DMZ Peace March to be held next month

An international youth environment organization said Wednesday that it will hold a peace march and a tree-planting to call for the creation of a "peace forest" inside the Demilitarized Zone bisecting the two Koreas next month.

"Some 300 youth from around the world and diplomats (stationed in South Korea) will join the Peace March set for June 23 at Imjingak Pavilion in Paju, north of Seoul, under the slogan of "Above politics. Above borders. Above ideologies," said the US-based International Cooperation of Environmental Youth, led by Korean-American environmentalist Jonathan Lee. 

This file photo shows the International Cooperation of Environmental Youth`s Peace March in 2014. At the center is ICEY leader Jonathan Lee. (Yonhap)

The event's activities will also include a DMZ tour, a "peace tree" planting and a tour of the inter-Korean truce village of Panmunjom, the ICEY said.

"We've prepared the event in order to help alleviate a sense of war crisis, escalated by North Korea's missile launches and promote the importance of peaceful inter-Korean unification to the international community," Lee said.

The event has been held annually since 2012 under the auspices of South Korea's Unification Ministry. (Yonhap)