Korean War Veterans Digital Memorial (www.kwvdm.org, www.koreanwarlegacy.org), Dr. Paige explained why he created the CGNK: “I killed many in the Korean War and had to do it because I was there for it.” Based on his experience in the Korean War, Dr. Paige launched the Center of Global Nonkilling, an international non-profit promoting changes toward the measurable goal of a killing-free world, the year of the Seoul Olympics. In a discussion about how the unfinished aspects of the Korean War can finally be resolved, Paige shared his lifelong dream of ending the Korean War with a treaty for peace. His rationale was simple—that the UN had declared war as the result of the invasion of South Korea and signed the Armistice, and thus is uniquely situated to replace that Armistice with a peace treaty. Together, we decided to solicit support from those who had actually fought in the Korean War and send this petition to the UN Secretary General in commemoration of the 65th Anniversary of the outbreak of the Korean War in 2015. The petition was designed to explain why the UN was the most suitable institution for initiating the end of the Korean War and obtaining signatures from Korean War veterans around the world. This was done in the hopes that the breakthrough would take place in the same international regime that initiated the Allied forces’ intervention into the communist invasion of South Korea—the United Nations. As the Korean adage says, the one who has tied the knot is the one who can untie it.
Dr. Jongwoo Han
President
Korean War Legacy Foundation
December, 2020
