No War Base on the Island of Peace
In this July to August 2022 Edition:
Two Wheels for the Peace Island Jeju/ Koh Gil-cheon’s “Red Gureombi” exhibition/ Gangjeong Peace Center Opening Celebration/ Joint Discussion on Conflict Areas in Jeju/ Making Jeju peaceful for human, cetacean and marine life/ Facing Off with Gendered Militarism/ South Koreans say, “No to War drills!”/ RIMPAC and What Followed/ From Armistice to Peace etc.
In this June, July, 2021 Edition :
The Jeju 2nd airport construction project nears the brink of falling/ Civilian-Government-Military Cooperation/ Gangjeong stream takes the island government and MND to court/ The 2nd airport still casting shadows after the Strategic Environmental Impact Assessment was rejected/ Opposing Talisman Sabre for a Peaceful Pacific/ Cancer cases in village close to THAAD radar/ Countering the “China Threat”-At What Price? Etc.
In this November & December 2020 Edition :
A Military Road over the Water Supply Source/ The time has come for the islanders’ decision on the Jeju 2nd airport/ Voices from Seongsan / Solidarity Letters to Peace Prisoners/ Nanjing Seen from Alddreu/ National Satellite Integrated Operation Center in Jeju/ Mouth cancer found in a Jeju dolphin/ The Problem of Returned US bases/ Okinawa Update/ Building More Infrastructure for War with China/ In Memory of George Ogle etc.
In July & August 2020 Edition :
A Deceptive Apology Without Truth Examination/ The Jeju Navy Base entry road project/ The importance of people’s opinions (Update on the Jeju 2nd airport)/ Troubled Seogwipo City Bypass, the 2nd airport connection road/ Denouncing RIMPAC and ROK-US War exercises/The withdrawal of the THAAD System is a key link for peace/ Taiwan and RIMPAC/ Okinawa Update/ On The 75th Anniversary Of the Atomic Bombing Of Hiroshima And Nagasaki/ Beirut Port Explosion, The trial for entering Gureombi Rock/ “We still live in Miryang and Gangjeong” exhibition, Korea Peace Appeal etc.
On the night of Dec. 20, Kim Kyung-bae, a resident living in the Jeju 2nd airport-planned area of Nansan-ri, Seongsan, ended his 10 day street fast as he dramatically met Cho Myung-rae, Minister of Environment (MOE) before his decision to end the fast.
Kim has started fast to demand the MOE to disagree with the original draft of Strategic Environment Impact Assesment (SEA) made by the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, and Transport (MOLIT).
On Dec.19th, the MOE sent the MOLIT the 2nd demand of supplements on the SEA. The MOE has already made the 1st supplement demand this October. And to the draft before the original, this June, also. Everytime, MOLIT answer to MOE regarding the SEA was unreliable and insincere.
After the MOE’s such announcement, the greatest issue for Kim was whether the MOE’s supplement demand to the MOLIT included the issue on the legally-protected species. Media articles on the MOE demand did not show that it included the issue. Therefore, Kim decided not to end the fast, which he carried out even without tent on the street in front of MOE and MOLIT building (both are in the same building), government complex, Sejong City, since Dec. 11th.
And finally, in the evening of Dec. 20th, Minister Cho heard the new that Kim would not end fast. Minister Cho met Kim and Kim’s supporters/ friends on the night of Dec. 20th (just last night!). Kim told Minister Cho about the legally-protected species in the planned area of Seongsan, which are missed in the MOLIT’s SEA.
Hearing Kim, Cho, who had not been informed of the issue, asked Kim videos of those species in Seongsan. Minister Cho said to Kim that he would do his best.
Kim who could finally end the fast expressed thanks to everyone, including Fr. Huh Chan-ran, co-executive representative of Islanders’ Emergency Committee to Stop the 2nd Jeju Airport. Fr. Huh stayed with Kim from Dec. 12, sleeping with Kim under the cold sky, and holding a mass for Kim on the sit-in site.
Kim who has carried out long term fasts respectively for 42 days and 38 days in 2017 and the next year, also, wrote the below on his facebook post when he and the others little expected that he would meet Minister Cho soon in hours.
“I must save not only my life but all the lives along with me. The lives which would be expelled or killed from the planned area for the 2nd airport. [There are legally protected species. Some of those are] Falcon, a natural monument, as well the 1st class endangered species; narrow mouth toad, the 2nd class endangered species; chuckoo, a natural monument.
I will not halt my street fast struggle unless the issue of legally protected species is included in the MOE’s demand of supplement again to the MOLIT”
And in his another post on his 4th day fast, he wrote as the below.
” The fourth day of fasting in front of the Government complex building in Sejong City
Last night, my mother who will be soon 90 years old called me.
She was about to cry.
“Where are you?”
“Yes, I am somewhere.”
“Are you OK?”
“I am very fine.”
“Don’t do it so long and come back home soon.”
“Yes, mother, it will not be long. I will be back, soon.”
She came to know of my fast through the news. She must have cried again after she hung up her phone, just as she cried for a long time to see my cast-worn leg when I was greatly hurt during the protest this October.
Whenever I am fasting, she can hardly eat. I feel so bad to exploit my body like this since my mother took such care of my frail body when I was a child. She tried to feed me with all the food known to be good for a person with poor health.
However, mother!
I don’t want you to have to see my outcry when my dearest home is forcefully taken away from me for the airport runway. And I don’t want you pass away seeing the horrible sight of being dispossessed of your lifetime beloved house- where you raised six children with great care, your house which is only 200 meters from the planned airport and is one of the homes to be moved first.
I think it would be more unfilial.
Therefore, mother, please be strong.”
Finishing his 3rd fast, he can finally see his mother and baby falcon in the garden of his house back in Seongsan, before the New Year.
The MOLIT has a final chance. It should answer MOE with the SEA draft supplemented on the issues MOE demanded. The issues include noise and migratory bird sanctuaries nearby the planned area. There is no deadline for MOLIT to give answer back to MOE. And once MOLIT gives MOE answer, MOE should make a final decision. It would be (conditioned) agreement with the MOLIT SEA or disagreement with it. If the MOE answer is former, our struggle to stop the Jeju 2nd airport (air force base)would be much harder because the MOLIT would have a pretext to make public notification on the Jeju 2nd airport project, which would make legal of the project. If it is latter, the MOLIT project on the 2nd airport will be much thwarted, along with the Ministry of National Defense(NMD) greed who covets to install the Southern Search and Rescue unit (air force base) in the planned 2nd airport in Seonsan.
Kim Kyung-bae carries out a banner daily with him, “ falcons NOT fighter planes in the sky of Seongsan!”
Stop the Jeju 2nd airport(air force base) project!
# Here are links of some of legally protected species Kim Kyung-bae took record himself. He could find those falcon, narrow mouth toads(known to exist 10,000, around the area), nearby his home, Seongsan, early July, this year, just days after the SEA draft of MOLIT was made public at the end of this June. The false SEA draft stipulated that there discovered no habitats of legally-protected species in the Jeju 2nd airport-planned area of Seongsan.
Stop the Jeju 2nd airport(Air Force Base) Project!
(written By Choi Sung-hee/ part of text was thankfully edited by Kaia Curry)
In this September/ October/November 2019 Edition :
Jeju Fights Back: An Overview of the Latest Struggle/ The Deceptive Government Drive for the Jeju 2nd Airport Project / Map of overdevelopment projects in Jeju / Inter-island Solidarity for Peace of the Sea in Kinmen (Special pages)/ Jonah’s Whale Came to Gangjeong/ Looking at the Jeju 2nd Airport in a time of Climate Crisis / Jeju April 3rd went to the UN Human Rights Council/ 2030 Peace Vision Symposium/ The Pentagon Plans to Build a Billion Dollar Radar on Sacred Hawaiian Ground for a Missile Defense System (Excerpt)/ Okinawa and Miyako Visit to Jeju/ Kings Bay Plowshares Trial Update/ UNC’s abusive use of the UN Flag/ The Indo-Pacific Strategy and Jeju navy base/ etc.
Peace for the Sea camp was first held in Jeju, South Korea in 2014, and Henoko (Okinawa), Taiwan, Ishigaki (Okinawa) as followed year by year. The camp was back to Jeju again in 2018, and is going to be held in Kinmen in September this year. Participants from the worldwide, like Korea, Japan, Taiwan, Philippines, Indonesia, Hong Kong, Hawaii and other places, come to this camp to exchange the experiences and thoughts about peace together.
2019 Peace camp will be held under the theme of “war memory” from September 6 to 8 in Kinmen, an island that is set in the front line of war.
We sincerely invite individuals and groups to join our camp and start a trip of thinking about peace and war.
▋Application site: https://pse.is/Apply_E
▋Event Page: https://www.facebook.com/events/470502753513673/
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2019 Peace Camp information
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▋Time: 2019/09/06(Fri.)-09/08(Sun.)
▋Expected participants: 50.
▋Fee: USD 160.
*Including accommodation, transportation, meals, and camp-activity expenses during the camp. Airfare and transportation expenses from your house to Kinmen are not included.
*Students get 50% discount.
▋Application: Due 2019/07/20. –> 8.15
▋Contact:
├Facebook┤台灣島際和平營
├Email┤Ting-Hao Chen, chentinghao0112@gmail.com
▋More information and schedule: https://pse.is/Info_E
▋General Peace for the Sea website with information from previous peace camps: sites.google.com/site/peaceforthesea/
2019 Jeju Grand March for Life and Peace
“Peace, Let’s Go Together!”
July 29(Mon.) to Aug. 3(Sat.), 2019
From Gangjeong-Seongsan-Jeju City
Internationals may contact jejumarch@daum.net or gangjeongintl@gmail.com
☮ Main programs
☮ March course
– 7/29 Gangjeong ~ Namwon (24km)
– 7/30 Namwon ~ Pyoseon (20km)
– 7/31 Pyoseon ~ Seongsan (19km)
– 8/1 Seongsan ~ Gujwa (19km)
– 8/2 Gujwa ~ Jocheon (12km)
– 8/3 Jocheon ~ Jeju City (11km)
☮ Application
☮ Starting times
☮ Other
In this April/ May 2019 Edition :
“There should be apology and truth examination”/ Second Cruise Not Welcomed/ Opposing the third Zumwalt destroyer/Gangjeong joins 2019 Okinawa Peace March/ Kings Bay Plowshares 7 Update / Gureomi Rock remembered on the Children’ Day/ Linking Korean Historical Traumas in Gwangju / Three women’s statements in objection to military service/ Whose is the Jeju Island government?/ The Jeju April 3rd Human Rights Issue goes to the UN/ Peace Prize for Vietnamese Survivors/ Sewol Remembered/ Jeju has mountains of trash/ Don’t destroy the historical site of Mt. Songaksan etc.
