Gloria Steinem will lead a march of female activists in North Korea

Gloria Steinem
(Image credit: Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)

In honor of International Women's Day for Peace and Disarmament, famed women's rights activist Gloria Steinem, 81, will lead a march of 30 female activists through the demilitarized zone (DMZ) that divides North Korea and South Korea on Sunday.

The women's group behind the event, WomenCrossDMZ, has planned peace talks and a peace symposium in North Korea along with the march. The activists will also meet with North Korean women and tour a local preschool, a maternity hospital, and a women's factory. The march has been approved by both North and South Korea, which have technically been at war since 1950.

Steinem told Reuters that "the past of no contact has not worked," which inspired her and the other activists to march in the DMZ. "Ronald Reagan stood outside the Berlin Wall and said: 'Take down this wall'," Steinem told Reuters. "We are saying: 'Take down this isolation.'"

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Meghan DeMaria

Meghan DeMaria is a staff writer at TheWeek.com. She has previously worked for USA Today and Marie Claire.