Category: Reports

No Aegis! The Day When Aegis Made First Entry in Gangjeong

Photo by Ppyongharin/ Early as 7 am on Sept. 16, an Aegis Destroyer, Sejong , the Great, made the 1st entry in the Gangjeong Sea. It met protesters’ signs.

Photo by Ppyongharin/ A kayak heading toward the 1st aegis that entered the Gangjeong Sea on Sept. 16.

On Sept. 16, Aegis destroyers made their first entries into the currently built Jeju naval base early at 7 am. The navy reasoned the entries were for the test of their coming alongside the pier. There were two aegis destroyers on the day- named Sejong, the Great and Yang Man-Choon, which were accompanied by a connvoy and a rescue ship. On the day, a military helicopter flew low with heavy noise. It was the next day that the last remaining Sejong, the Great finally left.

It is told that the navy is planning to send total 22 military ships by the mid October for safe mooring test etc. Is it for the 47th ROK-US Security Consultative meeting in mid-October? Or a kind of missile defense test with the excuse of North Korea rocket launch supposedly on Oct. 10? Whatever, we felt really tragic on the day… and determined.

No Missile defense!
No ROK-US-Japan trilateral military alliance!
No War base in the Peace Island!

See the days’ video here.

Related article is here.

Photo by Park Jijo, Yonhap news/ a kayak countering an aegis

Photo by Park Jiho, Yanhap News, Sept. 16/ The media reporters could see and hear the protesters above a breakwater which is distant from the pier

Photo by No Base Stories of Korea, 2011/ An art work by Choi Byung-Soo in 2007. The Aegis-shaped cut steel plate used to stand on the Gureombi Rock which was closed for naval base construction on September 2, 2011.

September 20, 2015
The Real Struggle Starts from Now On

Jeju Island Catholic Bishop Kang U-Il / A photo by Oum Mun-Hee

Fr. Mun Jeong-Hyeon/ A photo by Oum Mun-Hee

The overflow crowd outside of the grand opening of the St. Francis Peace Center in Gangjeong village/ Photo by Choi Sung-Hee

Re-blogged from here

Sung-Hee Choi reports from Gangjeong village on Jeju Island, South Korea:

[Sept. 5] Bishop Kang U-Il says, “The real struggle starts from now on.”

On a gently rainy day, about 500 priests, sisters, laymen, villagers, and peace activists gathered to celebrate the opening of the St. Francis Peace Center in the village. The event organizers had expected about 200 crowd.

The four story building, of which the idea was first initiated by Fr. Mun Jeong-Hyeon and Bishop Kang U-il, is hoped to be ‘an outpost for the peace of Northeast Asia’ (Bishop Kang)

On the day, the words by Bishop Kang, the Board President of the Center, was resolute, touching and inspiring.

The Jeju Sori, a local media, excerpted some of his long speech. Thanks to it, here I also translate some of his words as well.

……………………………………………………

“There are people who ask whether the struggle has finished with the naval base [that will port US warships aimed at China] being almost completed. No. It has not finished. The real struggle starts from now on.”

“In April 2005, I expressed my opinions, for the first time, against naval base construction. There are five reasons following the public teachings.”

“Firstly, war is disaster. It cannot be a solution between nations. It is because such thing did not happen in the past and would not happen in the future, either.”

“Secondly, when a state power takes arms force, it can be justified and get citizens’ sympathy only by strict conditions. The mobilization of state power against the struggle in opposition to the Gangjeong naval base can never be a self-defense. “

“Thirdly, modern arms are weapons of massive mankind-killing. The increment of arms cannot be connected to peace.”

“Fourthly, we are dumping tremendous budgets into arms production. What if it is used for the nation progress, for the poor..?”

“Lastly, why there should be a military base in Jeju, the far-most from the Korean truce line and the tainted by the wounds of the April 3rd incident? Jeju is the Peace Island designated by the government. The relationship between any military base and the Peace Island is like water and oil.”

“With the construction of the naval base, the death of the April 3rd spirits has become meaningless…”

“Sixty-seven years ago, more than 30,000 people, more than 10% of the whole population of the Jeju Island people lost their lives for the April 3rd incident. [A massacre of Jeju peasants directed by the US military.] They were mostly innocent Island people nothing to do with ideology conflicts. They died without knowing the reasons of their deaths.”

“There are people who say that there is no more need of struggle since the Gangjeong base has been almost completed. No, the real struggle starts from now on.”

“The people we counter is not those who covered the Gureombi Rock with concrete. Nor the youths who come to the naval base to fulfill their duty for national defense. It is those who consider war positively.”

“It is the struggle against those who justify war preparation disguising their violent spirit with the logic of national security. On any basis, war is not right.”

The overflow crowd outside of the grand opening of the St. Francis Peace Center in Gangjeong village/ Photo by Choi Sung-Hee

The overflow crowd outside of the grand opening of the St. Francis Peace Center in Gangjeong village/ Photo by Choi Sung-Hee

September 12, 2015
Gangjeong, One of the Co-Recipients of the Sean MacBride Award!
What a wonderful news! The International Peace Bureau(IPB) decided to have Gangjeong, Jeju, and Lampedusa, Italy, as the co-recipients of the precious Sean MacBride award for 2015. On Aug. 25, 1 page official letter was sent to the village, along with other two related documents as the below. Please look at those for further details. It is truly the honor of the village to receive this award and to stand firm with the people in the world on the path for peace, justice, and democracy.
1. An official IPB letter to the Gangjeong village on Aug. 25, 2015
2. IPB documents on the two Island communities: Lampedusa and Gangjeong, Jeju

3. Peace Paths: Annual IPB Conference program_On the 70th anniversary of the entry into force of the United Nations Charter
August 30, 2015
Navy Trying to Kill Gangjeong Village

Re-blogged from here

By Bruce Gagnon

I was invited to come to Jeju City today to appear on live radio show for 20 minutes at 6:00 pm. As we were preparing to leave Gangjeong village we looked into the sky as a formation of Navy Blue Angel war planes came screaming over the village. For the next 15 or so minutes they went back and forth directly over Gangjeong doing various stunts. One of the stunts brought the planes very low in an ear splitting maneuver.

The Navy was sending a message to Gangjeong village. The message was loud and clear. “We own you now. Your village will become a war base. There is nothing you can do. We will project power against China from Jeju Island. You’d better get used to the idea.” This is the way the US military empire thinks and the way they treat people who stand in their way.

Just before we went on the air for the radio interview we learned that the Navy is planning to demand that Gangjeong villagers pay $20 million (USD) in fines for disruption of construction operations on the base now nearing completion. Some activists believe that the Ministry of Defense in Seoul is actually controlled by the Samsung corporation which is the lead contractor for the Navy base construction operation. Just as in the US, where Lockheed Martin, Boeing, Raytheon and General Dynamics control our government, the Park administration inside the Blue House in Seoul is actually the pawn of corporate interests.

By demanding this outrageous amount of funds from a small fishing and farming community the South Korean puppet government is saying that democracy does not actually exist anymore. In a true democratic nation people who protest oppressive government policies are not fined and driven into poverty – especially an entire village. What was the crime of Gangjeong? They wanted to protect the environment, sacred Gureombi rock, the offshore endangered soft coral forests, the water, the sea life and more. The villagers wanted to protect their way of life – their 500-year old culture.

I’ve learned that only South Korea and Japan have this kind of punishing policy that obviously smacks of fascism. The government of South Korea is controlled by corporations and Washington. How can they claim in Seoul to be a democracy and then turn around and treat citizens this way? How can the government claim they need a Navy base to defend the people and then attack the people who use non-violent protest to challenge the destruction of their village?

This will have to go to court but the courts are ultimately under the control the the same corrupt corporate state. When the Navy demands that the village must pay $20 million in fines that means every man, woman and child owes that debt. It means they would be naked without any land after the court would take all they owned. This is nothing more than an illegal and immoral attempt to finish off Gangjeong village. Every living and breathing human being on this planet should be outraged at this crime against the human rights of the people in Gangjeong village.

After the US directed April 3 massacre on Jeju Island soon after WW II was over a new program was put into place called the ‘Involvement System’. This meant that anyone who was labeled a communist by the US run puppet government could get no job and would have no future. It also meant that any family member would suffer the same fate. This demand for $20 million by the Navy is an attempt to reinstate this ‘Involvement System’ once again. The only way out for a person is to commit suicide.

I am told that the South Korean regime is using this same punitive program to go after striking auto workers on the mainland and other activists around the nation. The decision has been made to kill democracy in South Korea. We are seeing the same method of operation in Japan today as the right-wing government kills their peaceful constitution against popular will. We see the same system in Okinawa as the people demand US bases there be closed. We see the same system underway inside Ukraine where Washington has installed a puppet government.

For those out there sitting on the fence this is the time to wake up and see the writing on the wall. Democracy is being drowned globally by corporate capitalism. Who will be next?

Take Action: Call the South Korean Embassy in Washington DC and demand that they leave Gangjeong village on Jeju Island alone. Call (202) 939-5654.

August 28, 2015
Farewell Sermon

The writer Frank Cordaro and his companion Jessica Reznicek have lately stayed in Gangjeong for two months, joining every day’s 100 bows and mass in front of gate. Their reports on Gangjeong can be much found here.

Photo by Pang Eunmi/ Fr. Kim Sung-Hwan gives the Eucharist to Frank Cordaro and Jessica Reznicek in a daily mass in front of the naval base construction gate.

by Frank Cordaro – Mass at Jeju Navy Base entrance, June 27, 2015

Dear friends,

I wish to thank Father Kim for allowing me to talk to you today, as a farewell message after my two month stay with you.

I want you to know that your daily presence here at the main entrance of this U.S. /South Korean Navy Base, doing the 100 Bow Prayer at 7 a.m. and the Mass, rosary, singing and dancing at 11 a.m. has been one of the most powerful and spiritual experiences of my entire adult life as a Catholic peace and justice activist.

As a U.S. Catholic Christian I must confess the U.S. Catholic Church lives in a great spiritual darkness under the influence of the American Imperial culture and the great wealth and properties the Institutional Church owns and our bishops manage. Proof of this spiritual darkness can be seen in all the immoral, unjust, and illegal wars and military interventions the U.S. has inflicted on millions of peoples all over the world, including Korea, in my lifetime, with an almost complete capitulation and cooperation from our bishops and Catholic institutions.

In a country where Catholics have confused the modern crucifiers of Jesus with the Crucified Lord, our sacred liturgies are greatly compromised. We are missing some basic Gospel elements that go beyond the bread and wine, the official spoken words and the ordained priest. I have experienced those missing elements every day, here when we celebrate Mass at the entrance of this Navy Base.

In all four Gospels, the location of where the story of the Pascal Mystery takes place is central to its meaning. In the Gospels the Jesus story takes place in 1st century occupied Palestine. Here in Gangjeong Village, your Mass, the rosary, singing and dancing take place in an occupied country too — Korea.

In all four Gospels the city of Jerusalem and its Temple are made contested space when Jesus and his disciples organize a street demonstration – what we call ‘Palm Sunday’ – and Jesus does his direct action witness in the Temple, what we call the ‘Cleansing of the Temple’. Here in Gangjeong Village, you make this Navy Base contested space every time you celebrate Mass, pray the rosary, sing and dance here at the gate.

In all four Gospels, there is a measure of risk that Jesus and his disciple take for confronting the Imperial culture of their times. This accounts for the secrecy that took place with the Holy Thursday gathering in the upper room that ended with Jesus’ arrest, trial and crucifixion.

Every time the police carry us off this drive way, they tell us to move voluntarily. They tell us we are breaking the law and that we can be arrested. And this is no empty threat. Over the years of your resisting the building of this Navy Base, many of you have been arrested, some of you have done jail time, sometimes for months, even years.

When speaking of the real presence of Christ in our Catholic Mass the elements of location, contested space and risk taking are just as important as the bread and wine, the words spoken and an ordained priest. You have all these essential elements every day at the gate and I sense the real presence of Jesus here more than any Mass I have attended in a U.S. parish or Cathedral.

In today’s first reading from the book of Genesis (Gn 18:1-15), Abraham and Sarah offer hospitality to three strangers. And in act of offering hospitality, they are told something about themselves they did not know, that within a year Sarah will give birth to a son. May I be so bold as one who has enjoyed your hospitality to share with you what I see happening in your ‘Save Jeju Now’ community.

Your beloved Gureombi Rock that Father Mun and many of you sing so lovingly and longingly about at the gate every day is destroyed, ripped apart under tons and tons of cement. And despite your best efforts, this Navy Base is being built. In fact it is close to completion.

Your Bishop, Peter Kang said it best, “The destruction of Gureombi Rock is a challenge to the human Civilization and the Creation of God”. And I say, the Navy Base that sits on its broken body is an abomination!

These days, your community is in deep grief for your loss of the Gureombi Rock and the inevitable completion of the Navy Base and the changes it will bring in its wake.

Know that grief is the basis for the Prophets’ prophetic imagination found in our scriptures. And it was from the grief of disciples’ loss of Jesus on the cross that their eyes and hearts were open to the resurrection of Jesus and their Easter experience that followed.

Know also that your struggle is known to many around the world and though you did not save the Gureombi Rock and stop the building of this Navy Base, your continued faithful nonviolent resistance to this god-awful base inspires many peace and justice activists around the world.

You should know the death of Gureombi Rock need not mean its end, any more than the death of Jesus was the end of his story. You can find a new beginning of what Gureombi Rock means through your continued nonviolent Faithful resistance to this Navy Base.

My prayer for you is that through the grief you are suffering today, you will move from a community that failed to stop the building of this god-awful Navy Base to a community determined to continue your nonviolent resistance to this Navy Base with the goal of converting the culture of death and Empire that sustains this Navy Base and all the military bases that occupy your country. That you will not stop until all US military bases are gone from your lands and the divide that separates South Korea and North Korea will no longer exist.

In today’s Gospel reading from Mathew (Mt 8:5-17), a Roman centurion comes to Jesus asking that his servant be healed of a paralyzing, dreadful illness. Today with you, in these last two months I am that Roman centurion asking Jesus to heal my fellow U.S. Christians back home of a paralyzing, dreadful illness!

I come from the belly of the Beast. The U.S. Empire spends on its military almost as much as the total amount of money all other countries in the world spends on a yearly bases. We have over 600 military bases in over 100 counties in the world. In 1968, Martin Luther King said, “The U.S. is the greatest purveyor of violence in the World”. Since then, it has only gotten worse. This violent and destructive way of living is built on the legacy of the genocide of our Native American peoples and the enslavement of African Americans.

In my lifetime we have destroyed hundreds of “Gureombi Rocks” beginning with the ongoing pollution of our own lands, air and waters. We are the leading force behind a destructive way of living on the planet that is putting all life at risk. We need to be stopped!

You can help us heal the paralyzing, dreadful illness that we U.S. Christians suffer by continuing your nonviolent Faithful resistance to this Navy Base and help lead the world in the needed task of disarmament and peace making.

I assure you, when I return home to the U.S. I will sing of your praises and urge my Catholic Worker and peace activist friends to come to Jeju Island and witness with you, here at the entrance of this god awful Navy Base where the real presence of Jesus can be found and the hope for a disarmed world is made possible.

(The writing above was a little edited by sunny, a member of village international team)

Photo by Pang Eunmi

Photo by Pang Eunmi

July 7, 2015
Dangerous Military Buildup in Asia and Pacific

Re-blogged from here and here

South Korea constructs new Naval Base on Jeju Island, U.S. Plans to Expand Military Base on Okinawa and China Builds on South China Sea Atolls

By Ann Wright

The international community is extraordinarily concerned about the Chinese construction on small islands and atolls in disputed waters off China, Vietnam, Taiwan and Japan. Over the past 18 months, the Chinese government has created islands out of atolls and larger islands out of small ones.

With the Obama administration’s “pivot” of the United States military and economic strategy to Asia and the Pacific, the Chinese have seen military construction in their front yard.

I’ve just returned from my third trip to Jeju Island, South Korea. Jeju is called the Island of Peace. However, its where the South Korean military has almost finished construction of a new naval base, the first military base on this strategically located island south of the mainland of Korea that is littered with U.S. and South Korean military bases, leftover from the Korean war and that are a part of the U.S. “defense” of South Korea from “aggression” from North Korea.

The Jeju Island naval base will be the homeport for ships that carry the U.S. Aegis missiles. Many on the island call it a U.S. naval base since it will be a key part of the U.S. “pivot” to Asia and the worldwide U.S. missile defense system. They believe that the naval base will be used as frequently by U.S. warships as by South Korean ships and submarines. With a naval base on Jeju Island, they believe that Jeju Island becomes a target should military hostilities breakout in Asia and the Pacific.

The naval base was built in the pristine waters off Gangjeong Village midst seven years of intense civic outrage. The destruction of the marine environment off the village where the famous women divers for decades have harvested by hand the “fruits of the sea” is one of the cultural and economic losses the construction of the naval base has caused.

The destruction by huge dynamite explosions of a unique geologic rock formation called “Gureombi” is a cultural and spiritual loss to the islanders. Its tide pools, crystal clear springs and lava rock formations made “Guremobi” a favorite area for villagers and visitors to the island.

Photo by Ann Wright. Only section of Gurombi rocks left.

The construction of the naval base in spite of strong local opposition is a part of the history of oppression of the people of Jeju Island from the mainland government. After the Korean War, South Korean and United States military forces which conducted the infamous April 3 massacres of over 30,000 islanders who were believed to be opposed to the right wing Syngman Rhee government, dissidents and sympathizers for reunification of Korea. The April 3 “incident” left a deep scar on the people of Jeju Island and made them very sensitive to mainland government policies, particularly those which “target” them again.

The South Korean government has built the naval base in one of the most inhospitable areas of Jeju Island. The naval base faces the open ocean and has already been battered by two typhoons which have displaced huge concrete caissons which form the foundation of the quarter mile breakwater created to protect the base from the sea. The government attempted to put the base at two more favorable geographic locations on Jeju Island but were deterred by citizens who successfully refused to allow the base to be constructed in their part of the island.

Despite large and continuing protests in Gangjeong village against the construction of the naval base, the South Korean national government reportedly with intense pressure from the United States decided that they had to begin construction somewhere on the island and chose to ignore the strong local opposition.

However, the decision has come at a great cost to the national government. Daily demonstrations and frequent large demonstrations with planeloads of mainlanders flying into help islanders, have resulted in the government having to deploy hundreds of police from the mainland to counter the demonstrations. Local police on Jeju Island are felt to have too much sympathy for the demonstrations and therefore police from the mainland are needed. Islanders see this as an historic throwback to the April 3, 1948 oppression of opposition to mainland government policies.

Each day at Gangjeong village begins with a 7am demonstration of 100 “bows” at the front gate of the naval base. Protesters block one lane of the base forcing a slowdown of traffic of concrete trucks and other vehicles entering the base. For almost an hour, the demonstrators silently offer thoughts on the militarization of their island as they bow or kneel. At 11am Catholic priests and laywomen conduct a daily mass across from the front gate as other priests and activists sit in chairs blocking both lanes into and out of the base. Every 20 minutes, a platoon of young police men and women march into the seated protesters and carry the chair and the person sitting in it to the side of the road, opening the road for traffic for five minutes. Then the police march back into the base and the protesters immediately move their chairs back to block the lanes into the base. After an hour of blocking the entrance, the protest ends with an energetic dance—and traffic resumes. Long time activists recognize that the hour protest is a small delay in the construction of the base, but consider the two daily protests as extremely important actions to remind the national government of their continuing opposition to the military base.

Photo with Ann Wright’s camera. Nobel Peace laureate Mairead Maguire, Ann Wright, Catholic sisters and other Gangjeong activists after having been lifted up and carried in chairs out of the road to allow steady stream of concrete trucks to enter the naval base.

My first visit to Jeju Island was in 2011. At that time, activists still had their camp on the Guremobi rocks on the edge of the ocean. The camp consisted of a long educational tent, a sleeping tent and a cook and eating tent. Every day activists would conduct workshops and ceremonies on the rocks.

When I returned in 2013, despite the intense efforts of the activists, the Guremobi rock formation had been blown up with dynamic and construction had begun with two huge facilities built on the remains of the rocks to create the massive concrete caissons that would be lowered into the ocean to form the quarter mile long breakwater to protect the base from the open ocean.

Returning two years later in 2015 with eight women from the Women Cross the DMZ walk www.womencrossdmz, including Nobel Peace laureate Mairead Maguire and CODEPINK co-founder Medea Benjamin, I was devastated to see the vastness of the naval base which is nearing completion. Although statistics on the amount of concrete that has been poured into the ocean and into the buildings on the base are unavailable, the sheer scale of the base leads one to guess that a road around the world could have been built with that volume of concrete.

Photo by Ann Wright Jeju Island Naval Base Huge Breakwater

And its not just on the base itself that construction has proceeded. As villagers suspected from the beginning, the base would expand into other parts of the community. More land near the base is now being condemned by the government so it can be used to build housing for military personnel and their families.

After seven years of large protests against the construction of the military base, the base has been built—and the Chinese know it as they have watched the construction—up close—as, remarkably, the South Korean government allows Chinese tourists to visit Jeju Island without a visa. The Chinese tourist trade is large—as is the purchase of land by Chinese on Jeju Island. A big area on Jeju Island is now a Chinese “health” vacation area with condos and other facilities for Chinese—even the road signs in the area are in Chinese!

The Chinese are watching another construction project in the Pacific. This time a United States military base on the southern Japanese island of Okinawa. Despite massive Okinawan opposition, including a visit in May 2015 of the governor of Okinawa to Washington, DC, the U.S. is planning to begin expansion of Camp Schwab, a U.S. Marine Corps base and construction of an airfield runway on Okinawa. The runway will project out into the South China Sea into pristine waters with endangered coral formations and into the habitat of the dugong, a manatee-like marine mammal. Okinawa makes up 1% of Japan’s land mass but is the location of 74% of all U.S. military bases in Japan.

Okinawans have been protesting for years the expansion of Camp Schwab, a U.S. Marine Base. Only last month, over 35,000 Okinawans gathered to voice their opposition to their national government’s approval of the base despite the opposition of all levels of the Okinawan provincial government and island civil society. http://rt.com/news/259373-okinawa-protest-us-base/

In 2007, I visited the activists on Okinawa at their seaside camp where they have a daily presence to remind the U.S. military that they do not want the naval base. The senior citizens of the village of Henoko moved their Senior Citizens center to the beach so they could participate each day in attempting to preserve their village from another military base. (RT footage)

The Chinese have been watching the process for the building of another U.S. base in the Pacific, as they have watched the expansion of U.S. military forces on the U.S. territory of Guam. The projected increase in U.S. military personnel and their families is expected to increase the population of the small Micronesian island by 30 percent.

In another interesting economic considerations versus foreign policy posturing between sparing countries, Russian tourists to Guam do not need a visa to the United States to visit the island.

The bottom line is that the Chinese see the expansion of the United States military forces and capabilities in their front yard and are constructing their own projections of power on the tiny disputed islands and atolls off their coast. Neither the United States nor China need any of these bases as both have more than enough air capability in the form of aircraft or missiles to initiate or counter any military move by the other.

All of this construction is another example of the never ending, massively expensive war mindset of political leaders and their financial backers who profit from a hostile world.

About the Author: Ann Wright served 29 years in the U.S. Army/ Army Reserves and retired as a Colonel. She served 16 years as a U.S. diplomat in U.S. Embassies in Nicaragua, Grenada, Somalia, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, Sierra Leone, Micronesia, Afghanistan and Mongolia. She was on the small team that reopened the U.S. Embassy in Kabul, Afghanistan in December, 2001. She resigned from the U.S. government in March, 2003 in opposition to the war on Iraq.

June 13, 2015
Pave Paradise, Put Up a Naval Base

Re-blogged from here. Other posts related to the WCD women’s visit to the village will be put into this website in time.

Pave Paradise, Put Up a Naval Base: South Korean Activists’ Extraordinary Struggle to Save Jeju Island

By Medea Benjamin,

May 29, 2015

South Korea’s Jeju Island is a popular tourist destination full of spas, resorts, golf courses, sandy beaches, waterfalls and hiking trails. But if you really want to get rejuvenated, skip the tourist hotspots and go directly to the village of Gangjeong to support the extraordinary community that has been opposing the building of a naval base since 2007. You’ll get your morning exercise at 7am bowing 100 times facing the base, praying for an end to its construction. You’ll get spiritual nourishment from the noon mass outside the base (no religion necessary). And if you really want to feel like royalty, join the activists in their daily ritual of sitting in plastic chairs blocking the base entrance, then having the police gently lift you up in your chair and cart you away so the cement trucks and traffic can flow in and out of the base. When the traffic ebbs you grab your chair and scurry back in place—starting the ritual all over again. Want aerobic exercise? Join in the jubilant dancing and drumming that liven up the protests. Want good food? The village cooks at the communal kitchen make fantastic, healthy meals with heaps of fresh vegetables and homemade kimchi.

After a long journey to cross the DMZ from North to South Korea with a group of 30 peace women, some of us—including Nobel Prize winner Mairead Maguire and retired Colonel Ann Wright—stopped on Jeju Island and fell in love with this community of farmers, fisherpeople, city officials, small shop owners, florists, artists, poets, students and grandmothers. Over the years they have attracted peace activists from the mainland and internationals, including members of the Catholic Workers, Veterans for Peace, Amnesty International, and prominent figures like Gloria Steinem, Oliver Stone and Korean-American activist Christine Ahn.

The struggle dates back to 2007, when the South Korean government began construction of a $970 million naval base in Gangjeong, a village of less than 2,000 people on the southern tip of Jeju island. The government had tried to build the base in two other villages but was thwarted by widespread protests—especially by the haenyeos, the island’s women divers renowned for spending hours in the chilly waters harvesting conches, abalones, and other marine wildlife, as well as for their history of fierce resistance to Japanese occupation.

So the Korean government secretly cut a deal with the Gangjeong mayor at that time, who, to secure village “consent,” set up a little-publicized meeting that only 87 residents attended.

When the rest of the villagers discovered what happened, they began to protest. Thousands have participated in sit-ins and blockades. The more radical folks chained themselves to heavy machinery to halt construction or surrounded the base with kayaks. About 700 people have been arrested and charged with hefty fines that amount to over $400,000, fines that they cannot or will not pay. Many have spent days or weeks or months in jail, including a well-known film critic Yoon Mo Yong who spent 550 days in prison after committing multiple acts of civil disobedience. “The only thing that kept me from utter despair during my long imprisonment and hunger strikes,” he told us, “was the global outpouring of support I received.”

While the number of villagers involved has decreased over time, with people exhausted or resigned or won over by government promises of economic gain, there is still an extraordinary resistance community bursting with positive energy. Three generations work together, sharing their wisdom and the unique contributions. Their activities are infused with ritual, art, dance, music—and lots of joy and laughter. Artists create magnificent exhibits, murals, banners, puppets and sculptures. Poets, writers and filmmakers produce works that have drawn worldwide attention to the struggle. Mainland writers have been so inspired that they raised funds to build an elegant library, brimming with donated books, where local children whose parents are divided on the issue (pro- and anti-base) can study and play together.

The group has a deep spiritual component that comes from Catholics (including priests like lifelong activist Father Moon, Benedictine sisters and visiting US Catholic Workers), Buddhists and goddess worshipers, but secular people are embraced.

Despite the dedication, creativity, persistence and sacrifice of the activists, they have not succeeded in stopping the base. It is scheduled to be completed by the end of 2015 but will probably take another year due, in part, to the protests. The immense complex is designed to accommodate 20 warships, nuclear-armed submarines, and two 150,000-ton vessels. While the government—to sweeten the pot—says the base will also have civilian uses, like the docking of cruise ships, the primary purpose is military.

The South Korean government denies that the US will have access to the base, but under the terms of its Status of Forces agreement, Washington can deploy its military forces at any South Korean military facility. Activists say the base is designed to accommodate Aegis destroyers that will likely become part of an integrated missile defense system under US command. They think the US directed South Korea to build the base to intimidate both North Korea and China, and to protect US economic interests. “This increased militarization is not making the region more secure, as the South Korean government claims,” said activist Jungjoo Park as she gave us a tour of the island, “but more tense, unstable and unsafe.”

Villagers also fear the rape, prostitution, and drugs associated with naval bases and their operating personnel, and decry the waste of $1 billion that could have been put to useful purposes.

They also see the base as a violation of their pristine environment, which is a UNESCO World Heritage site. Farmers and fisherpeople worry that the pollution generated by the base will destroy their livelihoods. Gangjeong’s coral reefs and estuaries, home to many endangered species, have already been destroyed. Particularly painful to the activists is the destruction of the Gureombi rockbed, which was a stretch of unique topography that was home to a diversity of life forms. In 2012 it was blasted to pieces and replaced by a massive concrete floor. “This was a sacred site, a dwelling place of the gods, a place where people gathered to picnic, swim, play and pray,” said Tera Kim, who spent nine months living on the rockbed trying to save it. Every year the villagers hold Gureombi Remembrance Day to mark the anniversary of its destruction.

As our group of visitors stood by the base looking out at the ocean, we saw the women divers in the distance, divers who over decades have been swimming alongside schools of dolphins and maintaining a harmonious relationship with the ocean and coral reefs. The concrete hulks of the base facilities, the ugly walls topped with concertina wire, are a desecration of the island’s stunning beauty and moved us to tears.

“Some say we are fighting a losing battle,” said Father Moon, a Catholic priest with a flowing white beard. “But for the sake of our ancestors and future generations, we must resist. This place should be a sanctuary for peace, not the site of a future military confrontation.”

“Maybe mother nature herself will help us,” Yong-beom Choi, vice mayor of the village, told us half-jokingly “Jeju is famous for huge typhoons. Maybe mother nature will unleash a very localized typhoon that will wipe away this monstrosity and allow us to live in peace.”

But the activists themselves are a powerful force of nature. Rather than waiting for a typhoon, you can support their efforts by going there or sending a donation to this heroic community of peacemakers.

Medea Benjamin is the co-founder of the peace group CODEPINK and the human right organization Global Exchange. Follow her on twitter at @MedeaBenjamin.

June 3, 2015
The Crackdown Against Gangjeong Will Not Halt Our Song

Originally published in Korean on 2015.02.03
By Ddalgi (Gangjeong villager, member of Peace Wind)

( Thanks for Fr. Pat Cunningham, Tom Raging Smith and Jude Lee for their collaboration work for the wonderful translation.)

At dawn on the 31st of January, we climbed the watchtower. Despite having thrown it up haphazardly in the icy winds that blew all night, we erected it knowing that we could trust it to defend our village. In protest against the naval construction, we raised a kayak that had previously circled the seas of Gangjeong to the very top of the platform; a kayak that should travel on the sea was lifted to the sky. It was our destiny to be with the old village bus that has carried villagers to the provincial hall, city hall, and mainland next to the sit-in protest tent that has already endured 99 days of hardship. A barricade had been erected around the sit-in protest area.

Private contractors who had come from the mainland for the crackdown were said to be staying at a minbak (traditional Korean lodging house) only 100 meters away. Someone informed us that a light had been turned on at the lodging house and they were on the move. We could hear the marching of the police as they approached the four-way protest intersection. The military housing sit-in protest site had been cornered off even before sunrise. The people who had been told to move by the police headed onto the watchtower, bus and in front of the tent. We were tense as we couldn’t recognise what was the sound of chains clanging in the darkness. We stoked the log fire, but were unable to drive out the cold. As dawn broke and we could start to make out the people around us, the Navy appeared and said they were there to carry out the order to remove the protest encampment. Private contractors who had appeared with the Navy began shoving us back on ourselves bit by bit.

The powerful private contractors used their bulky bodies to force people back one by one. They used all of their strength and every part of their bodies to drive us back, even smacking into us with their helmets, to narrow in on us little by little. There was a lot of screaming and cursing. The police nearby looked on and did nothing. However much we shouted, we were simply left to suffer helplessly without the aid of a single policeperson. Among the private contractors there were some who looked as if they had only just turned 20 or were even younger. The younger women cried out of anger and sadness.

Then they began to drag us away one or two at a time. There were people with cut heads, twisted arms and clothing torn off, and we didn’t know if the screaming would end. We heard the shatter of the glass from the village bus windows. The police smashed the glass and entered the bus in order to drag out the people from inside and arrest them. Some members of the press who were recording or taking photos of the police violence during the crackdown were also dragged away kicking and screaming. Only the village mayor, vice mayor, a local villager, Jeju resident, priest and clergyman remained sitting atop the watchtower. The police and the private contractors working for them occupied the sit-in protest area and tore the whole thing down. Very dangerously, the police tried to get onto the watchtower. They tried to climb up without putting down any safety mats or taking any other safety precautions. Unexpectedly, they brought out a construction crane and dug up the land surrounding the tower. Following this, they immediately placed a fence around the tower. Those police standing beside the police bus then tried to climb the tower again.

It was so very, very dangerous!! People’s screams had reached fever pitch when the police started to bring out mattresses and began laying them down around the place. However, the mat they roughly spread on top of the bus was only sliding around the place. Many possible things could have gone wrong that we couldn’t have protected against. It had gotten really dark by the time Bishop Kang Woo-Il had visited and negotiated for the release of all those arrested on the condition that the protestors come down and clear the site themselves. We relieved ourselves after holding it in for more than 10 hours. A day of not sleeping, eating, or pissing had drawn to a close.

It was assumed the sit-in would be all over in a couple of hours but such was the intensity of the resistance that it lasted for about 14 hours. However, a day and then two days slipped by and there was still no sign of two people of the 24 who were to be released. Finally after two days we heard the news that a warrant for the arrest of four detainees including the mayor and deputy mayor had been requested. There seems to be no end to the lies and deceit in which the village has been enveloped. Yesterday a siren was raised in the village and today a petition signature campaign was initiated in order to counter the lies the government is feeding the people.

Due to strong resistance from the villagers the Navy held numerous public meetings on the issue of military housing which ultimately ended in failure, and in 2013 the navy chief of staff directly assured the villagers by saying that “the Navy would not build military housing without the consent of the villagers.” The villagers assumed this to mean that plans to build 532 units of military housing would be scrapped. Instead 72 units of housing were abruptly steamrolled through and land containing rows of lily greenhouses was cleared overnight and ring fenced to make way for military housing! The protest tent which stood for 99 days in front of the designated construction site was then pulled down so that construction could begin.

The struggle of a village with a population of 1,900 people engaged in an 8-year-long campaign against the construction of the Naval Base seems to have flown by in the blink of an eye. However, the once very solitary and lonely struggle suddenly became a country-wide issue and a magnet drawing many people to Gangjeong to put down roots in the village while supporting the struggle. The fence encircling Gureombi which was erected on Sept 2, 2011 suddenly became the focal point for police from the mainland who descended on the village in their droves to unleash a suppression strategy during that hot and sweltering summer. March 7, 2012 saw the beginning of the blasting of Gureombi and the resulting blockade of all entrances to the village and those moments of horror and despair as we witnessed the construction begin in earnest. The police who descended from the mainland violently sought to isolate and arrest those citizens who came in solidarity with the villagers. The huge burden of fines amassed by villagers during the years of struggle has resulted in villagers being forced to contemplate the sale of the village hall during their recent annual general meeting.

The forcible expropriation of farmland, the stolen abalone and shellfish from the sea which has fed families for generations, and Gureombi Rock, the playground for children and the depository of many childhood memories, have now became places harboring great sadness and tears. What more can be stolen from us, what more can they take we were left to ponder.

We were foolish to believe them when they promised not to build military housing. We were foolish to believe them when they promised to release all who were detained. We have no one to appeal to now and no one can resolve the issues forced upon us and all we are left with is a feeling of further isolation and frustration. Today Mt. Halla stands in great clarity over the village as it witnesses our home and our land being taken from us by the Navy, the police and the government. Where do we go from here, to whom do we turn to? However, today we continue to sing…

Il-Gangjeong (Gangjeong, the Best Village)

Where both the big Gangjeong and Akgeun streams flow
Let’s go hand in hand to beautiful Il-Gangjeong
Where the song of Tiger Island is echoed by Seogun Island
Let’s go to the Sea of Gangjeong where the waves have danced
Since ancient times, the wonderful waters of Il-Gangjeong
Let’s go together hand in hand to the village of Life and Peace.

(To see more photos and videos, see here)

(Thanks for Jungjoo, for delivering)

February 17, 2015
Connecting the dots between Bangor and Jeju

Re-blogged from here

See also the video by Rodney Herold, ‘ Second Day Walk- Steilacoom to Tacoma‘

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Ground Zero holds mock funeral for the Earth at at Bangor Trident base
By Leonard Eiger
Over sixty people participated in Ground Zero Center for Nonviolent Action’s annual celebration of Martin Luther King Jr’s life and legacy on Saturday, January 17, 2015. The event concluded with a vigil and nonviolent direct action at Naval Base Kitsap-Bangor in Silverdale, Washington.

Under the theme “Building the World House,” the day focused on Dr. King’s commitment to nonviolence and his opposition to war and nuclear weapons. Dr. King’s essay “The World House” may very well be the best summation of Dr. King’s teachings.

While some participants maintained a peaceful vigil at the Main Gate to Naval Base Kitsap-Bangor in Silverdale, Washington on Saturday afternoon, others dressed in black monk’s robes carried a coffin containing a globe representing the earth to the side of the road. People walked up to the casket and placed flowers on it, and then another robed participant recited a eulogy, “Mourning the Death of the Earth after Nuclear Annihilation.” A funeral dirge completed the ceremony.

When the ceremony was finished participants carried the casket onto the roadway, blocking traffic entering the base. Washington State Patrol officers ordered the resisters to move the coffin out of the roadway. They complied, and carried the coffin to the median where they were detained. All received citations for being in the roadway illegally, and then released.

Those cited were Mary Elder, Seattle, WA; Peter Gallagher, Seattle, WA; Raghav Kaushik, Kirkland, WA; Mona Lee, Seattle, WA; Bernie Meyer, Olympia, WA; Michael Siptroth, Belfair, WA; and Rick Turner, Seattle, Wa;

Following the initial action more protesters entered the roadway and blocked traffic. Gilberto Perez, Bainbridge Island, WA carried a sign calling for no naval base on Jeju Island, Korea. Jonathan Landolfe, Tacoma, WA carried a sign saying “Sea Hawks, Not War Hawks.” Bruce Gagnon, Bath, ME carried a sign saying “Human Needs, NOT WAR$”. All were removed from the roadway by State Patrol and cited for being in the roadway illegally.

Gagnon, the Coordinator of the Global Network Against Weapons and Nuclear Power in Space, gave the keynote address earlier in the day at Ground Zero Center. Gagnon spoke of the unsustainability of the US Navy’s shipbuilding budget, and how “entitlement” programs including Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid are being defunded in order to fund the newest ships that include a new fleet of ballistic missile submarines. The OHIO Class Replacement Program alone (12 new Trident submarines) will cost an estimated $100 billion.

Members of Ground Zero Center also participated in the Seattle MLK Rally & March on January 19th, carrying a full size inflatable replica of a Trident II D-5 thermonuclear armed missile. Accompanying the missile was a banner with a famous quote by Dr. King: “When scientific power outruns spiritual power, we end up with guided missiles and misguided men.” Participants handed out leaflets with facts on Trident.

The Trident nuclear weapons system was designed during the height of the Cold War and was predicated on the theory of Strategic Nuclear Deterrence, a doctrine that no longer applies long after the fall of the Berlin Wall. Continued deployment of Trident increases the risk of either accidental or intentional nuclear war, and building a new generation of ballistic missile submarines is increasing global proliferation of nuclear weapons at a time when the nuclear armed powers should be reducing reliance on nuclear weapons and making good faith efforts toward disarmament.

The Trident submarine base at Bangor, just 20 miles from Seattle, contains the largest concentration of operational nuclear weapons in the US arsenal. Each of the 8 Trident submarines at Bangor carries up to 24 Trident II (D-5) missiles, each capable of being armed with as many as 8 independently targetable thermonuclear warheads. Each nuclear warhead has an explosive force of between 100 and 475 kilotons (up to 30 times the force of the Hiroshima bomb). It has been estimated that by the time the new generation of ballistic missile submarines are put into service, they will represent 70 percent of the nation’s deployed nuclear warheads.

Ground Zero Center for Nonviolent Action holds three scheduled vigils and actions each year in resistance to Trident and in protest of U.S. nuclear weapons policy. The group is currently engaged in legal actions in Federal court to halt the Navy’s construction of a Second Explosives Handling Wharf at Bangor. Ground Zero is also working with other organizations to de-fund the Navy’s plans for the next generation ballistic missile submarine.

For over thirty-seven years Ground Zero has engaged in education, training in nonviolence, community building, resistance against Trident and action toward a world without nuclear weapons.

January 23, 2015
Cork City Council in Ireland passes a motion of support for the people of Gangjeong!

Image source: Wiki

A Great news from the Ireland! The Cork City Council motion is the 2nd motion for an international city council to support Gangjeong! In Dec. 2013, The Berkeley City Council, United States , has passed a motion for Gangjeong. See here and here.

The news below is by JoYakGol on Jan. 12, 2015:

‘Cork City Council in Ireland tonight unanimously passed the following motion: In the light of the recent RTE television series What in the World? Cork City Council supports the people of the South Korean fishing village of Gangjeong who are opposed to the construction of the US-backed naval base on their island home on the UNESCO World heritage site of Jeju.’

January 14, 2015