Month: March 2016

Gangjeong Villagers billed 3 MILLION USD by the Korean Navy

On 29th of March, the Korean Navy revealed that on the day before, it filed a complaint to Seoul Central District Court regarding the delay of the Jeju Naval Base construction, and demanded recompense.

This order was given to Gangjeong Village Association, 5 related organizations, and 120 individual personnel, all implicated in interrupting the base’s construction.

As a result, the date of infrastructural completion was delayed by 1 year and 2 months, while racking up an additional 23 million USD for the construction’s fee.

The Navy demanded the Gangjeong Villagers to take about 3 million dollars out of that 2 billion as their own burden. This order was based on the hefty loss of public tax revenue used to build the base as evidence. Using this logic, the Navy concluded the command as morally just and legally sound, and placed the activists with the legal blame that came with the supposed financial responsibility.

This obviously has stirred massive indignation among the villagers and ignited another conflict with state actors. Why using public revenue to fund the base’s construction in the first place is not a point of legal and moral concern or how demanding about 3 million USD to peace activists, mandarin farmers and fishermen is anything but rational and just are among the thousands of actual questions that are not raised.

But for now, how to address this massive financial burden is the primary question on everyone’s mind, and it’ll need another consolidated spirit to overcome one of the biggest obstacles yet that has descended upon the village.

March 30, 2016
Gangjeong Village Story: Monthly Newsletter |February 2016 Issue

In this February Edition:

A Declaration for Life, Peace and Culture Village; Interview with Gangjeong villagers; Remembering Father Bix; International Conference on Women, Peace and Security, Philippines; Hotbed of irregularities at the Jeju naval base construction; The Police’s Reasonable Judgment?; War Tax Resistance; trial update; The Precarious Spring of Korea; The first International Peace Film Festival In Gangjeong(IPFFIG); Fr. Mun Jeong-Hyeon’s speech trip to NY; Gangjeong Friends Candle vigil in Jeju City; and more.

Download PDF

March 7, 2016
Declaration for Life, Peace, and Culture Village
Image by Lee Wooki, Feb. 26, 2016

A full translation from people’s statement on Feb. 25, 2016, here

Our Position on the Jeju Navy Base Construction Completion Ceremony
1. On Feb. 26, the Jeju navy base construction completion ceremony is held in Gangjeong Village, land of life. It is clear that the Jeju navy base cannot create an era of peace. The Jeju navy base cannot but be an outpost which threatens the peace of northeast Asia, amid conflict for military domination between the United States and China. Rather, it would be a seed of international conflict and would trigger an arms race. Peace should be kept by peace. The Jeju navy base cannot be the answer for the peace of Northeast Asia.
1. The completed Jeju navy base was built by merciless state violence which trampled villagers’ human rights and the sacred natural environment. The struggle for the last nine years has been a step towards true peace. During this time, villagers have have made efforts to counter the war base built of cement over the remains of Gureombi Rock where Gangjeong villagers had shared the breath of peace. It has been a history of peace versus state violence pushed through under the guise of a ‘national policy project,’ ignoring even the basic procedures of democracy. We will continue to build this history of peace even after the Jeju navy base construction completion ceremony.
1. The Jeju navy base, built through the trampling of villagers’ human rights, has ruthlessly destroyed the Gangjeong village community. The responsibility to restore the community lies on the central and island governments which have unilaterally pushed ahead with the Jeju naval base construction. However, neither the central nor island governments have ever made efforts to restore the peaceful community of Gangjeong. The government should make an apology now for the Jeju naval base construction which was continued while the will of Gangjeong villagers was ignored. Won Hee-Ryong, the Jeju Island governor has emphasized in words only the examination of the truth, conflict resolution, and community restoration. From the point of view of the villagers he should suggest a genuine solution. The navy has merely repeated its words that they would support the collection of villagers’ opinions and the resolution of conflicts. It can only fancy itself to have played the role of ‘conflict inducer,’ ignoring the villagers’ opinions, enforcing crackdowns like carrying out military operations, threatening and splitting villagers. How can a military which is not even loved by the local residents be a military for the citizens?
4. Now by the power of Gangjeong villagers themselves, we would make Gangjeong village to be reborn as a ‘village of life and peace,’ not as a ‘military base icon.’ The declaration of this ‘village for life, peace, and culture’ was held before the navy ceremony on Feb. 26. It is the villagers’ noble step for true peace as well as the start of the restoration of the Gangjeong community. And all of us who pray for the peace of Gangjeong will strengthen our solidarity bear the blossoms of the flower of peace. In resistance we will remember and continue our actions and cries for peace in order to stop the Jeju naval base for even one minute, one second. The Jeju naval base was built with the backing of state violence. We will cover it over with the wave of peace.

Feb. 25, 2016

Gangjeong Village Association, Jeju Pan-Island Committee for Stopping the Military Base and for Realization of the Peace Island, and National Network of Korean Civil Society for Opposing the Naval Base in Jeju Island
March 7, 2016
Navy conducts anti-North exercise near new Jeju base (Yonhap news)

SEOUL, March 2 (Yonhap) — The Navy conducted its first military exercise near its new base on the southern island of Jeju on Wednesday to improve readiness to intercept suspicious vessels and submarine infiltration by North Korea.

The Aegis destroyer Seoae Ryu Seong-ryong and three other Navy and Coast Guard vessels joined the drill which took place in the waters off the newly opened naval base on the south coast of Jeju Island, the Navy said in a statement.

One submarine and two seaborne helicopters also took part in the exercise held earlier in the day.

The military assets were deployed to intercept an enemy vessel in the scenario-based exercise where the Navy was ordered to stop and search a North Korean ship passing through the area with a load of weapons of mass destruction.

The naval forces also demonstrated an operation to intercept the infiltration of a North Korean submarine, according to the Navy.

“Through the latest exercise which the Navy conducted on the occasion of the Jeju private-military port’s completion, the Navy reaffirmed its determination to safeguard South Korea’s maritime life line,” the Navy said in the statement.

The construction of the naval base on Jeju makes it possible for the Navy to deploy military forces more promptly and provided a strategic sea stronghold to protect the main maritime traffic route towards the south.

After 23 years of preparations and having spent more than 1 trillion won (US$810 million), the Navy opened the seaport base last week on the southern coast of Jeju.

The new base is capable of docking 20 combat vessels and two cruise ships simultaneously.

Navy officials have said the new facility will dramatically shorten maritime forces’ travel time to strategically important maritime hotspots.

pbr@yna.co.kr

(http://english.yonhapnews.co.kr/news/2016/03/02/0200000000AEN20160302004200315.html?utm_content=bufferdfed9&utm_medium=social&utm_source=facebook.com&utm_campaign=buffer)

photos by Mpark.

March 3, 2016
Jeju Naval Base’s Completion + South Korean Anti-terrorism Bill

Video and report by Grace

“On Feb 26 Prime Minister Hwang Kyo-An visited the naval base opening ceremony. On his way in and out of the base the innocent passersby near the gate were captured by the large number of police and forcefully removed from the road without any notice. The police chief said it was for the safety measures, but the brutality of the operation was only the case of police abuse of power. It seemed that the new controversial anti-terror bill in South Korea had already been put in practice in Gangjeong”

The completion ceremony of Jeju’s naval base took place on February 26th, nearly 9 years after the confirmation of its construction by the state government. Since then, activists and local villagers have obstructed the progress of its development, facing policy brutality and harsh physical and financial discipline along the way. February 26th was no exception, as showcased by treatments of the activists that day in the video.

Not all was a display of primitivism, however. On the same day, the Gangjeong villagers held a memorial ritual right across from the base’s entrance. Under the totem pole, they vowed with the signal that they will protect the village from external forces.

In the middle of the ritual is of course, the village head Jo Kyung Chul (조경철), who recently gave a statement to Hankyoreh news that when he saw the completion of the base, he felt “prostrated, a sense of injustice through the continuous opposition,” while the villagers have retained lasting “disbelief and hostility in the government and the military.”

This division between the people and the government is as deep as the divide in Korean politics as a whole. Both divisions have prompted the opposition to obstruct the formation of a dangerous creation. For the latter, that is the anti-terrorism bill that has recently been introduced by the ruling Saenuri (conservative) party. This anti-terrorism bill has been promoted in reaction to the recent nuclear developments (or its rhetoric at least) from the North. If passed through, the legislative act will endow the National Intelligence Service (NIS) unprecedented power spy in detail the lives of South Koreans.

What monitoring its domestic populations has to do with prohibiting North Korean nuclear tests and development is a wonder of logic. Opposition party members have taken upon this improbable nexus to challenge the bill through filibuster. This method has not been utilized since 1969, which sheds light to how controversial this bill is. The historical revelation also demonstrates the link between the situation of Gangjeong and the general political makeup of South Korea: when a monumentally dangerous force is in creation, a deep divide will naturally result, and the opposition force will find every power necessary to challenge entities designed to harm the people.

March 2, 2016