The above is a short video prepared for the press during the July 2nd press conference and also presented in court by Brother Song to appeal his arrest as illegal. The video is in Korean but you can see clearly three things:
1. The opening shows clearly that dredging was going on all day by two barges.
2. The second part shows the [square] frame-type silt protectors which are a required first layer of protection (during dredging) directly surrounding the dredging area. These should be very lengthy curtains that go near the ocean floor or at least 10-20 m. In this video, you will see that in most places there is no curtain at all while in others there are torn curtains. In the rare place where there is a curtain, it’s only about 2 meters in length.
In the past when we have complained about the condition of the outer silt protectors (#3), we have sometimes been told (falsely) that they don’t matter so much because there is still these inside silt protector. Now we can clearly see the condition of these inside protectors. These are hard to access to monitor because they are inside the construction site and we are usually blocked from entering (physically by the coast guard and by threat of arrest/fine/imprisonment). As is the case this time, Dr. Song and Brother Park were arrested for doing so, even though their bravery exposed a major lie by the construction companies, which the police and coast guard refuse to check or even acknowledge.
3. The last part shows the outer fixed-hanging-type silt protectors, which as usual have either been installed but untied, and therefore useless, or have been installed but are destroyed, in some cases totally missing the curtain which should hang beneath the float (you know, the curtain, the part that actually does the “protecting”).
The evidence of gross disregard of environmental regulations, including the navy’s own stated regulations in their own (late, deeply flawed, non-independent) environmental impact assessment, as well as the willful pollution and destruction of a pristine natural environment continues to pile up. And yet, the ROK Coast Guard, ROK Police, and the courts, all in disgusting collusion with the Samsung and Daelim construction mafias and the ROK Ministry of National Defense and Navy, continue to do nothing, ignoring it all, and persecuting, attacking, and imprisoning any of the brave people who dare to even monitor and report it, let alone stop it.
Filters: Video