Save Jeju Now

No War Base on the Island of Peace

  • Prof. Noam Chomsky’s message for Prof. Yang Yoon-Mo

    Chomsky_Ohmynews
    Photo by Choi Kyung-Joon, Ohmynews, May 29, 2012

     

    The Korean media, Hankyoreh, a prominent center-left media, Voice of People, a leading alternative media  and Headline Jeju, a leading internet media, Jeju, reported on March 18, 2013 that Prof. Noam Chomsky sent a message for Prof. Yang Yoon-Mo via Simone Chun, Ph.D, Assistant Professor, Suffolk University.

    It is Prof. Chomsky’s 2nd supporting message for Prof. Yang Yoon-Mo, following 2012 when Prof. Yang was imprisoned  for the 3rd time and took more than 42 days’ prison fast. Prof. Noam Chomsky has been a strong supporter for the Jeju Struggle against the naval base and has sent a message during the last Presidential election as well.

    We so thank him and Simone Chun, Ph. D  to take solidarity for Prof. Yang Yoon-Mo.

    The below is Noam Chomsky’s message forwarded by Simone Chun. His message was written on March 16, 2013

    ‘I understand that Professor Yang Yoon-Mo is still imprisoned for maintaining his opposition to the construction of the Jeju naval base, and is now at the 44th day of his hunger strike in protest against the base and his sentencing. I would like to urge, once again, that Professor Yang be immediately released, and free to continue his just and courageous protests against the base on Jeju Island, designated an “island of peace.”

    Noam Chomsky‘

    양윤모 선생위한 촛불
    Simone Chun, Ph. D with her graduate students in the human rights class being solidarity with Yang Yoon-Mo (Photo fwd by Simone Chun, Ph. D)

  • Noam Chomsky, “The Fate of Jeju is important in the ROK Presidential Election.”

    Chomsky_Ohmynews
    Photo by Choi Kyung-Joon, Ohmynews, May 29, 2012 / Prof. Noam Chomsky wearing a yellow t-shirt that reads “Don’t kill the Gureombi Rock. Stop the blast!’ The t-shirt was brought by Mr. Koh Gil-Chun, Jeju artist, on May 22, 2012

     

    Noam Chomsky, an Emeritus professor in the Department of Linguistics & Philosophy at MIT sent an email message regarding the Dec. 19 South Korean Presidential election through Mr. Koh Gil-Chun, Jeju artist and Gangjeong Village Association on Dec. 14. He emphasized the fate of the Jeju should be an important element for the Koreans to consider in the election. Here is the whole of his message. 

    There is no doubt that the December 19 election will be an event of great importance for South Korea and the region, with broader implications as well. The people of South Korea have an opportunity to go forward on a path of peace and reconciliation, despite all the barriers on the way. Or to choose confrontation, militarism, and serious threats reaching as far as possible destruction.

    One very important consideration should be the fate of Jeju Island, where the population has been struggling courageously for years against military projects that are undermining their hopes that Jeju will truly be an “Island of World Peace.” These projects not on have highly destructive effects on the environment and on the lives of the people of the island, but also sow the seeds of dangerous conflict, even potential superpower conflict. I hope and trust that voters will have such matters foremost in their minds when they cast their ballots.

    Noam Chomsky

  • International voice opposing to the 2nd Jeju Airport is spreading!

    Morning at the planned Jeju 2nd airport (air force base) area, Seongsan, eastern Jeju, Korea (Photo by Kim Soo Oh, 2018)

    An international petition in English language which demands to call off the Jeju 2nd airport (air force base) has begun on Dec. 9, 2019. It was followed by Chinese and Japanese language versions on Dec. 15th, also.

    In its press release on Dec. 18th, the Jeju Islanders’ Emergency Committee to Stop the Jeju 2nd Airport (hereafter, ‘Island Committee’) stated that total 507 internationals including Prof. Noam Chomsky and feminist Gloria Steinem, as well as other renowned scholars and activists in the world signed on the petition as of 7am, Dec. 18th (Korean time). Many of media in South Korea covered the news of international petition as to draw attention from one of main South Korean portal sites.

    Some English articles regarding the international petition also came out. Please check them out, here (this article also explains some backgrounds around the issue)and here. For the Japanese language article of former, see here.

    It is not so certain to what degree the international petition in opposition to the Jeju 2nd airport project has helped to change a course for the benefit of people. However, on Dec. 19th, Minister of Environment (MOE) announced its decision to demand supplements on the Jeju 2nd airport project-related Strategic Environment Impact Assessment (SEA) draft again to the Minister of Land, Infrastructure, and Transport (MOLIT), which was a great release for the people who oppose the project.

    People’s worst imagination before MOE’s decision on Dec. 19th was that MOE might agree or conditionally agree with the MOLIT’s SEA draft, which must be followed by the MOLIT’s public notification on the Basic Plan of the Jeju 2nd airport project, making the project legal to the difficulty of people who oppose to it. In such circumstance, Kim Kyung-bae, a resident in the planned area of 2nd Jeju airport in Seongsan, eastern Jeju, has decided to carry out his 3rd time fast in front of MOE and MOLIT building in Sejong City, main land of Korea from Dec. 11th. (please see his story, here) Otherwise, the need of international petition to halt the project also came out from such urgent situation.

    The result of people’s efforts is positive, one can say. Without MOE decision on the MOLIT SEA draft this time, the SEA draft is full of flaws, lies and missing. From its start on the project, the MOLIT has been focusing only to enforce the project for years, thoroughly ignoring many Islanders’ opinions against the project. However, its greed is now blocked by the MOE demand on supplement of SEA draft. There is no deadline defined for the MOLIT to give supplements to the current SEA draft which will be back to the MOE. Once MOLIT gives answer to MOE, the latter should make final decision of either agreement of disagreement with the SEA draft. People greatly want the MOE’s ultimate answer to MOLIT is latter because it would critically thwart the MOLIT’s drive for the Jeju 2nd airport project. It will be ideally good because the 2nd Jeju airport will be very likely to be an air force base. To halt the 2nd airport project means to stop further militarization of Jeju, also.

    Therefore, we are so grateful to all the internationals who signed to the petition during this critical time.

    The MOE and other government institutes can pretend to ignore the news of international petition. Still, some of the government employees such as one of aids to the MOE Minister Cho clearly said that he saw the news. And he said he would deliver the internationals petition to Minister Cho. We hope Minister Cho and President Moon Jae-in, and other politicians sincerely hear international voice. The issues of Jeju 2nd airport is not only for the Jeju islanders. As the petition reads, it is much related to our effort to save the Earth and human beings from environment destruction, democracy regression, militarization and moreover climate crisis. We so thank internationals who shared concerns.

    Our update on the struggle will be continued. And collecting signs for the petition is continued. If you haven’t signed to the petition yet, please take one minute for sign (please choose one language per person). If you have done, please consider to spread petitions so that we can more pressure South Korean politicians to halt the project!

    Here are the petitions again for your reference. Please spread it. In each petition, you can see the names of signers who agreed for their signature to be made public.

    Stop the Jeju 2nd airport(Air Force Base) Project! (English language petition)

    中斷濟州第二機場(空軍基地)建設國際連署書! (Chinese language petition)

    済州第2空港(空軍基地)中止のための国際請願 (Japanese language petition)

  • Living the future nightmare: Fleet Review in Jeju

     

    by Choi Sung-hee

    While many people were full of positive expectation for peace in Korea as they witnessed the 3rd inter- Korean Summit meeting in Pyeongyang, North Korea, on Sept. 19th, there was a Korean village that could not join such festivities, feeling betrayed and abandoned.

    It was Gangjeong village, the Life and Peace village of less than 2,000 population. A village in the south of Jeju, the World Peace Island, located in the south sea below the Korean peninsula. As the world cheered the removal of mines and armaments at joint security area in the Korean DMZ this October, more than 40 warships including 19 international warships from 13 countries were heading to the Jeju navy base located in the Gangjeong village. One of the warships was the U.S. nuclear aircraft carrier Ronald Reagan, homeported in Yokosuka, Japan. It was radiated during the rescue work on the of Fukushima nuclear disaster in 2011.

    We had the International Fleet Review in Jeju from Oct. 10-14. For us, it was the ‘ceremony to proclaim the Jeju military base.’ In his speech during the pass-in-review, on Oct. 11, South Korean President Moon Jae-in, welcoming all the warships, declared that ‘peace comes through national defense power,’ and the Jeju navy base would be ‘the stronghold for peace’, as if confirming the abusive title of the fleet review: “Jeju Where Peace Starts.”

    Meanwhile, Cho Kyung-chul, a former mayor of village sat in front of the Jeju navy base in protest to the enforced fleet review by the Moon government. Policemen tried to remove him and others away from the gate while a female villager, Kim Mi-ryang climbed up to the top of base gate in protest. However, the most infuriating part on the day occurred after the pass-in- review when Moon made a show of apology for the enforcement of the Jeju navy base construction in a new luxurious community building, surrounded by media reporters who, many of them, wrote later as if the issue of Gangjeong was settled by President Moon’s apology to the villagers who were represented by current mayor, and vice-mayor, of the village.

    The editorial cartoon of Hankyoreh news, Oct. 12, 2018

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

    The truth is that the very ones such as Kang Dong- kyun, a former mayor, Fr. Mun Jeong-hyeon, and other protestors who have struggled against Jeju navy base project for last 11 years were forcefully stopped by the policemen on the street when they tried to protest to Moon face-to-face. In July, Moon’s Presidential House sent its delegates to the village five times, to persuade the villagers to support the fleet review. It was even suggested President Moon’s apology to Gangjeong would be conditioned on the village supporting fleet review. The villagers were annoyed by such a deceptive proposal. There had already been villagers’ official decision against the fleet review in March. However, the new representatives of current village association are unfortunately compromising to the navy. Many of them were inclined toward economic earnings from the fleet review. Finally, a village meeting was held again on July 29 to revisit the issue of the fleet review. The anti-base villagers’ committee boycotted the vote. By the result of suspicious vote, the village association annnounced its acceptance of fleet review. The Jeju Island [regional] Council whose 43 members had all signed the draft for a petition of opposition to the fleet review but cancelled to submit the petition at its main meeting, after its contact with a delegate from the Presidential House. As former mayor Cho would say, Moon brought the 10 year conflict between con and pro base villagers into a new 100 year conflict.

    Anti-base villagers held a emergent press conference after their trial to meet President Moon for protest was blocked by the police. Oct. 11, 2018/ Photo by Hwang Soo-young

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

    The U.S. nuclear aircraft carrier Ronald Reagan could enter the Jeju navy base only the day after the pass-in-review ceremony. It is told that our small but courageous kayak team splendidly delayed its entry to the base. The Ronald Reagan docked in the cruise terminal located in the west side of Jeju navy base whose other name is the ‘Beautiful Tourism Port for Civilian Military Complex’.

    The Gangjeong kayak team ptotest to USS Ronald Reagan during the fleet review. Photo by Kaia Curry.

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

    The Ronald Reagan stayed until Oct. 16th. With its 5,700 crew members and two accompanying U.S. guided missile cruisers’ 600 crew members, the numbers of U.S. soldiers totaled more than 60% of the 10,000 international soldiers who joined the fleet review. On Oct. 15 when there was protest in front of the cruise terminal, a villager was arrested and released the next day.

    The lines of tour bus carrying U.S. sailors into the various parts of Jeju Island were endless. People stayed in front of base gate until 1:00 am for protest as those buses returned to gate. They were carried even in police and navy buses. Some sailors were drunk. Whether drunk or not, some of them mocked the protesters, throwing the remarks of sexual harassment, such as ‘I love you.’ Some of them were making gestures of hand kiss. However, the most remarkable word came out from the mouth of a U.S. sailor on the day: “You are the slave.”

    On the day, we could realize: The fleet review this year which marks the 70th year of April 3rd uprising and massacre is nothing but declaration of U.S. Navy base on Jeju. For near a week, the UNESCO biosphere designated sea was suffering. There was the leaked oil from two international warships. Water was strangely coming out from the USS Ronald Reagan from which a massive numbers of garbage bags were carried out for disposal in Busan.

    But above all, the fleet review was for the Moon government and navy to nail the Jeju navy base as the stronghold for the ‘ocean navy,’ which means the navy aims to extend its activity area ‘beyond Korea.’

     

    Children play on the arms displayed inside the Jeju navy base during the fleet review/ Photo by Joyakgol.

    Two remarkable bits of news came out during the National Assembly investigation on the government affairs. On Oct. 12, it was known that the navy almost decided to introduce Raytheon’s Standard missile (SM- 3), a key element of missile defense.

    The other was navy’s plan to have two operational Commands of which the 2nd Operation Command aims to respond to ‘potential or nonmilitary threat.’ The 2nd Operation Command will be in line with the creation of task fleet Command which ‘would run Aegis-equipped destroyers and submarines.’ Together with aviation Command which will be created also, the task fleet command will compose the 2nd Operation Command. It will be likely that the activities of 2nd Operation Command and introduction of SM-3 would be much related to the Jeju navy base as it homeports the task force and submarine squadrons. It is the homeport of nine South Korean destroyers including three biggest Aegis destroyers in South Korea. And its location is close to China and South China Sea where military tension between U.S. and China is being rapidly escalated.

    We became to know later that the reason that China declined to send its warship to the fleet review in Jeju was because one of South Korean destroyers, Munmu, the Great, happened to enter China’s claimed sea territory near the Paracel Islands on Sept. 16, allegedly for the reason of typhoon. The homeport of Munmu, the Great is the Jeju navy base.

    On Oct. 26, Jeong Kyeong-doo, Minister of National Defense said that THAAD [ground-based missile defense system] will be officially deployed after the general environmental impact assessment. This brought fury to the people of Soseong-ri, Seongju on the mainland of Korea. They continue to demand the withdrawal of THAAD from their communities. Not only that, the sale of 64 PAC-3 missiles in South Korea has been approved. Cheong Wooksik of the Peace Network notes the U.S. move to integrate THAAD and PAC-3 systems through THAAD radar.

    According to Tim Cahill, Lockheed Martin, vice president of air-and-missile defense, such interoperability ‘could open other doors to achieve an even more seamless tiered and layered missile defense capability.’ (Defense News, Oct. 10, 2018) Now with the plan of introduction of SM-3, the U.S.-led multilayer missile defense system in South Korea will be even more extended.

    In the ROK-U.S. Security Consultative meeting on Oct. 31, U.S. Secretary of Defense James Mattis ‘reaffirmed the continued U.S. commitment to provide extended deterrence to the ROK using the full range of military capabilities, including U.S. nuclear, conventional, and missile defense capabilities’ which is denial of NK-U.S. Summit meeting in Singapore, June 12, this year. Solidarity for Peace and Reunification of Korea also notes that the international fleet review in Jeju is a part of U.S. plan to make ROK-U.S. alliance for regional and comprehensive alliance.

    In his pass-in review speech on Oct. 11, President Moon mentioned Columbus as a historic example who sailed to far away oceans. The originally planned date for pass-in-review was Oct. 12. Columbus stepped on America lands on Oct. 12, 1492. It is not known well he was the merchant of ‘slaves.’

    To finally add, 435 internationals including Prof. Noam Chomsky signed on to an international petition in opposition to the fleet review in Jeju. We thank them.

    —Sung-hee Choi lives in the Gangjeong village, Jeju Island, South Korea. She is a coordinator of village international team, as well as a Korean advisory board member for the Global Network. www.savejejunow.org

     

    * The  article here was orisinally written for the Space Alert published by the Global Network against Weapons and Nuclear Power in Space (With a little edit by its editor. ). I slightly revised the text for this site, Save Jeju Now. (A note by By Choi Sung-hee)

     

     

     

     

  • 2018 International Solidarity Statement against the International Fleet Review in Jeju

    The endorsement was joined by 435 international supporters including many well-known activists, artists and scholars. We thank so much to all the international citizens who joined our endorsement. We also remember that there are much more international friends who support our struggle. We so thank them and express our solidarity, also. Please see the related article, here.

    Source

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

    2018 International Solidarity Statement against the International Fleet Review in Jeju

     

    No International Fleet Review in Jeju

    Let’s make Jeju Island the Island of Peace

    Let’s make the Pacific the Sea of Peace

     

    10 October 2018

     

    We, the undersigned organisations and individuals, strongly oppose the International Fleet Review which will be held at Jeju Naval Base in Gangjeong Village from 10 October. This is the biggest event by the Korean navy since Jeju naval base was constructed and around 50 vessels and 20 aircraft from 45 countries will gather in Jeju Naval Base. A marine inspection, an open house event on vessels and in the base, and a military industry exhibition are scheduled.

    The international fleet review, gathering  warships from around the world, will heighten the military tension in the region and create dark clouds of conflict in the midst of the growing desire to open a new era of peace and coexistence and end the war on the Korean peninsula and Northeast Asia.

    Jeju Naval Base was constructed on top of state violence against the villagers, lies, and destruction of the natural environment. We all remember the coercive construction process and problems of the Jeju Naval Base. While supporting Jeju islanders’ desire to establish this beautiful island as the Island of Peace, we strongly oppose the International Fleet Review being held in Jeju Island.

    Since the establishment of Jeju Naval Base, the militarization of Jeju Island has sped up. Warships from different countries including a U.S. nuclear submarine have already been frequently visiting the Jeju Naval Base. In addition to this, a U.S. nuclear aircraft carrier will also join the International Fleet Review. We are concerned that this International Fleet Review will widen the gate of the Jeju Naval Base to the Japanese and the U.S. warships. The U.S. Pacific commander already expressed his wish to station a Zumwalt Stealth Destroyer at the Jeju Naval Base. In addition to building the naval base, the Korean Navy reinforced the marine corps in Jeju and also expressed its plan to use the 2nd airport as its air base which the Government is forcibly working to construct in Seongsan, Jeju Island.

    The militarization of Jeju Island will retrogress peace on the Korean Peninsula, and expedite militarization in the Indian Ocean and the Pacific. The U.S. changed the Pacific Command into Indo-Pacific Command last May. This clearly shows its will to prioritize military hegemony in the Indian Ocean and the Pacific, instead of peaceful cooperation. The U.S. has not been hiding its plan to establish a NATO-like military alliance in the Indo-Pacific region. Many peace organisations are concerned that Jeju Island will become an outpost against China by the U.S. and its military allies.

    Under this circumstances, the International Fleet Review will internationally establish the existence and military use of the Jeju Naval Base. This seriously jeopardizes the future vision of Jeju Island as ‘The Island of Peace’ declared by  the South Korean government in 2005. It also damages environment of Beom Island which is designated as the UNESCO Biosphere Reserve.

    The two Koreas declared ‘a new era of peace’ and are walking towards the establishment of a peace system and denuclearization on the Korean peninsula. Korean people’s efforts to move on to peace and coexistence from the hostility of the past should be linked to efforts to make the Pacific peaceful. We support Jeju islanders’ desire to make a “genuine” Island of Peace and oppose the militarization of the Pacific. The International Fleet Review in Jeju Island must be stopped immediately.

     

    No International Fleet Review in Jeju!

    Shut down the Jeju Naval Base!

    Stop the Militarization of Jeju! Stop the Militarization of the Ocean!

    Let’s make Jeju Island the Island of Peace, Let’s make the Pacific the sea of Peace!

     

    Aaron Tovish(Zona Libre), Adilur Rahman Khan(Odhikar), Adrian Partridge (Derby CND), Adrian Perry (Derby Labour Party), Ai Iwakawa , Aiichiroh Sasagawa, Ailsa Johnson, Akifumi Fujita(Peace Studies, TRANSCEND Japan), Aki  KANEKO, Akiko Nishijima , Alain Ah Vee(LALIT), Alfred Robert Hogan(Writers Plus Newsroom), Alice Slater(World BEYOND War), Amy Echeverria(Missionary Society of St. Columban), Amy Harlib(Yoga For Peace, Justice, and Harmony With the Planet), Amy Levine, Andree Duguy(Women in Black London), Andrew Graham(Australian Anti-Bases campaign Coalition/Independent Peaceful Australia Network (IPAN)), Angela Burrows(Pax Christi NSW, Independent and Peaceful Australia Network), Angie Kim(The supporting committee for Korean prisoners of conscience), Angie Zelter(Trident Ploughshares, Reforest the Earth, UK), Ann E. Ruthsdottir(Peace Works), Ann Kobayashi(Japanese Against Nuclear UK), Anne Dodd(Abingdon Peace Group), Anne Elvey(Plumwood Mountain: An Australian Journal of Ecopoetry and Ecopoetics), Anne Lanyon(Pax Christi NSW), Anne Lindsay(CND), Anne Macarthur(SCOTTISH CND), Anne Milne(Edinburgh CND), Annette Brownlie(Independent and Peaceful Australia Network), Annette Sheppard(Nil), Antonio Carlos Silva Rosa(TRANSCEND Media Service), Anuradha Chenoy(AEPF), Ara Lee(Puri arts), Ariel Ky(Nada), Asako Kageyama (Morinoeigasha), Asfinawati(Indonesia Legal Aid Foundation (YLBHI)), ASM Badrul Alam (Bangladesh Krishok Federation), Atsushi Fujioka(Ritsumeikan University), Aya Kasai(Miyazaki International College), Barry Huges(CND London), Bedjo Untung(YPKP 65 Indonesian Institute for the Study of 1965/66 Massacre), Benjamin Monnet, Bi-Xiu Lin(Environmental Rights Foundation), Bobby Montemayor(Metro Subic Network), Brenda Paik Sunoo, Brian Noyes Pulling, Brian Quail(Catholic worker), Brian Smiddy(St Mary’s Social Justice Group), Brigidine Sisters Kildara Centre, Bruce Gagnon(Global Network Against Weapons & Nuclear Power in Space), Buddy Bell(Voices for Creative Nonviolence), Camilla Saunders(Knighton Action for Peace and Justice), Candace Fujikane(University of Hawaiʻi English Department), Carol Turner(London Region CND), Carolyn A Hadfield(World Can’t Wait-Hawai`i), Catherine Christie (Local/Global Advocacy Network), Catherine Lutz(Brown University), CedarBough Saeji(University of British Columbia), Charles Ryu(St. Paul’s United Methodist Church), Chieko Hotta(Hiyamikachi), Chikako Kobayashi, Chikashi Furukawa(East Asia Popular History Exchange, Taiwan), Christina Rusnov , Christine A. DeTroy(Greater Brunswick PeaceWorks), Christine Ahn(Women Cross DMZ), Christopher Butler(Shipley CND), Christopher Coppock(Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament, Citizen of the World), Christopher Gwyntopher(Trident Ploughshares), Cindy Lin(East Asia popular history exchange, Taiwan), Citizens Opposing Active Sonar Threats, Claude Mostowik msc(Pax Christi Australia, Missionaries of the Sacred Heart Justice and Peace Centre), Colonel Ann Wright(U.S. Army (Retired) & Veterans for Peace), Come Ledesert(Filmmaker), Corazon Valdez Fabros(International Peace Bureau), Councillor Maya Evans(Voices for Creative Non Violence UK), Cynthia Franklin(University of Hawaii), Daisuke Sato(No Nukes Asia Forum Japan), Daisy(Women’s peace group), Dan Troy(Columbans), Daniell O’Keeffe(Missionary Society of St Columban), Danilo Alejandro(United Peoples Association of Zambales), Dave Webb(Global Network & CND), David French(Moray Peace Builders), David Hartsough(PEACEWORKERS), David Hoadley(Southampton CND), David Mackenzie(Trident Ploughshares), David Ray(Trident Ploushares), David Vine(American University), Debbie Kim(Gangjeong UK), Diane lunzer(CND), Dud Hendrick(Deer Isle, Maine), Eamon Adams(Missionary Society of St Columban), Earl Arnold(Presbyterian Peace Network for Korea), ECOTERRA Intl., Edward Egan(Pax Christi), Eileen Cook(Edinburgh CND), Elizabeth Knight (TPAG and TP), Elizabeth Rees(World Can’t Wait-Hawai`i), Ella Weng, Ellen E Barfield(Veterans For Peace, War Resisters League), Ellen Smiddy(St Mary’s Social Justice Group), Ellen Teague(Columban Missionaries, Britain), Ema Tagicakibau(Pacific Action Network for Peace and Disarmament (PANPAD), Pacific Foundation for the Advancement of Women (PACFAW)), Eric Herter(Maine Chapter 001, Veterans for Peace), Eun-Jeung Lee(Freie Universitaet Berlin), European Sanctuary of World Peace Prayer Society, Felix Mushobozi(Justice, Peace and Integrity of Creation Commission USG, UISG), Ferdinand Liefert(German East Asia Mission), Filo Hirota(Catholic Council for Justice and Peace of Japan), fPcN – friends of Peoples close to Nature, Francis McDonagh (St Mellitus Church), Frank Cordaro(Des Moines Catholic Worker), Fumihide Kanaya, Gail Okuma(Chuo University, Policy Studies Faculty), Gail Whang, Gar Smith(Environmentalists Against War), Gayle Wells, Geoff Holland(World Peace Now ॐ), Geoffrey Shaw, George Katsiaficas (Eros Effect Foundation), Gerry Condon(Veterans For Peace), Gerry Lee(Maryknoll Office for Global Concerns), Gill Boehringer(International Assn. of People’s Lawyers), Gisela Köllner, Greet Vanaerschot(Pax Christi International), Greg Reynolds(Inclusive Catholics Vic Inc.), Gwyn Kirk(Women for Genuine Security), H Mitchell(Bedford CND), Haeng Woo Lee(National Association of Korean-Americans), Hannah Kemp-Welch(CND), Harry Kerr(Pax Christi Australia), Heather Weedon(Franciscan Missionaries of Mary), Helen Marron(Pax Christi), Helen van den Berg(Pax Christi), Helena Paul, Hemantha Withanage(Centre for Environmental Justice), Henri Tiphagne(People’s Watch), Herbert J. Hoffman(VFP, Albuquerque, NM), Hideko Otake, Hiromi Ootsuki (Theater people who chose no war), Hiroshi Inaba(Okinawa Peace Support), Hiroshi Sato, Hiroshi Yamaguchi(group ZAZA in Osaka), Huang Yu Hsiang(University of the Ryukyus), Hugo Wilson, Hui Hwa Nam(Voices), Hye-Jung Park(Philadelphia Committee for Peace and Justice in Asia), Hyejin Yoon(University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee), Hyeyoung Lee(PCUSA), Ian Gasse(Dumfries TUC), Ian P. Hamilton(Methodist Church in Britain & Ireland), Ichiro Sumida(Henoko Blue), Ikuko Oshiro(Henoko Blue), Iljung Kim(University of British Columbia), Iwakawa(Labornet), Jack Cohen-Joppa(Nuclear Resister), Jacquelyn Wells(Women Cross DMZ), James George Cullen (Columban Fathers), James Trewby(Columbans UK), Jammu Narayana Rao(Global Network Against Weapons and Nuclear Power in Space), Jan Plummer(Trident Ploughshares), Jane Kaisen(Artist), Janet Fenton(Words & Actions Scotland, Scottish CND, Scottish WILPF, ICAN in Scotland), Jason Rawn(National War Tax Resistance Coordinating Committee), Jay Hauben(Amateur Computerist), Jean Oliver(Trident Ploughshares), Jean Sanborn(Women’s International League for Peace), Jenny Clegg(Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament, UK), Jenny Lee(Women Together, Inc.), Jesook Song(University of Toronto), Jess Santiago(Poet), Jill Gough(CND Cymru), Jo Bownas(St Mellitus Church), Jo Fry(Moray Peace Builders), Jo Siedlecka (Independent Catholic News), Joan West(East Lancashire CND), Joanna Nowicki(Moray Peace Builders and World beyond War), Joanne K Hardy(Greater Brunswick PeaceWorks), John B. Din(Columban Missionaries – Philippines), John Feffer(Foreign Policy In Focus), John Jackson(Asia Culture Center), John Lynes(Hastings against war), John Morris(Veterans for Peace), John Pilger(Journalist, writer, documentary filmmaker), John Wells(KPCW), Jos van den Berg(Pax Christi), Joseph Anthony Camilleri(Pax Christi), Joseph Essertier(World BEYOND War), Joseph Gerson(Campaign for Peace Disarmament, Common Security), Joy Enomoto(Womenʻs Voices Women Speak), Jude Genovia (Columban Missionaries), Judith Emerson(Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom), Judith Joy(Grassington & District Peace Group), Julia Larden(Hall Green CND), Julianna Bethlen (Women in Black London), Julie Enslow(Peace Action of Wisconsin), Julie Maguire(St Cuthberts Crook Justice & Peace Group), Julie Marlow(Australian Anti-Bases Campaign Coalition), Julie Ward MEP(Labour Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament), Kagari Ando, Kaia Curry(The Frontiers), Kamal Mitra Chenoy(JNU), Karissa Chua(Center for Peace Education – Miriam College), Kate Holcombe(Trident Ploughshares), Kathryn Edwards(Women in Black, London), Kathy Kelly(Voices for Creative Nonviolence), Katsuko Kai, Katsumi Hamaguchi(Kyoto), Kayoko Teshigawara (Meijigakuin university), Kazuhiro Ohmura(People’s soridarity of Okinawa Korea), Kazuhiro Shibata(NARAYUN-OKINAWA), Kazuyo Kozaki, Keiron Sparrowhawk(Justice and Peace, St Mellitus, UK), Ken Butigan(Pace e Bene), Kenneth Mayers(Veterans For Peace), Kenneth Wardrop(Stirling CND), Kerry Long(University of Hawaii at Manoa), Ketei Matsui(Global Campaign for Peace Education, Japan), Kevin Martin(Peace Action), Kikuko Nakahara, Kil Sang Yoon(Korean American National Coordinating Council, Inc.), Kimiko Matsuda, Kirity Roy (MASUM), Kit Fry(Moray Peace Builders), Kitamura Megumi (Japanese Army Comfort Women Problem Solving Hiroshima Network), Kiwamu Ogawa, Kiyoko Schneiss(Deutsche Ostasienmission), Koohan Paik(International Forum on Globalization), Kozue Akibayashi(Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom), Kristin Douglas, Kristina Wolff(Veterans for Peace), Kunio Asato(Henoko Blue), Kyle Kajihiro(Hawaiʻi Peace and Justice), Kyoko Okumoto(Northeast Asia Regional Peacebuilding Institute), Kyu Hyun Kim(Koreanfilm.org), Laam Hae(York University), Larry Kerschner(VFP Rachel Corrie Chapter 109), Laura Wilder(Pax Christi Dallas), Lenette Toledo(Columban Missionaries), Leonard Eiger(Ground Zero Center for Nonviolent Action), Lina Koleilat(The Australian National University), Linda Hugl(Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament), Lindis Percy(Co-Founder of the Campaign for the Accountability of American Bases (CAAB)), Lisa Savage(Maine Natural Guard), Liu ChiaSheng(Peace for the Sea), Loreta Castro(Center for Peace Education), Louise Legun(Veterans For Peace), Luis Frailes Álvaro (Grupo de Estudios Literarios y Decoloniales Asia-Pacífico en Madrid), Lynn Jamieson(Scottish branch of Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom and Scottish Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament), Maggie Galley(Pax Christi Australia NSW Branch), Maggie Holdsworth(Concerned human), Malcolm Bruce(Edinburgh CND), Manuel Pardo(Frente Antiimperialista Internacionalista), Margaret Tonkin(Pax Christi Victoria. Australia), Margery Toller(Christian CND, Anglican Pacifist Fellowship), Marie Dennis(Pax Christi International), Mark Kaplan(Grey Matter Media), Martha Duenas Baum(Famoksaiyian – Guahan), Martha Hennessy(Catholic Worker), Martin Newell cp(Passionists UK), Mary Beth Sullivan(Global Network), Mary Branson(St Marys Catholic Church), Masae Yuasa(Hiroshima City University), Masakazu Yasui (Japan Council against Atomic and Hydrogen Bombs (Gensuikyo)), Masako Suzuki(Northern dugong research team), Masako Tanaka(Sophia University), Masato Minamino(Okinawa-Korea People Solidarity), Masato Shinozaki, Mayumi Seita, Merci Angeles(Peace Women Partners), Meri Joyce(Peace Boat), Mesopotamia Ecology Movement, Michael Bloom(Abingdon Peace Group), Michael O’Sullivan(Columbans Ireland), Michael Orgel(Medact Scotland), Mike Hastie(Veterans For Peace), Miliann Kang, Mina Watanabe(Women’s Active Museum on War and Peace (WAM)), Minah Seo(Columban Lay Missionary), Minoru Haseagwa(Okinawa Peace Support), Minoru Suda(Article) Messege Project), Mio Kokubun(Okinawa Baptist convention), Mio Nogawa(Alternative People’s Linkage in Asia), Misako Ichimura(Nora), Morag Carmichael(Trident Ploughshares), Mort Stamm, Motoki Tomoyose, Munemitsu Shiota, Munenori Ohwan 大湾 宗則(米軍Xバンドレーダー基地反対京都/近畿連絡会, No Base! 沖縄とつながる京都の会), Nan Kim(Alliance of Scholars Concerned about Korea, Women Cross DMZ), Nancy E. Galland(Natural Resource Defense Council USA), Natasha Mayers(Union of Maine Visual Artists), Nick Molnar(Moray Peace Builders), Nigel Young(Local Peace Group), Noam Chomsky(Linguist/Social Critic), Noboru Takeno, Noriko Kato(Stop!Henoko-umetate-campaign), Noriko Kyogoku(Base stop from bus stop(KANAGAWA)), Noriko Nakamatsu(Henoko Blue), Nuki Ashi, Olga Fedorenko(Seoul National University), Olivia Agate(Trident Ploughshares/CND), Osamu M akishi(Diving Team Rainbow), Pat Cunningham (Columban Justice and Peace), Pat Gaffney(Pax Christi British Section), Pat Sanchez(Greater Manchester CND), Patricia Antonyshyn, Patrick McInerney(Columban Centre for Christian-Muslim Relations), Paul Krumm(Salina Resistance), Paul Schneiss(Deutsche Ostasienmission), Penny Morris(Veterans For Peace, MAINE), Penny Walker(Leicester Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament), Peter Hughes(Society of St. Columban), Peter Lanyon(Trident Ploughshares, Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament), Peter O’Neill(Columban Mission Centre Peace, Ecology and Justice Office), Peter S. Morgan, Jr.(Veterans For Peace, USA Coast Guard), Peter Vanhoutte, Pierre Rousset(Europe solidaire sans frontières (ESSF)), Prescilla D. Tulipat(UP Office of Anti-Sexual Harassment), Puaʻena N. Ahn, Rachael M Joo(Middlebury College), Rachel Western, Rafendi Djamin(Human Rights Working Group – Indonesia), Ramsay Liem(Boston College), Rebecca Johnson(Women in Black), Rebecca Woodsford(Gareloch Hortis), Regina Hagen(Global Network Against Weapons and Nuclear Power in Space), Reiner Braun(International Peace Bureau), Renate Zauner (Trident Ploughshares), Rie Nakaya(Vancouver Save Article 9), Rikiya Miwa(AWC), Rita Camilleri(Pax Christi Victoria), Robert B. Shetterly(Americans Who tell the Truth), Robert L. Dale(Veterans for Peace), Robert Morris(Veterans For Peace, MAINE), Robin Spencer(Maine Veterans for Peace), Roger Leisner(Radio Free Maine), Rolly Bea, Romi Elnagar(Green Party of the US (unofficial) Issues and Discussion Group), Romina Beitseen(Campaign for International Co-operation and Disarmament (CICD)), Rosalie Tyler Paul (Greater Bunswick Peaceworks), Rose Berger(Sojourners), Rosemary Theobalds(Gareloch Hortis), Rowena leder(Grassington & District Peace Group North Yorkshire England), Ruchama Marton, Russell Wray(Citizens Opposing Active Sonar Threats), Ryoko Okazaki (Ritsumeikan University), S. Unzu Lee(Presbyterian Peace Network for Korea), Saito Takako(Saitma Teachers’ Union), Sarah Lasenby(Oxford Quakers), Sarah Swift(Menwith Hill Accountability Campaign), Sasha Davis(Keene State College), Satoko Oka Norimatsu(Peace Philosophy Centre), Sean Martin(Society of Saint Columban), Seth Martin(The Menders), Seung Hee Jeon(Boston College), Shigeo Kobayashi(Japanese Against Nuclear UK), Shigeru Takagi (NPO Vountary Night School in Matsudo city), Shizuko Nagashima , Sho Nagamine, Shona Mcalpine(Scottish CND), Simone Chun(Women Cross DMZ), Sisto dos Santos(The HAK Association), Soomin Seo(Temple University), Sriprakash Mayasandra(Mennonite Central Committee), Stephen Hull, Stuart Parkinson(Scientists for Global Responsibility), Subodh Raj Pyakurel(INSEC), Sue Park-Hur(Reconciliasian), Sumi Hasegawa(Article 9 Canada), Sumie Mizusawa(Henoko blue), Sungeun Kim(Filmmaker), Susan Bennet(Gareloch Horticulturalists peace action group), Suzanne Ewing(Pax Chrisit USA), Suzanne Hedrick(Global works, Women’s International League for Peace), Suzuyo Takazato(Okinawa Women Act Against Military Violence), Suzy Kim, Swedish Peace Council, Takao Takahara(Peace Depot), Takashi Tanino(Agenda Project), Takehiko Ito(Wako University), Tamayo Yamshiro(Henoko blue), Tarak Kauff(Veterans For Peace), Taworu Yamasaki(Henoko Blue), Terri Kekoolani (Hawaii Peace and Justice), Terry Andrews, Terry Byrne(Pax Christi, Victoria, Australia), Theresa Wolfwood(Centre Foundation Barnard-Boecker), Thomas Harty(Veterans for Peace), Tim Shorrock(The Nation), Timothy Zhu(Democratic Socialists of Honolulu), Tom D’Arcy(D’Arcy), Tom Rainey-Smith, Tomas Remiarz(GreenLand Services), Tomiko Suzuki, Tommy Griffin(Veterans For Peace Chapter 170), Toshio Takahashi 高橋 年男 (沖縄―韓国民衆連帯), Tsuneo Takeuchi , Tyson Smith Berry Jr(4Kids International), Ulla Klötzer(Women Against Nuclear Power – Finland), Universal Peace&Social Development Society , Valerie Flessati(Pax Christi), Vicki Beitseen(CICD), Vincent Moinard, Viv Ring (Derby CND), Vladimir Tikhonov (박노자)(Oslo University), Wamuyu (Pax Christi international), Will Griffin(The Peace Report), William H. Slavick(Pax Christi Maine), Will Yang, World BEYOND War, Wu Ju Mei, Yeonhee Kim (University of Hawai’i Manoa), Yoko(Henoko blue), Yoko Iemoto(Article 9 Canada), Yoshida Ai 吉田藍 , Yoshio Nakamura(AWC-Japan), Yosi (Jo) McIntire(The Friendship Association), Youjeong Oh(The University of Texas at Austin), Youki Kato, Young Sun Han, Yuji Murakami, Yukiko Okamoto(not organisation), Yumiko Makihara, 上間芳子(沖縄平和市民連絡会), 仲村渠 政彦(わが沖縄を考えるひとりの会), 土井陽子, 富樫純子, 小西誠(社会批評社), 山田星河, 廣瀬 康代(あぷら), 清水早子（しみずはやこ）(宮古島ピースアクション実行委員会), 瀧川 順朗(AWC), 陳姿吟 이상 총 435명

  • Gangjeong International Team Hosts International Solidarity Talkshow

    IMG_4748 - 2013-06-12 at 20-42-57
    Brother Song, Jeong Young-Hee, and Mayor Kang chat in the Gangjeong Peace Center.

    On Wednesday, June 12, The Gangjeong International Team hosted an International Solidarity Talkshow during the daily candlelight vigil/gathering time in the Gangjeong Peace Center. The show highlighted recent solidarity trips taken by Gangjeong villagers and activists. There were three guest to the “show”. The first was Mayor Kang, who recently returned from Berkeley, California, where he attended and participated in the Moana Nui 2013 Conference on June 1 and 2. Moana Nui is an international solidarity gathering, hosted of people from  by the International Forum on Globalization (IFG) and Pua Mohala I Ka Po, in cooperation with Oceanic Coalition of Northern California (OCNC). The theme was “PEOPLES OF THE PACIFIC–CONFRONTING MILITARIZATION, RESOURCE THEFT, GLOBALIZATION & THE PACIFIC PIVOT”.  45 speakers from 20 nations were there, including Mayor Kang, who spoke about the Gangjeong struggle as a Pacific resistance movment.

    Second, Village Women’s Committee Chairwoman Jeong Young-Hee, who recently returned from an extensive speaking tour across the U.S., including Hawaii. For around 20 days starting at the end of April, she visited 6 different areas including Hawaii, Boston, Maine, New York, San Francisco and LA. There she shared about Gangjeong and her personal struggle at a variety of events, including a shared talk with Professor Noam Chomsky. And third, Dr. Song Kang-Ho (Brother Song) who has just come back from a trip to Okinawa. He was invited for May 18 which was the 40th anniversary of the reversion of Okinawa from U.S. Control back to Japanese administration. Aside from joining the events, he visited many areas to share about Jeju and talk about the movement for demilitarized peace island solidarity. For International Team member Silver was the host and emcee for the night, creating both a fun and thoughtful atmosphere. The “stage” was decorated with signed flags and signs of solidarity which the guests brought back with them.

    The evening began with a trivia contest, with questions related to trips or the trip areas. Prizes included Jeju tangerine chocolate, solidarity t-shirts, and Indonesian coffee. After that each person was asked to give a 5 minute summary of their trip with pictures if they had them. It closed with a question and answer time.

    During his talk and while answering questions, Mayor Kang said that he was impressed by the progressive atmosphere of Berkeley and felt that although it was home to many nobel prize winners, many people lived very frugally and not in a flashy manner. He also shared that he met many people from across the pacific ocean especially from small islands, and from them he found that they too were suffering like Jeju because of the endless pursuit of capital, neo-liberalism, and militarism. And they were all victims of war during WW2. He said that America claims they are working for “world security” with a “peace force” but in reality they are tormenting these small islands. He said he believes that Inter-Island Solidarity for Just Peace, beginning with a triangle of Okinawa, Taiwan, and Jeju is possible, because at the conference he felt a pressing need for forging bonds of solidarity at the conference. He also shared that in Berkeley there was a large 2000 year-old-tree which had a large hole in it that he could even climb inside. They were conserving that tree there and he was impressed and respected their effort to preserve their environment. On the other hand, I felt sad that America keeps its own values but at the same time seeks to destroy others values.

    Among other things, Chairwoman Jeong told a story about an almost 70 year old native woman activist who she met in Hawaii and was very impressed by. She lost her parents when she was very young. Even back when her grandfather was still alive, that time was the 100th anniversary of U.S. colonization of Hawaii. Until now she has been working with dedication to recover Hawaii and has been to prison for her struggle. Also she met many Korean-American activists in the U.S. and was very impressed that even though Gangjeong is not their hometown they work hard to fight for Gangjeong. She said she was encouraged a lot by many American’s support for the Gangjeong struggle, but at the same time many overseas Koreans and Korean-Americans who were indifferent. She said that she even yelled at one guy who seems like a Korean government agent. She also shared that she learned a lot from the experience and she hoped that other villagers would get a chance to do the same.

    Finally, Brother Song talked about the similarities between Jeju, Taiwan, and Okinawa. He said that all of them have similar histories and are suffering by powerful countries in similar ways. In the effort to create the Inter-Island Solidarity for Just Peace Movement, he suggested that we start with these three places as a “trial triangle”. He told the story of an island controlled by Taiwan called “Lanyu” were China discarded nuclear waste there without discussion. It is ironic that all of the most beautiful islands are destroyed by powerful nations. He then shared that the islands which are weaker than Jeju need our solidarity and experience. Meanwhile, Okinawa which has fought for more than 68 years has managed to get some land back from bases but all the land is very polluted. However, more than land contamination, spiritual contamination is more dangerous. In Okinawa, there is an place called, “American Village” where the land has been returned. But the land was contaminated and the economy was dependent on the base, so the people struggled and eventually created an American style village to service U.S. military members, so that they could survive. He said that we need a strong vision for peace so that even if our land is contaminated and the base is built our spirit will not be contaminated. For example, in Gangjeong we can create spaces for peace activists to migrate, give land for refugees, build a peace park, and do peace education, basically creating one big peace village. To gather islands for the Inter-Island Solidarity for Just Peace movement, he suggested sailing on a boat between the islands. He also invited people from around the world to join the every-seven-year-event of the WCC (World Council of Churches) in Busan, Korea this October, where Gangjeong and the Inter-Island Solidarity for Just Peace Movement will be holding a workshop during the forum.

    IMG_4796 - 2013-06-12 at 21-35-45

  • Prof. Yang Yoon-Mo’s Ends Prison Fast at 52 Days

    Update from Ishle Yi Park on March 24 : See the underneath.

    Yang
    Image source/ Prof. Yang Yoon-Mo

    Prof. Yang Yoon-Mo will end his 52 days long hunger strike on March 24 on Sunday. Eight representatives of SPARK (Solidarity for Peace And Reunification of Korea) peace organization and Fr. Mun Jeong-hyon visited Prof. Yang to Jeju prison on March 19 and pleaded to stop the fast. In a meeting room specially provided to see him face to face, representatives persuaded him and he finally promised to start to eat light gruel from Monday, March 25. This visit was made out of people’s earnest wishes to have Pro. Yang stop the fast.

    On the other hand, Rev. Kim Hong-sul(chair of SPARK Busan branch) and Rev. Kim Hee-yong from Gwangju, will do overnight 4 days fast prayer in front of Jeju prison from March 26 to 29 demanding the release of Prof. Yang and stop of Jeju naval base. Both of them also have visited Prof. Yang on March 7 and persuaded Prof. Yang to end the fast expressing their solidarity action at Jeju prison. (Regina Pyon)

     

    Free Yang Yoon-Mo!

    Letter to Yang Yoon-Mo: 
    Yang Yoon-Mo (No. 301)
    Jeju Prison, 161 Ora-2 dong, Jeju City, Jeju Island, Korea

     

    ………………………………………………………

    Here is Prof. Yang’s oral statement on March 23 ending his fast on March 24. The visitors to him on the day dictated his words to share them with the people in the world. You can see the original Korean script, here. 

     

    As I think that many people suffer from my fast, I don’t want to transfer them suffering any more.

    I have taken fast to urge people concern with Gangjeong, to inform them on disappointing National Assembly, thoughtless  Ministry of National Defense, and innocent villagers and activists oppressed by the judicature.

    I consider those have become enough informed. And I accepted earnest request by Fr. Mun Jeong-Hyon, mayor Kang Dong-Kyun and representing group.

    There will be no more fast in my life. Even though I stop fast, my struggle for peace will not stop.

    I think I would live by 90 years old (laughter). So I state on my permanent struggle for the remaining 30 years. I will strive for demilitarizing the Island for life and peace.

    While I am here in prison, I will return many of your favor and encouragement.

    As a peace and unification worker, I will show myself, Yang Yoon-Mo,  as a peace activists and movie critic.

    I pay gratitude to the concerns for me by elementary school students, parents, Catholic brothers & sisters and protestant devotees and to the letters full of passion for peace, via mail and internet.

    Since I am not forgetting those blessings, I think my decision to stop fast is good

    I am grateful to all the messages of support and friendship by distinguished scholars, intellectuals, peace activists and artists from the United States, Australia, Okinawa and Japan, France, Nepal etc.

    ( * You may see the messages from Noam Chomsky, Benj, Okinawa, and Japan )

    To return your concern, I intend for my complete change. I will exercise hard to strengthen my abdominal muscles ­(laughter).

    I especially thank more than 24 days’ solidarity fast by a Korean woman in Hawai’i.

    ( * Ishle Yi Park is a poet and caring mother. See the bottom of here)

    I deeply thank her to take a spiritual response as an artist, despite my shallow idea and practice. Since I have received undeserved love, I will strive more for the world of peace, human rights and love.

    Otherwise, I thank two men, Reverend Kim Hong-Soul and Reverend  Kim Hee-Young for their solidarity fast from March 26 to 29. The two are my true friends and artists, and holly friends that I’ve met in the world of peace. I thank their friendship and will not disappoint them.

    The peace of Jeju is the peace of Asia. It contributes for the peace of the world. The agenda of peace is the discourse of the world.

    Ishle Yi Park
    Image source: Ishle Yi Park

     

    From Ishle Yi Park on March 24, 2013 (Fwd)

    Thank you so much for this update, sister! I am so happy and relieved to know that Professor Yang Yoon-Mo has ended his fast and is on his way back to good health. I prayed for him often and am in deep admiration of his actions, his principles, and his heart.

    I must tell you all that I fasted for seven days, but then my milk ran dry and my daughter cried for more (I am still nursing), so I ended my fast early for her. I don’t want to take credit for more than I am capable of…I want you and the other activists to know this, because to me it is incredible how strong Professor’s heart, mind, and spirit are to endure for so long. He is truly a man whose spirit I admire and love, and I love the people of Jejudo. Wish I could have done more.

    I did write a statement of solidarity that asks the powers that be to free Professor Yang Yoon Mo and halt the construction of the naval base, and had it signed by over 30 activists, artists and citizens of Hawai’i ~ any suggestions on who would be the most effective people to send it to? Will try to get more people to sign it before I send it.

    In terms of updates ~ any news on when he will be freed, or is he in prison indefinitely? Please let me know. Will continue to keep Jejudo and the Professor in my heart and prayers. And thank you and all the peace activists engaged in this movement for your positive, conscious actions and your huge hearts. The world is a better place because of you. God bless and Aloha.

    Han Sarang,

    Ishle Yi Park

    RE: Thanks so much, Ishle Yi Park. Prof. Yang has got the court sentence of 18 months on Feb. 1. Please see here. 

     

    Two
    Photo provided by Rev. Kim Hee-Yong/ Photo of Mr. Kim Hong-Soul (front), Mr. Kim Hee-Yong(back left ) and Gangjeong village Mayor Kang Dong-Kyun (back right)

     

  • ‘The Nation’ article on the Struggle against the Jeju Naval Base Project

    The Nation, one of the biggest progressive media in the United States recently published a story on the struggle against the Jeju naval base in its internet. Its magazine version will come in January. Please spread widely!

    f ghk,l
    Website snap photo by Paco Booyah

    ……………………………………………………………………………………………..

     

    http://www.thenation.com/article/171767/front-lines-new-pacific-war

    On the Front Lines of a New Pacific War

    Koohan Paik and Jerry Mander | December 14, 2012


    In Seoul, 5,000 anti-base protestors joined Gangjeong villagers who had marched, over a four-week period, up the length of the nation to the capitol. Credit: Fielding Hong

    On the small, spectacular island of Jeju, off the southern tip of Korea, indigenous villagers have been putting their bodies in the way of construction of a joint South Korean-US naval base that would be an environmental, cultural and political disaster. If completed, the base would hold more than 7,000 navy personnel, plus twenty warships including US aircraft carriers, nuclear submarines and destroyers carrying the latest Aegis missiles–all aimed at China, only 300 miles away.

     

    Since 2007, when the $970 million project was first announced, the outraged Tamna people of Gangjeong village have exhausted every legal and peaceful means to stop it. They filed lawsuits. They held a referendum in which 94 percent of the electorate voted against construction–a vote the central government ignored. They chained themselves for months to a shipping container parked on the main access road, built blockades of boulders at the construction gate and occupied coral-reef dredging cranes. They have been arrested by the hundreds. Mayor Kang Dong-Kyun, who was jailed for three months, said, “If the villagers have committed any crime, it is the crime of aspiring to pass their beautiful village to their descendants.”

     

    Jeju is just one island in a growing constellation of geostrategic points that are being militarized as part of President Obama’s “Pacific Pivot,” a major initiative announced late in 2011 to counter a rising China. According to separate statements by Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Defense Secretary Leon Panetta, 60 percent of US military resources are swiftly shifting from Europe and the Middle East to the Asia-Pacific region. (The United States already has 219 bases on foreign soil in the Asia-Pacific; by comparison, China has none.) The Jeju base would augment the Aegis-equipped systems in South Korea, Japan, the Philippines, Singapore, Vietnam and the US colony of Guam. The Pentagon has also positioned Patriot PAC-3 missile defense systems in Taiwan, Japan (where the United States has some ninety installations, plus about 47,000 troops on Okinawa) and in South Korea (which hosts more than 100 US facilities).

     


    Police arrest Jesuit priests protesting military-base construction. Credit: Jung Da-Woo-Ri

     

    The United States has also begun rotating troops to Australia and has announced plans to build a drone base on Australia’s remote Cocos Islands. (Also targeted is the gorgeous Palawan Island in the Philippines and the resource-rich Northern Mariana Islands, to name only a few on a long list.) In a whistle-stop tour of the region intended to shore up more allies last September, Panetta said the United States hopes to station troops in New Zealand as well, though approval for that has not been granted. Obama made his own tour just after re-election, courting Myanmar, Cambodia and Thailand as potential trade partners and military allies in the encirclement of China. The United States has even reopened discussions with the brutal Indonesian military–collaboration had been suspended for several years because of human rights issues–in an attempt to influence this key trading partner with China.

     

    Adm. Robert Willard, head of the US Pacific Command (PACOM), gave context to these maneuverings in September 2011. In a speech at the World Affairs Council in San Francisco, he labeled the entire Asia-Pacific region–which contains 52 percent of the earth and two-thirds of the human population–as a “commons” to be “protected” by the United States. Normally, the word “commons” refers to resources commonly shared and controlled by contiguous parties. But Willard seemed to have in mind a massive “US commons” that extends nearly 8,000 miles from the Indian Ocean to the west coast of North America.

     

    Willard’s imperial rhetoric recently became concrete when PACOM reacted to disputes between Japan and China over islands in the geostrategically vital East China Sea. From its Pearl Harbor headquarters in Hawaii, Willard initiated joint military exercises involving 37,000 Japanese and 10,000 American troops. And last October, PACOM sent a Navy aircraft carrier strike group to Manila to show force in the Philippines’ dispute with China over the Spratly Islands.

     


    Members of Gangjeong’s “Save Our Seas” direct-action kayak team check for environmental violations committed at the base construction site, despite the recently instituted fine of $10,000 for “recreational boating.”

     

    Less well known is that PACOM activity includes overseeing the South Korean military. This condition dates back to the signing of the 1953 ROK-US Mutual Defense Treaty, which is still in effect. In fact, US hegemony over the entire region has remained unchanged for more than half a century, locked into an anachronistic cold-war landscape marked by similar bilateral agreements with Taiwan, Japan, the Philippines and a wide scattering of island nations. The rationale behind this “empire of bases” was once “containment” of communism. Obama’s Pacific Pivot is a turbo-charged update, not to contain communism but to contain China–economically, politically, militarily. China has responded by accelerating production of armaments, including a new aircraft carrier, while courting its own regional allies–especially among ASEAN countries like Malaysia, Indonesia, Brunei, Cambodia, and others including Russia–in addition to reasserting control of shipping lanes in the South China Sea. As these two global behemoths shape a new geostrategic rivalry and arms race, tensions are dangerously escalating, and smaller nations and peoples are pressured to choose sides. As one activist said, “When the elephants battle, the ants get crushed.”

     

    Local Impacts

     

    On the island of Jeju, the consequences of the Pacific Pivot are cataclysmic. The UNESCO Biosphere Reserve, adjacent to the proposed military port, would be traversed by aircraft carriers and contaminated by other military ships. Base activity would wipe out one of the most spectacular remaining soft-coral forests in the world. It would kill Korea’s last pod of Indo-Pacific bottlenose dolphins and contaminate some of the purest, most abundant spring water on the planet. It would also destroy the habitats of thousands of species of plants and animals–many of which, such as the narrow-mouthed frog and the red-footed crab, are gravely endangered already. Indigenous, sustainable livelihoods–including oyster diving and local farming methods that have thrived for thousands of years–would cease to exist, and many fear that traditional village life would be sacrificed to bars, restaurants and brothels for military personnel.

     

    Gangjeong villagers also worry that twentieth-century history will repeat itself, turning their small village into a first-strike military target, as had happened there during World War II and the Korean War. The base protesters want never again to get caught in the cross-fire of global powers.

     

    The villagers’ struggle has been difficult. Dissidents in South Korea are quickly labeled “pro–North Korean,” blacklisted and often imprisoned. In Gangjeong, they’ve faced continual police violence but have continued to battle daily for five years. They do this despite the fact that most of their efforts have gone unreported by the highly controlled Korean press and an oblivious US media–at least, until this past September.

     

    A miraculous break presented itself when the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN)–the world’s largest mainstream environmental group, which claims dedication to “a just world that values and conserves nature”–announced it would hold its quadrennial World Conservation Congress for 8,000 participants on Jeju September 6–15, only four miles up the road from the destruction and increasingly bloody confrontations.

     


    Some of the remaining endangered soft corals threatened by military-base development off the Gangjeong coast, Jeju Island, Korea. 

     

    The villagers rejoiced at the prospect of reporting their story to this gathering of world environmental leaders. However, they were soon shocked to find out that IUCN leaders planned to ignore the nearby catastrophe. What happened? It turned out that a horrendous deal had been struck, unbeknownst to NGO-member organizations, between IUCN’s top leaders and the South Korean government. The government had budgeted $21 million to support the convention. In return, the IUCN had agreed it would not allow discussion of the naval base during the convention without government approval, nor would it permit any of the villagers to participate in, or even get near, the proceedings. Additional financial support came from several giant corporations, including Samsung, the lead contractor in the base construction. It was only when an internal revolt erupted from within IUCN’s membership that the dubious deal was challenged and the struggle against the military base catapulted onto the international stage.

    Apparently, greenwashing the navy base was not the only reason the Korean government had paid so dearly to host the 2012 Congress in Jeju. It also wanted to promote a long list of what it calls “Green Growth” projects to a skeptical Korean public. The term is a grievous misnomer. These hugely profitable, environmentally devastating initiatives are driven by Korea’s chaebol–family-run monopolies such as Samsung, Hyundai and LG, which have interests in construction, defense and electronics, among other things. Recent Green Growth projects have included the manufacture, promotion and export of “clean nuclear energy.” The most notorious of the Green Growth boondoggles was the Four Major Rivers Restoration Project, which was not a restoration project at all. It involved the construction of concrete channels to straighten Korea’s beloved winding rivers for commercial shipping. The project displaced farmers, caused floods, contaminated drinking water and slashed populations of migratory birds, and it continues to wreak havoc on the collective psyche of people in the area. At the 2012 Ramsar Convention, the World Wetlands Network named it one of the five worst wetlands projects in the world.

     

    After this debacle and in the face of the growing navy-base controversy, the Korean power elite needed the 2012 IUCN Congress in Jeju as a PR boost to appease heartsick citizens. It didn’t work out that way.

     

    IUCN Revolt

     

    Once they figured out what was going on, IUCN’s members were appalled. They were astonished that the Secretariat had so drastically compromised its values by partnering with the Republic of Korea. They should not have been surprised, though. Four years earlier, in Barcelona, IUCN members had decried a partnership between IUCN leadership and Shell Oil. And this year’s plenary panels were equally revealing: although the Gangjeong villagers were refused entry, Shell president Marvin Odum was invited to speak as an authority on climate change. On another panel, the CEO of GMO-breeder Syngenta, spoke on sustainable agriculture.

     

    Many disgusted IUCN members quickly joined in solidarity with the Jeju Emergency Action Committee, a group of anti-base/pro-Gangjeong activists that featured supporters like Vandana Shiva, Robert Redford, Gloria Steinem, Victoria Tauli-Corpuz, Noam Chomsky, Joseph Gerson, Christine Ahn and dozens of prominent scientists and environmentalists. During the convention, the committee sent a series of fiery protest emails to the membership, while promoting meetings and interaction with the villagers.

     

    Meanwhile, conference participants were getting a great lesson in Korean Civics 101: SWAT teams were roving the building, Koreans were racially profiled and searched at the door for anti-base literature, and four young women were ejected from the premises for wearing yellow anti-base T-shirts. When Gangjeong activist Sung-Hee Choi was spotted entering the convention center, she was rushed by twenty policewomen who denied her entry and snatched away her admission badge, for which she had paid $600. One IUCN member said, “I’ve never been to a Congress like this, where the state Ministry of Defense is at every meeting, putting on the pressure.”

     

    The turning point came when People’s Solidarity for Participatory Democracy, a Seoul-based NGO, disseminated a just-acquired report from the Ministry of Defense that had been submitted to the National Assembly. The report indicated that ships would regularly pass through the core of the UNESCO Biosphere Reserve, dooming all life in that area. Capt. Yoon Seok-Han, chief of base construction, promised during a press conference that no ships would travel through the core except in the case of bad weather (which is common in that area).

     

    IUCN members began to loudly denounce the Secretariat’s “deal with the devil.” The Secretariat backpedaled furiously to mitigate the rift that was rapidly materializing within its ranks. Suddenly, the organization encouraged anti-base presentations and allowed pamphleteering inside the convention center. The Gangjeong villagers found themselves the star attraction of the conference. They seized the moment and sold yellow T-shirts, and even held a concert that drew hundreds of spectators. Young villagers dressed as endangered species sprawled on the floor in tortured positions and held signs that said, “Please let me live!” The Korean sponsors were horrified.

     

    By Day Five of the conference, government officials were watching their exorbitant PR investment blow up in their faces. A Chicago-based NGO, the Center for Humans and Nature, introduced a surprise emergency motion to halt the navy-base construction. Within forty-eight hours, a record thirty-four other NGOs had signed on as co-sponsors.

    In the end, the motion won a huge majority of all votes cast by IUCN member organizations, though it didn’t pass because of a peculiar bias in how the IUCN tallies votes–nation-state-member votes weigh far more heavily than NGO-member votes. The Korean media dutifully reported that the “eco-friendly navy base” and “green growth” had prevailed. But for the Gangjeong villagers, the vote didn’t matter much. In their struggle for recognition, the 2012 IUCN “Battle of Jeju” counted as a tremendous victory. New light was shed on the dire consequences of the Pacific Pivot. As one villager said on the last day of the convention, “We are not lonely anymore.”

     

    Immediately following the convention, hundreds of villagers, joined by Buddhist and Christian leaders, led a one-month march to Seoul, picking up local supporters en route. When they arrived at the capital for a giant rally (which went unreported by the Korean media), the protesters were 5,000 strong. But back home on Jeju, the government had ramped up base construction to go 24/7, forcing villagers to extend their protest vigil at the construction gate around the clock, through cold, rainy nights and continual police attacks. Thus, the Gangjeong villagers’ life-or-death battle continues. One key upcoming date is the Korean presidential election. Activists hope that if center-left candidate Moon Jae-in is elected over right-winger Park Geun-hye on December 19, the base situation will be reassessed.

     

    New Resistance: Moana Nui

     

    As the Pacific Pivot advances across the region, local resistance movements like Jeju’s are also rapidly growing. Communities are increasingly refusing to be sacrificed by their governments as tribute to a superpower benefactor. For example, in Okinawa, 100,000 protesters have repeatedly taken to the streets, fed up after decades of “bearing Japan’s burden” of the US military presence, including rapes and violence on local citizens. Now, the people are protesting deployment of loud and menacing Osprey hybrid aircraft, which fly low over neighborhoods and are famous for crashing. In the Philippines, protests are building against the increasing US military presence, particularly over toxic dumping. Similar resistance is developing among smaller Pacific island nations–especially from indigenous populations in Melanesia, and in the Marshall Islands, where US missile tests are proceeding. (Marshall Islanders feel that the US nuclear bombing of Bikini and other atolls in the 1940s and ’50s sacrificed enough.) The latest blowback comes from the far-southerly, pastoral Japanese island of Yonaguni, only sixty-nine miles from Taiwan. The United States is pressuring Japan to build a China-threatening base there, but local resistance is mounting.

     


    Anti-base protest by Gangjeong women farmers.

     

    Now something really new has developed: the heretofore disparate peoples of the Asia-Pacific are unifying into larger coalitions for mutual aid and action. Fourteen months ago, when nineteen heads of state (including Obama) gathered in Honolulu for the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation meetings and the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) trade negotiations, an unprecedented parallel event was also under way across town at the University of Hawaii. Some 300 anti-militarism, anti-globalization, and environmental and indigenous-rights activists from across the region met for the first Moana Nui (Polynesian for “Big Ocean”) gathering. They collaborated for three days of private planning, coalition building and public meetings, concluding with a spirited march through Waikiki, and a large protest demonstration outside the TPP negotiations. It was widely reported in the Pacific, but not on the US mainland. The second Moana Nui is being organized for San Francisco next spring. Its first goal will be to awaken mainland Americans to all that’s at stake in the Pacific.

     

    The question, finally, is this: at a time of economic and ecological crisis, do Americans really want to ramp up costly and dangerous cold-war programs in hundreds of places, thousands of miles away, nearly always against the popular will of those who live there and with awful environmental effects? If not, then now’s the time for wide debate on the Pacific Pivot and all its ramifications.

     

    (Fwd by Bruce Gagnon and Kyle Kajihiro)

  • Open Letter to IUCN #3: IUCN Officially Blocks Participation by Jeju Villagers Who Oppose Naval Base Construction Near Convention

    The following statement is the 3rd open letter mailed to the leadership of the International Union for the Conservation of Nature. It was originally posted here.

    TO:   IUCN Leadership, Participants, and Global Environmental Organizations

    FROM: Emergency Action Committee to Save Jeju Island

    IUCN leadership still refuses to criticize Korea’s destructive naval base, though construction work is killing rare soft corals, numerous endangered species (including from IUCN’s Red List), and destroying indigenous communities and livelihoods. This stance from IUCN defies its traditional mission, conserving nature and a “just world.”

    NEW RESOLUTIONS ARE NEEDED FOR EMERGENCY VOTE OF ALL IUCN MEMBERS

    ********************************

    ABOUT A MONTH AGO, this committee was joined by dozens of co-signers from around the world, in circulating open letters to the leadership of the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN), and its associated members. The statements were remarking on recent actions of IUCN that directly conflict with its important historical mandates.

    While continuing to proclaim its devotion to protecting Nature, including the planet’s endangered places and species, IUCN leadership has ignored or whitewashed projects that are assaulting these wonders, and undermining human rights and sustainable livelihoods. For example, the organization inexplicably planned its giant September convention only a few minutes’ bus ride from one of the world’s great current outrages—the construction of a large new naval base near the village of Gangjeong, on Jeju Island, the “jewel” of South Korea.  The naval base project, meant to become home-port for Korean and U.S. missile-carrying warships 300 miles from China, is threatening one of the planet’s last great soft coral reefs, and other coastal treasures, killing numerous endangered species (including one on IUCN’s famous Red List), and destroying centuries-old sustainable communities of local farmers and fishers. The Gangjeong villagers have been protesting the base project for years, and are being met with daily police brutality.  Such activities represent all that IUCN has traditionally opposed.

    Then, a few days ago (August 22), an official letter arrived from IUCN leadership informing the indigenous villagers that their application to host a small Information Booth at the convention was denied, though dozens have been granted for corporations and other groups. No explanation was offered. (More details below.) 

    In our earlier communiques we referred to public statements from IUCN Director-General, Julia Marton-Lefevre, supporting the Korean government’s environmental policies, including its decisions vis-à-vis the military base and the infamous Four Rivers Project (also discussed below.)

    Her praise encompassed the government’s seriously flawed “Environmental Impact Assessment” (EIA) for the base project.  This, despite that the EIAignored three of the most critically endangered species at Gangjeong, the Red-footed Crab,Sesarma intermedium; the Jeju Freshwater ShrimpCaridina denticulata keunbaei), endemic to Jeju Island, and the Boreal Digging Frog pictured here (an IUCN Red-List species.)  It also ignored effects upon Korea’s only pod of Indo-Pacific Bottle-nosed Dolphins which swim regularly through the area.  Neither did it explore crucial impacts upon 40 species of soft coral, including nine that are seriously endangered, and five that are already protected by CITES (Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora). This activity takes place only 250 meters from a UNESCO Biosphere Reserve, Tiger Island.

    (In an upcoming letter we will report on a far more authoritative environmental impact statement now being conducted, secretly, by a team of well-known, non-governmental volunteer scientists from several countries—some with prominent IUCN member organizations. They have already documented a spectacular enormous coral garden, 7.4 hectares large, within a mile of where the destruction is now advancing. The only other place in the world where there may exist a soft-coral forest of this magnitude is in the Red Sea.  (The divers are operating secretly because the government deported several prior researchers.)

    On a related matter, the Director General has praised the government’s “Four Rivers Restoration.”  Alas, however, this is not “restoration.”  As the Korean environmental community has made clear, it’s a re-routing of Korea’s four great wild, winding rivers into straight-line channels, partly encased in concrete, combined with extensive dam building, and dredging, to make them more business-friendly. The effects on riparian communities are devastating. In four years the population of Korea’s migratory birds, such as white-naped cranes, has been reduced by two-thirds and in many areas, the rivers have become algae-infested cesspools.  At the recent Ramsar Convention in Bucharest (July, 2012), the World Wetlands Network announced a “Grey Globe Award” to the Four Rivers project, ranking it among the five worst wetlands projects in the world. The IUCN community should publicly denounce it, too.

    Throughout the run-up to the Convention, neither Director-General Marton-Lefevre, nor President Ashok Khosla, has expressed any disapproval of the above ongoing assaults on Nature. Neither have they made mention of the police beatings and arrests of the indigenous protestors from Gangjeong village who are trying, every day, to protect Nature’s treasures from being destroyed—activities that the IUCN was actually created to protect.

    90% AGREEMENT

    The response to our earlier e-mailers was enormous, with at least 90% of respondents supporting our positions—including many from mid-level IUCN leadership.  In a brief burst of democratic openness, the IUCN’s web-page reprinted our letters, while responding with generalities about its great concern for Nature, and democratic process,  and it opened the page for public comments.  But after the first 20 comments appeared, all of them critical of IUCN’s position, the responses were erased off the page. On the other hand, the Korean government’s manifesto on its dubious “green” development policies continues to be displayed. So much for democracy.

    IUCN also announced that it will propose that attendees pass a proclamation (“Nature+”)concerning the glories of Nature, but which still does not mention what’s going on ten minutes away, and while also denying permission for the local community to formally state their views in the Congress meetings.  Up to this moment, the leadership of IUCN continues to avoid any expression of concern or even awareness of the impacts on Nature and community, just down the street, though such concerns are central to the organization’s mandate.

    Why is IUCN leadership remaining so silent?   For the leadership, it may be more of a financial and political matter than one of conservation or social justice, which is what IUCN was supposed to be about. There is also an underlying reality:  A large percentage of the cost of this WCC convention in Jeju is being covered by the very people building the military base. Those would be the Korean government, and several giant global corporations, notably Samsung.

    Having accepted the funding, it is difficult to criticize the funders.

    IUCN’s top leadership has apparently determined its best course now is to avert its gaze while the government kills the shrimps and the frogs, destroys the corals, and jails the protesting local farmers.  Meanwhile, IUCN can freely proceed with its great meeting next door to save Nature.

    But the organization has gone still further.  IUCN has granted the Korean government (the “Korean Organizing Committee of the 2012 WCC,” the chair of which, is Lee Hongkoo, the former Prime Minister of Korea, a supporter of the base) approval-power over any South Korean organizations wanting to present alternative views.  These include whether to grant permission to speak on the issues at the meeting, even when they are invited to do so by bona-fide IUCN member organizations, or merely to host an information table at the event. (See #2 below.) IUCN has also agreed to partner with its Korean financial sponsor in constructing and presenting the formal program of the Convention.  So now, the government, eager to advertise its green initiatives, will be represented on every one of the five “prime-time” plenary panels of the convention, either by government or corporate officials. It is  the only country in the world to be so privileged.  None of those panels will focus on the Gangjeong military base construction, or the Four Rivers fiasco.

    Finally, the questions become these: Whose IUCN is this? Does the complicity of IUCN leadership truly represent IUCN membership?  Can anything useful still be achieved at the WCC in Jeju?  On the latter point, we actually think YES, there still is. We call upon the IUCN participants to use the occasion to take stands on the following:

    FOUR STEPS TO CHALLENGE MILITARY BASE DESTRUCTION & TO RE-ESTABLISH IUCN’S HISTORIC MISSION TO PROTECT NATURE AND HUMAN RIGHTS

     #1.  Assembly Resolutions:  Shut the Base; Make a New EIA; Stop the Four Rivers Project.

    Since our prior letters, our committee has become aware of the great work of several independent groups of environmental attorneys, representing IUCN-member organizations.  They are working toward a series of Draft Resolutions to be presented at the WCC Assemblies, including all members.  Among them are these:

    Shut the Base. The first Resolution will demand that Korea end its military base construction, and that all ravaged lands be restored to their former condition. The Resolution will speak in behalf of the endangered species, the rare soft corals, the sacred sites, and the local villagers who are putting their lives on the line to protect these treasures.

    The once-celebrated southern Jeju coastline is now being covered in concrete, thanks to the Korean government, Samsung corporation, and the silence of IUCN.

    It will also describe the many IUCN rules and prior decisions that have been violated. These include, for example, the important principles of the Earth Charter passed by the 2004 Congress, as well as the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, the Convention on Biological Diversity, the World Heritage Convention, the UN Declaration on Human Rights, the International Covenant on Economic and Social Rights, among many others.

    New Environmental Impact Assessment.  A second Resolution may demand preparation and acceptance of a new Environmental Impact Assessment of the naval base construction near Gangjeong—free of government control and censorship—that will include a truly accurate assessment of the dredging and other impacts on the soft coral reefs, and the killing of rare species that are all absent from the government’s document. (As indicated above, a new independent EIA is already being prepared by several outraged IUCN scientists.)

    End The Four Rivers Project.  A third Resolution will demand that Korea immediately discontinue its notorious Four Rivers Restoration project, and begin to actually restore the great rivers to their prior condition.

    There is one potential complication.  Unsurprisingly, the attorneys were told by some IUCN management not to bother with these motions. They will be “too late,” past deadline, they were told. And yet, the historical record of IUCN offers many examples of last minute submissions.  They have always been permitted if they raise new, urgent, unforeseen issues, and if at least ten IUCN members co-sponsor the request. There are already more than ten willing IUCN co-sponsors.  And they certainly qualify as urgent new matters for IUCN. If we don’t stop this destruction now, by the time IUCN meets again in four years, the corals, the Boreal Digging Frogs and other species, and many local people will be dead. We must not let that happen.

    #2.  Let the Gangjeong People Speak.  

    Information Booth Crisis.  As briefly mentioned above, the Gangjeong villagers, working to save habitats, biodiversity, and the Red-List species from the military’s destruction, applied a few months ago through official IUCN channels for permission to set up one “information booth” among the dozens of others that have been okayed within the convention center throughout the meeting.  That would seem a benign enough request, but a runaround ensued. Instead of routinely okaying the application, the IUCN passed it to the Korean government (the KOC, mentioned above) which is heavily invested in silencing any and all opposition to the base or the Four Rivers project. Korean newspapers have also been silenced on these matters.  Repeated efforts over recent weeks to confirm permission for the information table were ignored. Finally, a few days ago, they received an official letter from the Director of IUCN’s Constituency Support Group, Enrique Lahmann.  He said this:  “Unfortunately, we are not able to accommodate your request for an exhibition booth at the WCC.”  That’s it. No reason was given.  And no explanation of how this fullfills official IUCN proclamations of democracy and inclusiveness.

    No Protest Allowed Within Two Kilometers.  Meanwhile, the Korean government announced that it would not permit any demonstrations or even picketing within two kilometers of the Convention.  So, no information table inside. No demonstrations outside.  Where are we again?  Isn’t South Korea supposed to be a democracy?

    During the upcoming Assemblies, IUCN leaders must at last denounce the government for these appalling moves, and permit the villagers, who are actually doing IUCN’s work, to not only have their information table inside the convention, but if they so choose, to go ahead and demonstrate freely outside, just as if this were a democratic society.

    Addressing the Full Assembly.  All of the above is not enough.  The Gangjeong community should be permitted —-no, invited by IUCN leadership—to address the opening and/or closing plenary of the IUCN convention, to provide the full story of this local disaster and what they are going through.  If the government resists, the IUCN leadership should insist.  We all need to hear from the indigenous local farmers and fisher-people, and the custodians of the sacred sites, about what they have seen and experienced.  Everyone needs to hear this. After all, we are meeting on their indigenous soil, on their island, on the coast that has nurtured them for thousands of years.   So, our own group inquired as to the possibility of the villagers speaking at the assembly, but we were told by IUCN officials, as above, that all South Korean presenters have to be approved by the government.

    Here’s some good news.  Several IUCN member groups have already (quietly) invited local leaders to participate in some of the groups’ own scheduled workshop panel time to tell the Gangjeong story. (In our next letter, we will brief you on who is speaking and at what time. By delaying this announcement, we hope to avoid government crackdowns against the groups.)

    #3.  Go Visit the Destruction Sites, and the Sacred Sites.

    Members of our committee, and our Korean colleagues, will be arranging tours of Gangjeong village, the sacred sites that are threatened, and the front-lines of the ongoing confrontation between the villagers and the police at the construction site. It is horrifying and inspiring. (If you want to join those outings, please respond gangjeongintl@gmail.com.) It’s very easy to get there—ten minutes by local bus.

    #4   Institutional Self-Examination.

    Finally, we suggest that all IUCN members take this moment to assess what is happening in Jeju, and to initiate a process of institutional self-examination, questioning and re-organization.  None of us can afford to lose the moral and ethical leadership of one of the world’s greatest organizations. We need to do whatever is necessary to assure that IUCN will revive its historical mandate to place Nature first, and to protect social justice.

    Thank you for your attention.

    Please let us know if you want to see the proposed resolutions; we will forward you the final texts when they are complete. We can also forward you the new independent Environmental Impact Assessment, when it is completed.  And you can sign up for a visit and tour of Gangjeong Village and the military construction site.  (OUR EMAIL ADDRESS IS BELOW.)

    EMERGENCY ACTION TO SAVE JEJU ISLAND ORGANIZING COMMITTEE:

    savejejunow@gmail.com

    Christine Ahn

    Global Fund for Women; Korea Policy Institute 

    Imok Cha, M.D.

                 SaveJejuNow.org

    Jerry Mander

    Foundation for Deep Ecology; International Forum on Globalization

    Koohan Paik

    Kauai Alliance for Peace and Social Justice

     

    INTERNATIONAL SUPPORT GROUP:

    Maude Barlow

                  Food and Water Watch, Council of Canadians (Canada)

    John Cavanagh

    Institute for Policy Studies (U.S.)

    Vandana Shiva, Ph.D.

    Navdanya Research Organization for Science, Technology and

                  Ecology (India)

    Douglas Tompkins

     Conservation Land Trust, Foundation for Deep Ecology (Chile)

    Victoria Tauli-Corpuz

                  Tebtebba Indigenous Peoples’ International Centre for

                  Policy Research and Education (Philippines)

    Anuradha Mittal

                  Oakland Institute (U.S.)

    Meena Raman

                  Third World Network (Malaysia)

    Walden Bello

                  Member, House of Representatives (Philippines)

    Tewolde Berhan Gebre Egziabher

    Environmental Protection Authority (Ethiopia)

    Lagi Toribau

    Greenpeace-East Asia

    Mario Damato, Ph.D.

                  Greenpeace-East Asia

    Debbie Barker

                  Center for Food Safety (U.S.)

    Pierre Fidenci

    Endangered Species International (U.S.)

    John Knox

                 Earth Island Institute (U.S.)

    David Phillips

                 Int’l Marine Mammal Project, Earth Island Institute (U.S.)

    David Suzuki

    The David Suzuki Foundation (Canada)

    Robert Redford

    Actor, founder of Sundance Institute (U.S.)

    Mary Jo Rice

                 Int’l Marine Mammal Project, Earth Island Institute (U.S.)

    Bill Twist

    Pachamama Alliance (U.S.)

    Jon Osorio, Ph.D.

    Chair, Hawaiian Studies, Univ. of Hawaii (U.S.)

    Sue Edwards

    Institute for Sustainable Development (Ethiopia)

    Galina Angarova

              Pacific Environment (Russia)

    Bruce Gagnon

    Global Network Against

              Weapons and Nuclear Power in Space (Int’l)

    Andrew Kimbrell

    Center for Food Safety (U.S.)

    Jack Santa Barbara

              Sustainable Scale Project (New Zealand)

    Gloria Steinem

              Author, Women’s Media Center (U.S.)  

    Medea Benjamin

              Code Pink, Global Exchange (U.S.)

    Randy Hayes

              Foundation Earth (U.S.)

    Noam Chomsky

     Massachusetts Institute of Technology (U.S.)

    Renie Wong

    Hawaii Peace and Justice (Hawaii)

    Kyle Kajihiro

    Hawaiʻi Peace and Justice and DMZ-Hawaiʻi (Hawaii)

    Terri Keko’olani

    Hawai’i Peace and Justice and International Women’s Network Against

              Militarism (Hawaii)

    Wayne Tanaka

              Marine Law Fellow, Dept. of Land & Natural Resources (U.S.)

              (signing independently)

    Tony Clarke

              Polaris Institute (Canada)

    Sara Larrain

    Sustainable Chile Project (Chile)

    John Feffer

    Foreign Policy in Focus (U.S.)

    Victor Menotti

              International Forum on Globalization (U.S.)

    Arnie Saiki

    Moana Nui Action Alliance (U.S.)

    Nikhil Aziz

    Grassroots International (U.S.)

    Lisa Linda Natividad

    Guahan Coalition for Peace and Justice (Guam)

    Rebecca Tarbotton

              Rainforest Action Network (U.S.)

    Kavita Ramdas

              Visiting Scholar, Stanford U., Global Fund for Women (India)

    Raj Patel

    Institute for Food and Development Policy/Food First (U.S.)

    Alexis Dudden

    Author, Professor of History, Connecticut University (U.S.)

    Timothy Mason

    Pastor, Calvary by the Sea, Honolulu (U.S.)

    Katherine Muzik, Ph.D.

              Marine Biologist, Kulu Wai, Kauai (U.S.)

    Claire Hope Cummings

    Author, Environmental attorney (U.S.)

    Ann Wright

               U.S. Army Colonel, Ret., Former U.S. Diplomat (U.S.)

    Buffy Sainte-Marie, Ph.D.

                Educator, Singer-Songwriter (U.S.)

    Yong Soon Min

               Professor, University of California, Irvine (U.S.)

    Eugeni Capella Roca

    Grup d’Estudi I Protecció d’Ecosostemes de Catalunya (Spain)

    Jonathan P. Terdiman, M.D.

               University of California, San Francisco (U.S.)

    Evelyn Arce

               International Funders for Indigenous Peoples  (U.S.)

    Brihananna Morgan

               The Borneo Project (Borneo)

    Frank Magnota, Ph.D.

               Physicist (U.S.)

    Delia Menozzi, M.D.

               Physician (Italy)

    Aaron Berez, M.D.

               Physician (U.S.)

    Begoña Caparros

              Foundation in Movement: Art for Social Change (Uganda)

    Antonio Sanz

               Photographer (Spain)

    Cindy Wiesner

               Grassroots Global Justice (U.S.)

    Gregory Elich

                Author, “Strange Liberators” (U.S.)

    Joseph Gerson, Ph.D.

                American Friends Service Committee (U.S.)

    Piljoo Kim, Ph.D.

                Agglobe Services International (U.S.)

    Peter Rasmussen

                He-Shan World Fund (U.S.)

    Wei Zhang

                He-Shan World Fund (U.S.)

    Harold Sunoo

              Sunoo Korea Peace Foundation (U.S.)

    Soo Sun Choe

    National Campaign to End the Korean War (U.S.) 

    Angie Zelter

               Trident Ploughshares, (UK)

    Ramsay Liem

               Visiting Scholar, Center for Human Rights, Boston College (U.S.)

    Kerry Kriger, PhD

              Save The Frogs (U.S.)

    Marianne Eguey

               Jade Associates, (France)

    Claire Greensfelder

               INOCHI-Plutonium Free Future (U.S.-Japan)

    Laura Frost, Ph.D.

              The New School (U.S.)

    Chris Bregler, Ph.D.

              New York University (U.S.)

    David Vine

              Assistant Professor, American University (U.S.)

    Simone Chun

              Assistant Prof., Gov’t Department, Suffolk U., Boston (U.S.)

    Matt Rothschild

              Editor, The Progressive magazine (U.S.)

    Henry Em

              Professor, East Asian Studies, NYU  (U.S.)

    Eric Holt-Gimenez

             Institute for Food and Development Policy (U.S.)

    Maivan Clech Lam

              Professor Emerita of Int’l Law, CUNY (U.S.)

    Mari Matsuda

              Professor of Law, Richardson Law School, Univ. of Hawaii (U.S.)

    Beth Burrows

              The Edmonds Institute (U.S.)

    Aileen Mioko Smith

              Green Action (Japan)

    Susan George, Ph.D.

              Transnational Institute (The Netherlands)

    Marianne Manilov

              The Engage Network (U.S.)

    S. Faizi

              Institute for Societal Advancement, Kerala (India)

    Syed Ashraf ul Islam

             Ministry of Food & Disaster Management (Bangladesh)

    Manaparambi Koru Prasad

             Kerala Local Self Government Department (India)

    Hernán Torres, Director

             Torres Asociados Ltda. (Chile)

    Carlo Modonesi

             Environmental Biologist, Parma University (Italy)

    Andrej Kranjc

             Secretary-General, Slovenian Academy of Sciences and Arts (Slovenia)

    Ning Labbish Chao

             Bio-Amazonia Conservation International (U.S.)

    Perumal Vivekanandan

              SEVA  (India)

    David Newsome

              Environmental Science and Ecotourism, Murdoch University, Perth (Australia)

    Korean Federation for Environmental Movement and Citizen Institute for Environmental Studies (South Korea)

  • Open Letter to IUCN #1: Requesting Postponement of IUCN Convention on Jeju Island, Unless Military Destruction is Ended

    The following statement with 131 signatories, is the 1st open letter mailed to the leadership of the International Union for the Conservation of Nature. It was originally posted here.

    OPEN MEMO TO:  All Leadership, the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN)

    FROM: Undersigned Environmental/NGO/Academic Leaders

    THE IUCN 2012 WORLD CONSERVATION CONGRESS (WCC), scheduled for September 6-15 at Jungmun Resort on Jeju Island, was apparently planned several years ago by IUCN leadership without full awareness of current circumstances on Jeju—circumstances that display values and behaviors exactly opposite to the historic goals of IUCN.

    The IUCN describes the Congress as “the world’s largest and most important conservation event,” aiming “to improve how we manage our natural environment for human, social and economic development.” Nothing could be more diametrically opposed to sustaining those values than the environmental and social assaults now underway only minutes away, along the nearby coastline, and in the traumatized Gangjeong Village. That is where construction has begun on a huge new military base, rapidly devastating a region of rare beauty, vibrant soft-coral reefs, pure freshwater springs, numerous endangered species, and traditional sustainable cultures and villages, and where police actions are brutalizing local populations who attempt to oppose the development.

    The undersigned believe it would be massively ironic, contradictory, and scandalous, for the IUCN to ignore the attacks on living nature, and on traditional sustainable culture, that are daily underway a few miles from the scheduled IUCN meeting.  Holding a conference in the face of such nearby, ongoing devastation, would destroy the credibility of IUCN, and be an eternal embarrassment for all participants at the meeting.

    We therefore insist that the leadership of IUCN demand that the government of South Korea immediately stop this appalling development, remove its military, and free the local population trying to recover the environment and traditional culture that is being actively destroyed.  In lieu of that, IUCN should immediately cancel its meeting in Jeju, and reschedule in a timely manner, in another place with values that are aligned with the organization’s mission.  Details follow.

    Crimes Against Nature:

    Five years ago, the South Korean government announced that it would begin blasting Gangjeong’s rare lava-rock coastline, the only rocky wetland on Jeju Island, to make way for a new naval base intended to berth South Korean and U.S. Aegis missile-carrying warships, a thinly veiled threat against China. The base project is located 1.7 km away from sacred Beom Islet (Tiger Isle), which is a UNESCO biosphere preserve.

    Coastal blasting began in earnest in March 2012, despite continuous passionate protests from local Gangjeong residents.  It has already transformed an extraordinary coastline into an ecological disaster area.  Uniquely beautiful soft-coral reefs, with very high levels of native biodiversity, extend widely across the area, directly in front of the base project.  They are now being aggressively destroyed. Environmentalist and actor Robert Redford recently reported on the 57 four-story-tall caissons poised to drop on miles of soft coral reefs.

    The coastline features a single massive Andesite bed rock, with year-round fresh water streams and springs.  Bubbling through the lava for millennia, these precious waters have now been contaminated by the dynamiting of the coastline.  The blasting and construction are also shattering the rare ecosystem in places where fresh spring water mixes with sea water.  The brackish water’s life-giving qualities are recognized by villagers, who call it “grandmother water.”

    These places provide unique habitat for many endangered species, including the narrow-mouth toad (Kaloula borealis), which is, ironically, on the IUCN’s critical Red List! Other endangered species threatened by the destruction include the red-foot crab (Sesarma intermedium); the Jeju fresh water shrimp (Caridina denticulate keunbaei); and mollusks such as the Gisoogal godong (Clithon retropictus).

    Another endangered species doomed by the development, are Jeju’s last 100 Indo-Pacific bottle-nosed dolphins (Tursiops aduncus) which are still visible in island coastal waters.

    Crimes Against Humanity

    Clearly, this base construction is not only a crime against nature, but a crime against humanity. In a single blow, the base will destroy not just ecosystems and endangered species, but also resilient livelihoods within a thriving traditional village. The reef, the farms and the spring water have provided for the local village for centuries. And yet, the government has razed many acres of tangerine farms, and removed people from their land and their reefs in order to make room for a military base.

    The Los Angeles Times has reported:  “The new base will subsume the picturesque harbor, and its security perimeter will shut out fishermen and women who for generations have fished for abalone, sea cucumber and brown seaweed.”

    One “haenyo” (traditional woman sea diver) says that pollution from the naval base has already turned the clean seawater to gray, threatening the haenyos’ livelihoods. “The Naval base will destroy the natural resources.  I see cranes and large machinery at the base. I can’t believe it.”

    The villagers were recently notified that the government will be seizing more land to build housing for 600 military personnel who, with their families, will outnumber the 1,930 villagers. New businesses will open to service the newcomers: Big box stores will replace village gardens; parking lots will replace farms; bars and prostitution will replace Jeju’s women divers. Gangjeong, as it has miraculously existed for centuries, will be wiped off the face of the Earth.

    According to a Jeju newspaper, the base controversy has caused increased suicide rates in Gangjeong. Last year, one villager drank pesticide in a failed attempt to kill himself. He said he couldn’t live with all the destruction.

    Finally, this development is also a crime against democracy. Ninety-four percent of villagers voted against base construction in a recent referendum, but local wishes are ignored by the Korean government. The mayor of Gangjeong and fellow villagers have hosted numerous press conferences in Jeju City, citing continuing environmental violations by the construction crews. The Navy is never punished. Instead, the government sends hundreds of riot police to arrest protestors every day for holding prayer vigils at the gates to the construction site. They are charged with “obstruction of government activities.” The mayor himself was jailed for three months.

    Our Demand

    The undersigned strongly assert that it would be highly contradictory for the IUCN to ignore such startling social and environmental realities as described above, while it claims to convene global environmental leaders to protect and restore natural systems.  If the 2012 World Conservation Conference proceeds as currently planned, it would permanently damage the credibility of IUCN, and be a major embarrassment for all participants. This situation must be faced, and stopped. To participate as if everything is fine will cast a black mark across the conference and all its attendees.

    IUCN leadership must immediately demand that the Republic of Korea cease, at once, these unconscionable crimes against the Earth, humanity and democracy. If the government refuses, IUCN should postpone the conference and reschedule at another time and place consistent with IUCN’s urgent mission and stated values. This would be in keeping with IUCN statements on the prime necessity to act on behalf of survival of the Earth and culture.

    Thank you for your attention.

    EMERGENCY ACTION TO SAVE JEJU ISLAND

    ORGANIZING COMMITTEE: 

    savejejunow@gmail.com

    Christine Ahn

                 Global Fund for Women; Korea Policy Institute  

    Imok Cha, M.D.

                 SaveJejuNow.org

    Jerry Mander

                Foundation for Deep Ecology; Int’l. Forum on Globalization

    Koohan Paik

                Kauai Alliance for Peace and Social Justice

    SIGNERS (AS OF JULY 10):

     Maude Barlow

                  Food and Water Watch, Council of Canadians (Canada)

    John Cavanagh

                  Institute for Policy Studies (U.S.)

    Vandana Shiva, Ph.D.

                  Navdanya Research Organization for Science, Technology and

                  Ecology (India)

    Douglas Tompkins

                  Conservation Land Trust, Conservacion Patagonica (Chile)

    Anuradha Mittal

                  Oakland Institute (U.S.)

    Meena Raman

                  Third World Network (Malaysia)

    Walden Bello

                  Member, House of Representatives (Philippines)

    Tewolde Berhan Gebre Egziabher

                  Environmental Protection Authority (Ethiopia)

    Lagi Toribau

    Greenpeace-East Asia

    Mario Damato, Ph.D.

                  Greenpeace-East Asia

    Debbie Barker

                  Center for Food Safety (U.S.)

    Pierre Fidenci

                  Endangered Species International (U.S.)

    Victoria Tauli-Corpuz

    Tebtebba Indigenous Peoples’ Int’l. Centre for

                  Policy Research and Education (Philippines)

    John Knox

    Earth Island Institute (U.S.)

    David Phillips

    Int’l Marine Mammal Project, Earth Island Institute (U.S.)

    Mary Jo Rice

    Int’l Marine Mammal Project, Earth Island Institute (U.S.)

    Bill Twist

                 Pachamama Alliance (U.S.)

    Jon Osorio, Ph.D.

                Chair, Hawaiian Studies, Univ. of Hawaii (U.S.)

    Sue Edwards

    Institute for Sustainable Development (Ethiopia)

    Gloria Steinem

              Author, Women’s Media Center (U.S.)

    Medea Benjamin

              Code Pink, Global Exchange (U.S.)

    Randy Hayes

              Foundation Earth (U.S.)

    Noam Chomsky

    Massachusetts Institute of Technology (U.S.)

    Galina Angarova

              Pacific Environment (Russia)

    Bruce Gagnon

              Global Network Against

              Weapons and Nuclear Power in Space (Int’l)

    Andrew Kimbrell

              Center for Food Safety (U.S.)

    Jack Santa Barbara

              Sustainable Scale Project (New Zealand)

    Renie Wong

               Hawaii Peace and Justice (Hawaii)

    Kyle Kajihiro

               HawaiÊ»i Peace and Justice/DMZ-HawaiÊ»i (Hawaii)

    Terri Keko’olani

              Hawai’i Peace and Justice/DMZ-Hawai’i (Hawaii)

    Wayne Tanaka

              Marine Law Fellow, Dept. of Land & Natural Resources (U.S.)

              (signing independently)

    Tony Clarke

              Polaris Institute (Canada)

    Sara Larrain

              Sustainable Chile Project (Chile)

    John Feffer

              Foreign Policy in Focus (U.S.)

    Victor Menotti

              International Forum on Globalization (U.S.)

    Arnie Saiki

              Moana Nui Action Alliance (U.S.)

    Nikhil Aziz

              Grassroots International (U.S.)

    Lisa Linda Natividad 

              Guahan Coalition for Peace and Justice (Guam)

    Rebecca Tarbotton

              Rainforest Action Network (U.S.)

    Kavita Ramdas

              Visiting Scholar, Stanford U., Global Fund for Women (India)

    Raj Patel

              Institute for Food and Development Policy/Food First (U.S.)

    Alexis Dudden

              Author, Professor of History, Connecticut University (U.S.)

    Timothy Mason

              Pastor, Calvary by the Sea, Honolulu (U.S.)

    Katherine Muzik, Ph.D.

              Marine Biologist, Kulu Wai, Kauai (U.S.)

    Claire Hope Cummings

               Author, Environmental attorney (U.S.)

    Ann Wright

               U.S. Army Colonel, Ret., Former U.S. Diplomat (U.S.)

    Buffy Sainte-Marie, Ph.D.

                Educator, Singer-Songwriter (U.S.)

    Lenny Siegel

               Center for Public Environmental Oversight (U.S.)

    Yong Soon Min

               Professor, University of California, Irvine (U.S.)

    Eugeni Capella Roca

               Grup d’Estudi I Protecció d’Ecosostemes de Catalunya (Spain)

    Jonathan P. Terdiman, M.D.

               University of California, San Francisco (U.S.)

    Evelyn Arce

    International Funders for Indigenous Peoples  (U.S.)

    Brihananna Morgan

    The Borneo Project (Borneo)

    Frank Magnota, Ph.D.

               Physicist (U.S.)

    Delia Menozzi, M.D.

               Physician (Italy)

    Aaron Berez, M.D.

               Physician (U.S.)

    Begoña Caparros

              Foundation in Movement: Art for Social Change (Uganda)

    Antonio Sanz

               Photographer (Spain)

    Cindy Wiesner

    Grassroots Global Justice (U.S.)

    Gregory Elich

    Author, “Strange Liberators” (U.S.)

    Joseph Gerson, Ph.D.

    American Friends Service Committee (U.S.)

    Piljoo Kim, Ph.D.

    Agglobe Services International  (U.S.)

    Peter Rasmussen

      He-Shan World Fund (U.S.)

    Wei Zhang

      He-Shan World Fund (U.S.)

    Harold Sunoo 

              Sunoo Korea Peace Foundation (U.S.)

    Soo Sun Choe

              National Campaign to End the Korean War (U.S.)

    Angie Zelter

    Trident Ploughshares, (UK)

    Ramsay Liem

    Visiting Scholar, Center for Human Rights, Boston College (U.S.)

    Kerry Kriger, PhD

    Save The Frogs (U.S.)

    Marianne Eguey

    Jade Associates, (France)

    Claire Greensfelder

    INOCHI-Plutonium Free Future (U.S.-Japan)

    Laura Frost, Ph.D.

    The New School (U.S.)

    Chris Bregler, Ph.D.

    New York University (U.S.)

    David Vine

    Assistant Professor, American University (U.S.)

    Simone Chun

    Assistant Prof., Gov’t Department, Suffolk U., Boston (U.S.)

    Matt Rothschild

    Editor, The Progressive magazine (U.S.)

    Henry Em

    Professor, East Asian Studies, NYU  (U.S.)

    Eric Holt-Gimenez

             Institute for Food and Development Policy (U.S.)

    Maivan Clech Lam

    Professor Emerita of Int’l Law, CUNY (U.S.) 

    Mari Matsuda

              Professor of Law, Richardson Law School, Univ. of Hawaii (U.S.)

    Beth Burrows

              The Edmonds Institute (U.S.)

    Aileen Mioko Smith

              Green Action (Japan)

    Susan George, Ph.D.

              Transnational Institute (The Netherlands)

    Marianne Manilov

              The Engage Network (U.S.)

     

    SOUTH KOREAN SIGNERS

     

    Kangho Song, Ph.D.

              Leader, Save Our Sea Team, Gangjeong village

              (Presently in prison for civil disobedience)

    Youngdeok Oh

              Korea Federation for Environmental Movement of Jeju

    Ho Myong

              Eco Horizon Institute

    Jingu Yeo

              Korean Environment Education Network

    Myungrae Cho

              Citizens’ Movement for Environmental Justice   

    Kyeongjo Park

              Green Korea United

    Yoonmo Yang

    Film critic

              (Imprisoned for civil disobedience for four months in 2011)

    Stephen Wunrow, Martha Vickery

              Publisher/editor of Korean Quarterly

    Seonghwan Min

              Korean Ecoclub

    Youngsun Ji

              Korea Foundation for Environmental Movements

              (Friends of the Earth, Korea)

    Youngsuk Pak

             Korean Women’s Environmental Networks

    Raegun Park

             Human Rights Foundation, Saram

    Mihyuk Kwon

             Korean Women’s Association United

    Sunghee Choi

             Global Network Against Weapons and Nuclear Power in Space 

              (Imprisoned for civil disobedience for two months in 2011)

    Giryong Hong

              Jeju Peace Human Rights Center

    Chuyoung Chang

               Minbyun-Lawyers for a Democratic Society

    Eunkyung Oh

               Jeju Women’s Assocation

    Gwisook Gwon

               Jeju National University

    Hyekyoung An

               Director, Jeju Women’s Film Festival

    Jeonghae Park, Ph.D.

               The Academy of Korean Studies

    Gilchun Koh

               Jeju artist

    Misun Kang, Ph.D.

              Artist

    Jungjin Lee

             Artist

    Hyungtae Kim

            Catholic Human Rights Committee

    Hunjung Cho

            Chun Tae-Il Foundation

    Giyoung Hyun

            Jeju People on Mainland who Love Gangjeong

    Hongsik Kim

            Jeju People on Mainland who Love Gangjeong

    Moonheum Yang

            Jeju People on Mainland who Love Gangjeong

    Sangsoo Heo

            Jeju People on Mainland who Love Gangjeong

    Chansik Park

            Jeju People on Mainland who Love Gangjeong

    Youngjin Kim

            Korea Democratic Street Venders Confederation (KDSC)

    Yoonjae Cha

            Masan YMCA

    Boowon Nam

            National Council of YMCAs of Korea

    Geunyeom Chang

            Peace Ground

    Wooksik Cheong

            Peace Network

    Hyunbach Chung

    People’s Solidarity for Participatory Democracy

    Regina Pyon

            Korean House for International Solidarity 

    Hyangyoon Mee

            The Korean Council for the Women Drafted

             for Military Sexual Slavery by Japan

    Rev. Haehak  Lee

    The National Council of Churches in Korea

            Committee of Justice and Peace

    Hyesook Yeo

    Women Making Peace

    Youngjun Choi

             Workers’ Solidarity All Together

    Yeook Yang

             World Without War

    Jungmin Choi

             World Without War