FEMALE peace activists said yesterday that Pyongyang had decided to support a proposed walk across the demilitarised zone (DMZ) between North and South Korea.

Organiser WomenCross­DMZ’s Christine Ahn said she had met officials from the country’s Overseas Korean Committee and the Democratic Women’s Union.

She also received support to hold a symposium in North Korea on women and peace-building.

The walk would mark the 70th anniversary of the division of the Korean peninsula.

Nobel peace laureates Mairead Maguire of Northern Ireland and Leymah Gbowee of Liberia are set to take part.

Ms Ahn also said that North Korean women would walk with the group from Pyongyang to the DMZ.

WomenCrossDMZ hopes that 30 women will cross from North to South on May 24 — International Women’s Day for Disarmament.

Officials from South Korea’s Unification Ministry and the UN Command said they had yet to decide whether to allow the women to walk across the zone.

“It’s hard to imagine any more physical symbol of the insanity of dividing human beings,” said feminist activist Gloria Steinem, who will also take part in the walk.

Ms Ahn and the other participants also are calling on UN secretary-general Ban Ki Moon, who is South Korean, as well as US President Barack Obama and the leaders of North and South Korea, to finally end the Korean war with a peace treaty.

The war came to halt in 1953, but only with an armistice.

by Our Foreign Desk