Korean communities in Los Angeles and New York City organized candlelight vigils to abolish South Korea’s repressive National Security Law (NSL), scheduled to come before the South Korean National Assembly this month.

<##IMAGE##>Hundreds of thousands have demonstrated throughout Korea in recent months. Last December, over one thousand people launched a 21-day hunger strike, braving Seoul’s bone cold winter, to urge the abolition of this arcane and notorious law, often denounced as a violation of human rights, a barrier to democracy, and a roadblock to the peaceful unification of Korea.

The U.S. events were held in solidarity with a relay series of candlelight vigils throughout South Korea since December, and culminating in Seoul, where thousands also gathered February 20.

In Los Angeles, Harim Kim of One Korea L.A. Forum was the MC, delivering rousing calls and leading the crowd of some forty Korean community members and allies in singing Korean movement and unification songs.

<##IMAGE##> Hwayoung Lee of the Korea Truth Commission delivered a speech calling for the abolition of the National Security Law as a critical step on the road to the peaceful reunification of Korea. Phyllis Kim of One Korea L.A. Forum read a warm solidarity message on behalf of Koreans in the United States, emphasizing Korean Americans’ desire for the end to the NSL and supporting the people in Korea struggling for democracy.

Scott Scheffer of the International Action Center and Ian Thompson of ANSWER-LA delivered speeches in support of Korean people working for peace and unification in solidarity against U.S. imperialism globally.

The U.S. candlelight vigils were held in the heart of Los Angeles’s and New York’s Koreatowns: at the corner of Western Avenue and Wilshire Boulevard in Los Angeles, and at 32nd Street and Broadway in New York, also central thoroughfares in the respective cities.

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