Save Jeju Now

No War Base on the Island of Peace

Category: Uncategorized

  • ‘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)

  • Jeju Naval Base Budget Cut, Construction Stop and Peace

    mas tree
    Photo by Lee Woo Ki/ People set up a Christmas tree on which they put their aspiration for peace, democracy, Government change,  and whole budget cut on the Jeju naval base project etc. For more photos by Lee Woo Ki on the ‘Let’s live together,’ sit-in camp  in the center of Seoul, see here.

     

    The writing below by Oh Hye-Ran was originally written for the Gangjeong Village Story: Monthly News from the Struggle | Decemeber Issue. (See the 1st page). The original Korean writing was translated by the Save Jeju Now and proofread by Uni Park.

     

    Jeju naval Base Budget Cut, Construction Stop and Peace

    The cut on the naval base is a core link that can actually stop naval base construction

    By Oh Hye-Ran, Co-convener, National Network of Korean Civil Society for Opposing to the Naval Base in Jeju Island

     

    The National Assembly cut 96 % of the Jeju naval base budget in December of 2011. The budget cut was a reprimand on the slapdash base layout, strongly expressing that construction must stop with verification on the flawed layout to be the first priority. In truth, the sub-investigation committee on the Jeju naval base project of the Budget and Balance Committee of the National Assembly demanded the Government to verify the matter of safe entry and exit for cruise ships in the Jeju Civilian-Military Complex Port (Jeju naval base) and to report the results.

    A year later, it was disclosed that it is difficult for a cruise weighing 150,000 ton to safely enter and exit the port because the turning field and navigation route in the layout are short of legal standards. It was also disclosed that there are many problems even for the large military vessels to enter and exit the port. Another disclosed fact different from the Government explanation that it is a ROK base, is that the Jeju naval base is being built following the standards demanded by the CNFK (Commander of US Navy Forces of Korea) for the US aircraft carrier Flotilla to be able to enter the port.

    Also disclosed was that the Government executed outside pressure in operation on the ‘Technical Verification Committee on the Cruise Entry and Exit of Port,’formed following the National Assembly recommendation, and in adaptation of the report. It was disclosed as well that the National Policy Control meeting (Feb. 19, 2012) in which the Government decided resumption on the construction drive was also based on incorrect simulation.

    Only with the facts exposed during the technical verification process and without all other matters, the Jeju naval base construction must be stopped. However, the Lee Myung-Bak Government is enforcing construction by ignoring the National Assembly recommendation and by hiding, distorting and manipulating related facts, from the position of the navy. It is known that the biggest power supporting the Lee Myung-Bak Government is the military, Samsung, civil engineering and building contractors, and armament expansionists who have expanded their power relying on division and the Korean War.

     The Jeju naval base budget cut was the hottest issue in the preparatory review of the defense budget in the National Assembly this year. The ruling Saenuri Party and opposition Democratic United Party (DP) countered each other in claims: Approval on the total budget as the Government proposal vs. cut on the whole amount of 201 billion won budget. The Seanuri Party used the Jeju naval base issue as the tool for the concentration of the conservative votes and for the attack on the DP. On Nov. 28, the Seanuri Party passed the Jeju naval base budget in snatched way, trampling down, by itself, the National Assembly recommendation presented in agreement with the opposition party a year ago.

    The position of Park Geun-Hye and her Sanuri Party is that the Jeju naval base is inevitably necessary and that she would build the Jeju naval base as a world-famous civilian-military complex port much like the one in Hawaii. Moon Jae-In, candidate of the DP made a pledge that he would stop the Jeju naval base construction and re-examine the project if he is elected. If candidate, Park Geun-Hye is elected President on the Presidential Election Day on Dec. 19, the 24 hour construction will be enforced and the dynamic force of the opposition movement will rapidly fall. On the contrary, if candidate Moon Jae-In is elected, there is a possibility that he would take a measure to stop construction and the opposition movement against the naval base project would be sprung upward.

    The Gangjeong villagers and peace-keepers have delayed construction by halting the entry of vehicles at the entrance times seven to ten times daily for at least 5- 10 minutes each. The efforts have resulted in about 50 billion won that the navy could not execute in construction work. If by encouraging citizens actions to oppose paying taxes on this unreasonable, unreliable security project and the entire 2013 Jeju naval base budget is cut in the Budget and Balance Committee of the National Assembly which is to be held after the Presidential election, the construction budget that the navy retains will run out around March or April of next year.  Even though they will want to continue the 24 hour construction, it cannot be possible without the budget.

    Given that, to cut the entire budget on the Jeju naval base is in fact a core link stopping the construction. Even though Moon Jae-In may be elected in the Presidential Election there is little things he can do until after his Presidential inauguration, planned date of Feb. 25, 2012. The Saenuri Party will gear up to pass the entire Jeju naval base budget not only in the case that Park Geun-Hye is elected but even if she fails in the presidency. The National Assembly’s examination of the Jeju naval base budget to be held right after the Presidential election, would be a very important watershed for the struggle, and could decide the prospect of the struggle against the naval base project.

    Through the construction of the Jeju naval base in Gangjeong village is, the United States will exploit this beautiful  and heaven-blessed Jeju to make it outpost to contain China. The Jeju history of suffering as a former war base under Japanese imperialism and the painful scars from the 4.3 massacres shortly after liberation from Japan must not be repeated in Gangjeong village today. Next year marks the 60th commemorating year of the cession of the Korean War. The Cease Fire Agreement must be replaced with a Peace Agreement to permanently prevent war and to systematize peace.

    I dream of the day when the peace of North East Asia starts with the peace in Gangjeong village and on the Korean peninsula, by engaging international solidarity to Gangjeong village for the Jeju naval base budget cut and to stop construction, and with the establishment of the Government through regime change that would realize inter-Korean conciliation and cooperation, concluding with a peace agreement in Korea.

     

    .

     

     

  • A Christmans tree stands but violence occurred from the Monday morning

    A peace keeper, Park Yong-Sung, who stayed in the sit-in tent across the construction gate overnight wrote in the morning of Dec. 17.

    tree
    Photo by Park Yong-Sung

    ‘The tree of peace was made near the Gangjeong stream thanks to uncles and peace keepers in Gangjeong who cut and brought trees. The religious elders also helped to make the tree.

    However, from the morning, there were construction workers’ physical and mental violence onto us. And the police responded late to such violence, while continuing circling of people with verbal violence.

    As the Jejus Christ who was persecuted has become the symbol of peace and love, I hope Gangjeong would be overflowed with peace and love…’

     

    Another peace keepers, Jang Hyun-Woo wrote on the details of violence in the morning of Dec. 17.

    Dec 17
    Photo by Jang Hyun-Woo. For more photos by Jang Hyun-Woo on Dec. 17, see here.

    By Jang Hyun-woo (translated/ for the original site, click here)
    Around 6:30am, this morning, cement mixer and general work trucks began to gather one by one in front of the Poonglim resort building (* near the Gangjeong stream and construction gates)

    Around 7am, the bows for life and peace began then around 7:35 am, workers came out in front of the naval base construction gate, 5 minutes after their gathering inside the construction site.

    They began to remove the lumbers (that the peace keepers had put as barricade) in front of the naval base project committee building complex, while the construction vehicles began to slowly move.. The peace keepers stopped the trucks to come inside the gate of the naval base project building complex. When the trucks were to turn their way to the main gate of construction site, they blocked them in the crossing road.

    Among five large and general vehicles, two vehicles entered into the main construction gate while the other three could not make entry but had to return back to the front of the Poonglim resort, waiting for another chance.

    It occurred that we were circled by the construction workers, fell down and were injured in four or five places during the process of stopping the vehicles to the main construction gate. It even happened that a male construction worker strangled a neck and pushed the chest of a female peace keeper.

    Even though there was no peace keeper who was greatly injured, the Samsung and Daelim construction workers, confirming that the peace keepers had no camera, dared to kick them.

    The workers  should be inquired for the charges.

     

    ……………………………………………………………………….

    [Dec. 16] Companies install caissons before simulation, which a thorough ignoring of even Island governor’s demand

    caisson installation
    Photo by Jang Hyun-Woo/ See more photos by Jang Hyun-Woo on Dec. 16, here

    Following the Samsung’s input of 8800 ton caisson last night, the Daelim stationed its 3~4,000 ton caisson into the sea this morning.

    Despite the Island governor’s demand to the navy on Oct. 30 to stop the input of caisson on the sea until the finish of simulation on 150,000 ton cruise, the navy thoroughly ignores that.

    On Oct. 18, 2012, Governor Woo has declared to the villagers in the talk meeting with them that he would ‘stop the breakwater construction in the Gangjeong Sea without fail’ even though it is difficult for him to order construction stop before simulation.”

    On May 1, 2012, even Park Geun-Hye, the daughter of military dictatorship and Presidential runner of the ruling conservative Saenuri Paty said that simulation verification has to be prior to construction on break water.

    For more, see here.

    …………………………………………………………………………………..

    See also Christian Karl’s blog

     

    [12.17] ‘SKY’ Sit-in Struggle Village @Daehanmun

    [12.15] Workers’ Presidential candidate was beaten

     

     

     

  • Statement on the Gangjeong Village Civil Disobedience Movement

    Following the Villagers’ monthly Unity Day that started on Nov. 25, 2nd Unity Day was held amid rain on Friday, Dec. 14. On the day, about 50 villagers marched toward the gate of the naval base project committee building complex.  It was a day that the villagers made public their statement on the Gangjeong Village Civil Disobedience Movement in front of the gate (You can see the original Korean statement, here).

    Photo by Jang Hyun-Woo. For more photos by Jang Hyun-Woo on Dec. 14, see here.

     

    Statement on the Gangjeong Village Civil Disobedience Movement

     

    Our Gangjeong village is a village of more than 450 years during which we have supported all sorts of household matters and busy works one another and shared affection together based on the spirit of Sooneuleum. It is our hometown that has been called as Il-Ganjeong (Meaning Gangjeong, the best village) because of the best water, crops and life in the Jeju Island.

    However, we are experiencing an act of barbarity committed [by the government] that decided one day to install so called a national policy project in the village  like a thunderbolt from a clear sky, without going through the process of collection on the villagers’ opinions but reasoning that a small part of the villagers hoped the invitation of the naval base construction. We are also experiencing daily suffering because the navy and Government abetting pro-base villagers make them alienate from the anti-base villagers and  overissue accusations and charges against the latter, which makes irrecoverable gaps of conflicts between parents, siblings, relatives and friends.

    Even during the darkest period of 4.3 when about 80 innocent Gangjeong villagers suddenly met unnatural death by the military of the Republic of Korea, the Gangjeong villagers protected and cared for one another. However, the Gangjeong village today is divided by the hostility to suspect and hate one another.

    Therefore, the Gangjeong villagers having declared the Life and Peace village in Nov. 2007,  gathered their spirits to build the village where their descendents can be blessed with peace to be recovered again and environment where life can overflow. We have been unbearably fighting with the flag of ‘absolutely no naval base,’ for five years and seven months by now because the Jeju naval base not only would increase the threat of war by fostering tension with the neighborhood countries despite it is a security project restraining  outbreak of war, would harm even the basis of security due to the conflict between the civilian and military but also would never fit to the value of life and peace.

    However, we are proud of ourselves having our claims within the legal frame that fits to the value of life and peace and having pledged ourselves moderated acts that there should be no group violence to be occurred even when legal protests cannot be established [and we could not but unavoidably take the illegal forms]. However, during the process when the police unlawfully imprisoned the mayor, leader, of the Gangjeong village,  there occurred a situation when the villagers besieged the police and confront them. Then the Government using the event as a momentum, declared the political situation of public security, dispatched a large size riot police, and enforced naval base project with physical power. And the situation of so severe infringement on human rights has been continued for more than a year.

    It is not only unconvincing disposal for our cry to respect life and aspire peace to be recognized as the threatening existence to the Government but justice is being lost as even the law that is the standard of a society submits to the power of the Government, adding power to it.

    Therefore the Gangjeong village residents, following the value of life and peace village and ethical standard, declare that they would manifest their rights as the citizen through the civil disobedience movement until the law is equal to everyone and the state power recovers its neutral position in the [Government]driving process of the Jeju naval base construction project.

    While we resist with the principle of non-violence and peace, we will protect the Gangjeong village of the Land of Life, being firm without stepping back. To build the village where our sons and daughters, and their sons and daughters are proud that they are part of Korea and are willing to accept their responsibility to keep their hometown and care for life, we stand here deeply inscribing in our hearts that the civil disobedience movement that aims for the law to be righteously hold up is the most sacred mission for the citizens’ justice to be realized.

    We demand the judicature, prosecutors, police, navy and the Government.

    We hope that the judicature establishes its position again for its mission to make the authority of law righteously stand and to protect the order of democracy.

    We hope the prosecutor and police are born again as those true canes for the people, not to mention their righteous establishment as the para judicature institutes, so that they get out of their mean appearance of standing sided with the haves.

    We hope the navy comes into the stage of a reasonable and fair dialogue, stopping the construction itself for the purpose of ending mass production of social conflicts that take down the basis of security itself and even put the basis of the existence of a nation in danger.

    We hope the Government would stop the Jeju naval base project on which so many problems have already been disclosed and by which infringement on human right violation have seriously occurred. We also hope that the Government, accepting its mission to unite the citizens, recovers the honors of the Gangjeong villagers and peace keepers who have been under false accusations and disadvantages, and totally re-examine the Jeju naval base project at the same time.

    From today as the starting point, we declare that we, the Gangjeong villagers join together with their first sacred step in the spirit of time for the historical progress in which the justice of the judicature righteously stand and we make the world of no discrimination.

    Dec. 14, 2012

    The villagers and peace keepers of Gangjeong, the Life and Peace Village

     

    Photo by Jang Hyun-Woo. The banner reads ‘Civil disobedience movement against the Jeju naval base.’ People such as Kim Jin-Suk, a legendary leader of the Hanjin Heavy Industry Workers’ struggle visited the village to encourage the villagers’  struggle. For more photos by Jang Hyun-Woo on Dec. 14, see here.
    Photo by Jang Hyun-Woo. For more photos by Jang Hyun-Woo on Dec. 14, see here.
    After the event, villagers shared meals in front of the gate, to stop the construction vehicles. During the protest, a disable was arrested but he was released in hours.

    ………………………………………………………….

    See also
    South Korea’s a high court of justice just ruled out that the plan of military installation on GANGJEONG is lawful and valid action to go. This ruling was based on the Supreme Court’s decision that some part of the plan needed to be reviewed by the high court of justice in 2009. One more reviewing by the Supreme Court to go for the final ruling. (10:00 AM KST)

    There were three lawsuits regarding the naval base. The first is the action filed by GANGJEONG Townhall claimed the permission of Jeju Provincial government to use the public water surface for naval base construction was illegal. The second is the action filed by GANGJEONG residents claimed the executive order from the provincial government to expire the absolute preservation site is illegal. The last one is the action filed by GANGJEONG townhall that the plan of military installation which is naval base at GANGJEONG is illegal. Each lawsuit had three trial cases, court of first instance, a high court of justice and the Supreme Court of justice and didn’t make it. This court’s ruling is caused by the supreme court of justice says some of details are not enough to make illegal and sent it back to the high court of justice for another hearing and ruling.

    (By Fox David)

     

    Court deems Jeju naval base lawful

    On Dec. 13
    http://koreajoongangdaily.joinsmsn.com/news/article/article.aspx?aid=2963969&cloc=joongangdaily|home|newslist1
    (Fwd by Christian Karl)

  • Park Geun-Hye, Park Chung-Hee and Jeju naval base

    Park Geun-Hye, Park Chung-Hee and Jeju naval base: Why Park Geun-Hye should not be the President?

    Photo: Time magazine: US version (internet version) (Source: Click here)

    According to ‘Yeoreumgigi ‘ who put the post, the title of the Time, Asian version reads, ‘The Strongman’s daughter’ and the article title is ‘History’s Child.’ See  the link above.

    Park Geun-Hye is not only physical but spiritual heir of the deceased ex-President Park Chung-Hee who ruled South Korea with military dictatorship for 18 years.
    At the time of the President Park Chung-Hee (1961 to 1979), the ROK Government proposed  the United States through a security meeting to use the Jeju Island in any forms of whatever bases, including strategic Air Force base or naval base.

    According to the archive of the Kyunghyang Shinmun, an article appears in the 1st page of June 6, 1969. Here is the whole translation of the short article.

    http://newslibrary.naver.com/viewer/index.nhn?articleId=1969060600329201014&editNo=2&printCount=1&publishDate=1969-06-06&officeId=00032&pageNo=1&printNo=7281&publishType=00020

    (Source: Go Gwon-Il, Chairman of the Villagers’ Committee to Stop the Naval Base
    http://cafe.daum.net/peacekj/49kU/2140)

    ……………………………………………….

     

    Naval and Air Force Base in the Jeju:
    It looks that opinions were collected through the ROK-US defense meeting
    June 6, 1969
    1st page, Kyunghyang Shinmun

    It was informed that the ROK-US authorities gathered their opinions to build a naval base along with US air force base in South Korea to secure the security of Asia. On [June] 6, A high-rank personnel of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs delivered that the matter on the build-up of the US naval base that would be installed within South Korea was discussed in the 2nd ROK-US Defense cabinet members’ meeting, separate from the discussion on the measure of strengthening of the ROK navy power. He also delivered that, “The ROK government suggested the Jeju island as the candidate location for the naval base.”

    President Park Chung-Hee has stated the other time that he was willing to provide the  Jeju Island to the US as the US base the other time. He added that “It means it is OK that the US use [the Jeju] as all kinds of bases including naval base, not to mention as air force base. While the authority person avoided a mention on the size of the US naval base that would be built up in South Korea, he delivered that “There could be annexed facilities such as the ship-repair facility following the calling at a port by various kinds of vessels, even though it may not be the [size/quality] of the Saesebo in Japan where the [US] nuclear submarines can moor. (emphasis by me)

    ……………………………………………….

    See also Hankyoreh, Dec. 17:  Saenuri Party allegedly trying to control foreign media’s word choice

    [..] An article in the Dec. 12 edition of the Washington Post made reference to a memo sent earlier this year by members of the Saenuri Party (NFP) presidential candidate’s camp.

    “Park Geun-hye’s aides say they are sensitive about her connection to her father,” the article reported. “They sent a memo to the news media earlier this year asking that articles not refer to Park Chung-hee as a ‘dictator.’” [..]

    “The reporters are taking these as attempts to control the foreign press by denying the legacy of the dictatorship,” Shin said. “It’s extremely upsetting to them.”

     

  • A writing by a family member of a dead crew on Nov. 28

    Photo by Jang Hyun-Woo/ For more photos by Jang Hyun-Woo, see here.

     It was found on Dec. 8 that an older brother of a wife of a dead worker on Nov. 28 posted a writing in the Gangjeong village website (Click here). On Nov. 28, the very day that the ruling Saenuri Party unilaterally railroaded 2013 budget bill on the Jeju naval base project in the National Defense committee of the  National Assembly,  a chief mate, Mr. Kim (43, living in the Jeju City) of a tug boat named Jungseungho died  in the morning. The crews in the tug boat have been put to work  on the Jeju naval base project. To see more on the background of the incident behind his death, click here. The writing was forwarded by Mr. Lim Ho-Young, village website (in Korean language) manager and peacekeeper.

    …………………………………………………………………

     

    A father of a family, who has worked on the naval base construction, left this world

     By Kim Sung-Ki

     

    I can hardly restrain my very complicated heart while I write this.

    On Nov. 28(Wed), I heard the news in Seoul that my sister’s husband died by accident.

    Upon my sister’s cry, “Brother, please come here quickly,’ I stopped all my works and boarded myself on the airplane to Jeju

    As a result of confirming the  situation, I found my brother-in-law died while he worked on the Jeju naval base construction. My brother-in-law was the chief mate of the company called Jungseung haewoon (maritime transportation) and the company has made sub-contract to the Taehwa Construction who also made a sub-contract to the Samsung C &T.

    According to the day’s accident story heard, my brother-in-law had been put to work of the Taewha Construction,  which had not been planned. It was a work on a tug boat that drags a barge. He was returning from the Gangjoeng village to Hwasoon port after some work. The accident happened during the mooring process in the Hwasoon port. According to a Jeju Sori article, it was a human life accident caused by a rope that links between tug boat and barge( in the words of captain, it is ‘wire’). It is told that the thickness of the wire is about 18 cm. To my inference, he seems to have immediately died due to the stroke by wire. At the time, there was an excursion ship and many tourists witnessed the site. That is what I was told on the accident at the time.

    Personally experiencing this incident, I became to recognize how ironic situation I am placed in. My hometown is Jeju and I am a peacenik who opposes the Jeju naval base construction in the Gangjeong village. Of course, I don’t actively participate in the struggle in the village. I only sympathize it, in my heart. Still I and my sister became to lose a member of our family during the naval base construction.

    My brother in law was the head of a family, having two children. He is a dad of a daughter attending middle school and a son attending an elementary school. Do I have to think them praiseworthy as they accept the fact that their dad is not here any more in this world, with calm attitude? Or do they think it is a matter of no importance as they could not see their dad often? My feeling is complicated.

    I became to think that the incident of my brother in law is an example that shows the problems of Korea society.

    My brother in law is an ordinary citizen who happened to have been victimized during the process of state drive for anti-peace policies. The Jeju where the Peace museum and military base co-exist cannot be our ‘Jeju’.

    My brother in law has been a worker belonging to a sub-contract company dependent upon a big corporation. As you know, a sub-contract company cannot but subordinate to the demands by its master enterprise. Probably a tremendously unfair contract was done. I cast doubts to think that, if my brother-in-law who had carried out unplanned task had worked in a proper work environment, he would not have been victimized.

    A head of a family, who was responsible for the livelihood of four members of family became to meet a very sorry death due to the contradiction of this society. Taking this incident, I feel a much sense of shame that there are little thing that I can help my sister as an older brother and my nephews as an uncle. Should a petit bourgeois victimized by state policy merely cure for one’s pain inside the wall of law and system?

    I feel shame as I feel like that I appeal ‘personal’ pain to the people who try to save the village from the ‘social’ scope. The incident shows the values of ‘peace’ and ‘human rights’ coexist. I hope there is no 2nd victim.

    While I am writing this, two children are sleeping and their mom cannot sleep for the wound of losing her husband, only absently looking at ceiling.

    I hope my hometown, Jeju is where human beings are respected, wounds of human beings are cured and peace co-exist. Various selfishness and greed stay in Jeju. That is why there are the  “Saving the Gureombi Rock,” “Gangjeong village,’ and “Jeju of Olle.”

    The Jeju we want is the Jeju of ‘human being,’ ‘peace,’ ‘human rights,’ and ‘happiness.’ I hope there happens no same thing that happened to my sister. How we can save the Jeju as true Jeju? I pray for the happiness of my sister’s  family.

     

     

  • Samsung, Samsung victims, Workers’ Presidential candidate and snow

    It was one of the coldest weather on Dec. 5. While the people’s sit-ins are ongoing in Gangjeong and Seoul near a month by now, people in both regions had to fight with cold weather that accompanied heavy snow (Seoul) and sleets (Gangjeong) in strong wind. Otherwise the village association entered  judiciary measure against the navy, companies and Island government, regarding environmental destruction. A good news is that  Buddhists made public their large size mobilization for care of Gangjeong.  Otherwise, 333 intellectuals made a statement opposing Park Geun-Hye, the Presidential candidate of the ruling conservative Saenuri party, with concerns on the possibility of returning back of  Yushin dictatorship.  For the details of each, see the below.

     

    Amid coldest weather, Gangjeong joins the protest for the victims of Samsung

    In Seoul, the struggle in such bad weather was highlighted though in solidarity by the people who are opposing against naval base, who joined the emergency press conference by the workers and bereaved families of the victims of the Samsung industrial disease in front of the Samsung headquarter in Gangnam, Seoul. On the day that Samsung chairman’s only son was promoted to vice chairman. See an article, here.

    Heavy and first snow fall in this winter in Seoul area on December 5, there was a protest in front of Samsung, as part of ‘Hope March’ by the ‘Let’s live together’ team. . . . .Fore more photos by Wooki Lee, see  here(Facebook post by Regina Pyon)

    The Samsung General Union had called for solidarity upon the Samsung’ security workers’ violence on one-man protesters on Nov. 30, the day of the 25th anniversary event commemorating the inauguration of Lee Gun-Hee, President of  Samsung. For more detail, see here. The venue was in front of Samsung headquarter, Gangnam, Seoul, where even long-time staying tenants are ready always to be evicted by the corporate greed.

    Photo by Samsung General Labor Union, Dec. 5, 2012. The protesters held the images of victims by Samsung on Nov. 30, in the emergency rally, in front of the Samsung headquarter, Gangnam, the richest district of Korea.  For more photos, click here(Samsung General labor Union) or here(Photos by Lee Wooki).

     

    Workers’ Presidential candidate demands to revoke the Jeju naval base project

    Kim So-Yeon, a leader of legendary Kiryung workers’ struggle and now Workers’ Presidential candidate also shined people’s protest. Still the people’s struggle would meet the Samsung’s counter-rally in which the Samsung seemed to have mobilized its workers who are not actually willing to be. The Samsung also mobilizing the police even interrupted Kim’s election campaign.

    Photographer Lee Woo-Ki writes:

    ‘We have fought all day amid snow. Even though Kim So-Yeon has Presidential candidate debate at 11 pm, tonight, she is still with us. . She says she was sorry that there was no night time passage of construction vehicles so no police circling of people [on Sunday, Nov. 18] when she visited Gangjeong with determined mind to be with people. Kim has slept beside Fr. Mun in sleeping bag when there was sit-in in front of National Assembly.”

    Photo by Lee Woo-Ki, Workers’ Presidential candidate, Kim So-Yeon. For more photos, click here.

     

    Following the Dec. 4 TV debate held by three Presidential candidates of the ruling, main opposition, and opposition parties, there was another TV debate for three minority Presidential candidates who belonged to non-party on Dec. 5. Among the three, Kim So Yeon represented Workers. Kim Soon-Ja represented cleaning workers. Park Jong-Sun is a conservative. The other candidate, Kang Ji-Won was absent in refusal of the debate form in which major and minority candidates were differentiated.

    Kim emphasizing the oppressed people, pointed out the hypocricy of two big parties. Regarding the Jeju naval base, Kim said, “While Park Geun-Hye, Moon Jae-In, two candidates emphasize the Northeast Asia peace. They are keeping silent on the issue of the Jeju naval base that stirs tension and brings war threat, regarding the US. To stop the Jeju naval base construction is to cut the US- centered diplomacy and establish the peace agreement.” See the related Korean article here

     

    Snow can be suffering cause for night time protesters in Gangjeong

    ‘December 6. . .very cold, freezing day’ . . .by Saewoo at the naval base gate. For more photos by Saewoo, see here (Facebook post by Regina Pyon)

     

    A nigfht time protestor nicknames Saewoo writes:

    “Tonight, streaks of snow fluttered.

    The SNS was all covered with shouts of joy. However, I was not so glad.

    In Gangjeong, snow brings coldness. Our cloths are wet by sleets. Even hot packs are being frozen. Still there are people who sleep on the cold ground to stop the night time construction vehicles…

    My heart is likely to fall down with pains.

    My tears are not dried even though I cry and cry.”

    Around 5:40pm, Dec. 5.  police circling started…It
    is cloudy..The sign reads, ‘All part of body are bruised and wounded. Stop unjustifiable police violence’
    Around 5:50 pm,  Dec 5 right after police circling … new music instrument created by a villager

     

    Villagers’ statement on having entered judicial measure against the navy, companies and Island government

    Following its official letter to the Island government on Nov. 20, the village association entered on judicial measure against the navy-side and Island government on Dec. 5. The Original Korean statement of the below translation can be seen here.

     

    Photo and caption by Go Gwon-Il, Chairman of the Villagers’ Committee to Stop the Naval Base around 5:30 am, Dec. 5. 2012. ‘The barges gave up the works and are returning to Hwasoon port due to the bad weather condition.’ (Facebook post by Regina Pyon) / The navy’s illegal and law-evasive destruction of the Metboori, in the east tip of the naval base project area has brought suspicion from the people. See here

     

    Title: Is the navy harmful insect that gnaws on the value of the Jeju to enforce the construction even in violation of the agreed items in the Environmental Impact Assessment again following the general unreliability of the Jeju naval base construction?

    The Jeju naval base project committee installed silt protectors on the sea with half a heart because of the protests by the village Association and environmental groups when it started maritime construction without installing stationary silt protectors on the sea in the beginning of last year.

    However, it attempted to enforce construction again in the situations when silt protectors were not still equipped and even when the silt protectors were partly or completely damaged due to heavy sea waves. As a result, the Jeju Island government, lodged with civilian complaints, has ‘demanded’ official construction pose to the Ministry of National Defense(MND) and Environmental Agency (EA) three times by this year ( * ‘demand’ is weaker measure than ‘order’ that can practically stop the construction)

    Even with those facts, it is already enough for the Jeju Island government to take a measure of the business suspension to the applicable enterprises. It is right to say that it is possible for the Jeju Island government to take a measure of business suspension to the applicable enterprises and cancellation on the superintendence committee’s registration, which is more than the measure of negligence fines against them, added of its records of directions to the navy on the installation of silt protectors four times and of repeated directions twice following the none-carried directions.

    The Jeju Island is proud of its heaven-blessed nature. The Seogwipo maritime environment is the only UNESCO-designated maritime Biosphere Reserve in Korea and the Gangjeong Sea is of the habitat of soft coral, ROK Government-designated natural memorial No. 442. It is the start point that made the Jeju Island as the UNESCO triple-crowned and Seven Nature of the World. Is not the navy like harmful insect that gnaws on the value of the Jeju to enforce a large-size construction in such place even in violation of the minimum agreed items on nature protection?

    We have clearly stated that, if the Jeju Island government does not strictly punish on such destroying behaviors, we would take a judicial measure even against- not to mention the navy, navy-contracted construction companies-the Jeju Island government responsible for unreliable execution on the duty of management and supervision [on the navy and its contracted companies].

    On Nov. [20], the Village Association has requested the Jeju Island government to give the navy direction on  execution, submitting it with the proofs on the navy’s illegal construction (destruction). And the Jeju Island government notified us that it has sent its official letter to the MND and EA on the date of Nov. 30. However, in the Gangjeong Sea, illegal construction is still being committed.

    Thereupon, the Village Association states that it entered the judicial measure thanks to the MINBYON (Lawyers for Democratic Society), against the navy, navy-contracted companies, superintendence committee and Jeju Island government, along with sending the Island government an official letter that demands it strong administrative measures such as the imposition on the negligence fines. We warn again the navy that dares various law-evasiveness and unlawfulness, being blinded only for securing 2012 budget. The navy should immediately stop the construction (destruction) that destroys the environment of Jeju while staging a fraud play of ‘Civilian-Military Complex Port for Tour Beauty,’ which is a nonsense. And it should bear in mind that there would be only a disgrace of judicial judgment along with people’s,  if it does not take steps for re-examination on the project along with apology to people.

    Dec. 5, 2012

    The Gangjeong Village Association

     

    Buddhists plan to cure the village with a religious service for the God of Sea in the port on Dec. 13.

    Photo by Jeju Sori, Dec. 5, 2012/ The Jogye Order of the Korean Buddhism and Jeju Buddhist Association, having a press conference in the Island People’s room of the Island Council on Dec. 5, stated that they would hold the ‘Yongwang Daejae at 2pm, on Dec. 13.”

    Peace keeper, Park Yong-Sung writes:

    Facing the Presidential election, the Jogye religious order, Jeju Buddhism orders and Buddhists from the Jeju and nationwide will come to the village to console the pain of Gangjeong. The Yongwangje ( a religious service for the God of Sea), the traditional village event, will be featured with the characters of Buddhism this year, as there are many Buddhists in the village. So the name will be ‘Yongwangdaejae’ combined with Buddhism ritual of ‘Jae.’ The event will be held at the Gnagjeong port, people looking at the Gureombi Rock and Gangjeong Sea at 2 pm, Dec. 13, Thursday.

     It is a big event even the highest leader of the Korean Buddhism and other high-profile Buddist monks join. The monks who has had little concern with Gangjeong and temples of various religious orders will come to Gangjeong. It is to cure the pain of the village and to recover the 400 year history community

    In this event, Do-Beop, leader of the Life and peace Fellowship and Chairman of Hwa-Jaeng Committee, Korean Buddhist Jogye Order will join the event

    Photo by Jeju Sori, Dec. 5, 2012/ Do-Beop, leader of the Life and peace Fellowship and Chairman of Hwa-Jaeng Committee, Korean Buddhist Jogye Order
    Poster on ‘Yongwanddaejae, Dec. 13

     

    Statement of Intellectuals in Asia Who Remember the Yushin Dictatorship

    Photo source: Pressian, Nov. 5, 2012/ 333 intellectuals from 25 Asian countries made a statement, expressing opposition against park Geun-Hye, Presidential candidate of the ruling Saenuri party.

    Excerpt:

    A highly important election will be held in December in a country in Asia, known for its exemplary democratization, South Korea. This election, to elect a new President in a presidential polity, is likely to serve as a significant testing ground for the future of democratization not only in South Korea, but in Asia as well.

    One concern is that the prominent presidential candidate of the conservative ruling party is none other than the daughter and heir of the late Park Jung-hee, the notorious dictator who took power by military coup and ruled the country with an iron-fist for 18 years. Park Geun-hye played not only the privileged daughter role of the dictator but acted as de facto first lady after her mother died. She won her way to the presidential candidacy through appealing to the voters with the successes of Park’s regime and calling for restoration of its honor. She thus became the choice of oligarchic political forces who share the nostalgia of the authoritarianism that was Park Jung-hee’s rule.[..]
    We intellectuals in Asia who clearly remember the rule by terror of Park Jung-hee and his Yushin dictatorship, think that what is presently happening with the coming election in South Korea lays a dark cloud over the future of South Korean democracy. Contrary to the beautified stories that Park’s followers make and spread, the days of Park’s dictatorship were a series of political crises and Korean people had to suffer from totalitarian control and state violence that resembled the days of Japanese colonial rule.
    (For the whole statement, see here)

     

    ( Kyunghyang, Dec. 5:  Digging up the Grave of Chang Chun-ha to Identify Cause of Death

    An article that reminds the dark age of Park Chung-Hee, military dictatorship for 18 years (1961-1979). Park Geun-Hye, The Presidential candidate of the ruling Conservative Party is the heir of Park Chung-Hee. If she becomes the President, the future of Korea is dangerous…See also Park Chung-Hee in wiki )

     

    See also Carol Reckinger’ s blog, ‘Camera War,’

     

     

  • The scene of Gangjeong on the night of 1st Presidential candidates’ debate

    The Jeju naval base issue still appears sensitive  in the 1st presidential debate

    Two weeks later, there will be the South Korean Presidential election on Dec. 19 that would be the critical watershed for the whole Korea, and highly likely Asia pacific, too: If Park Geun-Hye, Presidential candidate of the ruling conservative Saenuri Party, and a daughter of the deceased ex-President Park Chung-Hee who ruled Korea for 18 years with military dictatorship, becomes the next President, the future of inter-Korean relationship would be more stifled, which would bring more instability in the Asia Pacific then, given the increasingly intensified confrontation between the United States and China (See the related news article, here)

    The Presidential election is now of the highest concern for the people against the Jeju naval base project. As the budget talk was postponed after the Presidential election and the budget matter would critically depend on the result of the Presidential election, people’s goal is now to win over the Saenuri party through people’s unity.

    Photo: Hankyoreh, Nov. 5, 2012

    However, in the 1st Presidential candidates’ debate on the issues of foreign policy, politics, and security, that lasted from 8 to 9:40 pm on Dec. 4 (See the news article, here), the issue of the Jeju naval base project which is in fact, a center subject regarding the relationship with US and China was only very shortly mentioned. It could be partly because of the debate frame that does not allow talks in depth. However, you can say, it is still media-controlled and sensitive issue in Korea.

    If there was any talk on the Jeju naval base project on Dec. 4 debate, it was raised as a tool by Park Geun-Hye who attempted to attack Moon Jae-In and Lee Jung-Hee, the Presidential Candidates of the Democratic Party and United Progressive Party with the issues of National Security law, ROK-US FTA and Jeju naval base issue, for the purpose of red-baiting and defame of the two opposition parties for their posed cooperation on the issues. It was Lee Jung-Hee who acutely refuted Park, reminding her of the Saenuri Party’s unilateral railroading of 2013 Jeju naval base budget on Nov. 28, to the infringement on the dignity of National Assembly, which was strongly protested by opposition groups. Moon Jae-In’s repute was more on general remark on the need of unity on the issues between two opposition parties against the ruling party.

    Lee was clear to say that “regarding the Jeju naval base issue, there have been problems even before the first budget passage in the National Assembly in 2007. I hope candidate Moon has a same attitude with me to totally re-examine and stop the project without fail.” However, the talk on the Jeju naval base budget did not go any more. Moon was too cautious to openly talk on the Jeju naval base issue. (See the Jeju Sori, Dec. 4, 2012)

    Whatever the politicians’ calculations on the naval base issue are, it is the people in the struggle field of Gangjeong, who are directly experiencing the daily violence by state power.

     

    The scenes of Gangjeong on the  night of the 1st Presidential debate

    Here are some scenes on the very debate night.

     

    The sit-in tent in Gangjeong: Around 8:40 pm, Dec. 4

    Around 8:40, Dec. 4, people who experience day and night struggle under the police oppression and company thugs’ physical muscle gathered in front of sit-in tent across construction gates to watch the Presidential candidates’ debate through TV.

    The protest site in Gangjeong on Dec. 4: Around 9:10 pm

    Around 9:10 pm, construction vehicles came and police circling of people began. “Why don’t you just watch the TV?” “We’ve come here during watching TV, too. You are the ones who should just watch the TV.” It was a conversation between the peacekeepers and policemen. When the police were to remove the lumbers filed up as people’s barricade, “We will do,” peacekeepers took them away and patterned out. It seems to take similar time whether the police threw them out far away to the edge of the Gangjeong stream or the peacekeepers put them in pattern at the side of protest field, even though the peace keepers would suffer from such job again and again. “When did you start this way?” “Just minutes ago.” “It is a good idea.” It was a moment of the wisdom of the civil disobedience shining.

    People’s protest, Gangjeong, Dec. 4

    However the police muscle running right after the peace keepers made sit-in was same, “Ah.. I feel pain with my wrist. Do not pull away my arm!” “Don’t fold down my fingers!” The police circling of people ended with people’s scream again: Very routine, here.

    After the Presidential candidates’ TV debate, around 9:50 pm, Dec. 4

    People watched the TV discussion again circling and sitting around a five stove, “Was there any mention on the Jeju naval base issue?” “Lee Jung-Hee questioned about it. But the debate moderator cut the chances on answers to it.” “Did he? Then when will they talk about the issue?” “ Well..we don’t kbnow. Maybe in the tourism section since it is the Civilian-Military Complex Port for Tour Beauty..” We all laughed hearing that.. “Maybe they may talk in art section, since it is related to Beauty (maybe in the high-tech art section..) The issue on the Jeju naval base project has been constantly media-controlled. That is why the politicians need to hush up on it? Or has the program itself been affected by Samsung?

    Here is the postscript during the night protest during which  the police carelessly pushed people downside the road toward the Gangejong stream. .. “I was almost to fall into the edge of it. There is no distinguishion between the police and thugs.” (A peacekeeper named Park)

     

    Music concert to cut the Jeju naval base budget 

    The Gangjeong Elating and Spicy Flower band(Flower band) started its concert campaign to cut the whole budget on the Jeju naval base project in front of the protest field of construction gate on Dec. 4. The music concert is held every 4 pm in front of the construction gate. It is open to everybody.

    Jo Yak Gol, member of the band writes.

    “During the performance, the police rushed to us and took away mike and amp. Then they violently circled us. We are keeping this site without a step back against the violence of them who enforce illegal naval base construction. Even though they oppress us, we keep the site, singing and dancing. Let’s revoke the Jeju naval base project by our unity.”

    Source: Click here

     

    A campaign to cut budgets on the naval base project and to elect President of Peace

    Full page ad of Hangyoreh newspaper yesterday(December 4).. .Urging the stop of Jeju naval base budget and. . .campaign to make the year of 2013 as the first year of Peace Treaty by electing the President of Peace. It was organized by SPARK (Facebook post by Regina Pyon)

    An ad. to elect the President of Peace,  Hankyoreh, Nov. 4, 2012

     

    Video  maker Dungree made a parody video on Park Geun-Hye.
    Source: click here

     

    [Lee Jung-Hee said] “Masao Takaki – Korean name Park Chung-hee – signed a blood oath of loyalty to the Japanese emperor, and his Yushin administration was intended to protect the country from ’leftist communist sympathizers,‘” “The Saenuri Party and Park Geun-hye are the roots of collaboration and dictatorship and do not have the right to sing the national anthem.” Upon hearing this, Park’s face turned red and was overtaken by a stern expression. (See Hankyoreh, Nov. 5, 2012)

     

    Images of Non-Violent protest (Facebook posts by Regina Pyon and Park Jong-Hoon)

     

    Jesuit priests and brother. . .From the left, Br. DoHyun Park, Fr. Kim Sung-hwan and Fr. Chonguk Kim. . .They have shaved the heads on November 29 at the same site urging the stop of Jeju naval base budget. . .this was taken yesterday just after the mass. . .For more photos by Jang Hyun-woo, here. (Post by Regina Pyon)
    Poet Lee has come back to Gangjeong very recently after a break. . .and then like this…this photo was taken yesterday morning. Photos by Jang Hyun-woo, here. (Post by Regina Pyon)
    Artist Koh Gil-chun in protest. Photos by Jang Hyun-woo, here. ”He did many artworks on Gureombi coast and Gangjeong village, some of them already disappeared or were destroyed. . . very committed Jeju native artist. . . You can also find his great artworks in the April 3 peace museum in Jeju. (Facebook note by Regina Pyon)
    Photo by Park Jong-Hoon, a peacekeeper reads a book between the struggle times.

     

  • Booking a tug boat captain on charge? The fundamental issue is a collusion among the Government-navy -Samsung

    Photo by Jang Hyun-Woo/ Beyond a barge and tug boat, the Beom Island is shown. The Beom Island is the UNESCO Geology Park itself and the sea area around it is the UNESCO Biosphere Reserve where the world-largest soft coral habitats  inhibit. For more photos by Jang Hyun-Woo on Nov. 26, see here.

     

    Booking a tug boat captain on charge? Saving the sharks but a minnow?

    On Dec. 3, the Seogwipo Coast guard is told to have booked a captain named Mr. Koh(60) of a 45 ton tug boat named Samyangho 3001 belonging to the Samsung C & T on the charges of faults on work and violations on the law on the management on the maritime environmental contamination.

    Around 1 am, Nov. 26, the Samyangho has submerged hit by a  caisson broken due to the typhoon Bolaven at the end of August in the Jeju naval base project 1st work area operated by Samsung C & T. It was to return back to the Hawsoon port after finishing its work of tugging a barge that puts in caissons into the sea. (Some media has raised question of why the navy and Samsung informed the fact to the media seven hours later of the accident.)

    It is known that great amount of gasoline had been shipped on the boat and part of it was leaked to the vicinity sea water. (For the details of the accident, see here)

    It is told that the Seogwipo Coast Guard booked the captain on charges on the destruction of ship following the fault on work, seeing him have made an accident by neglecting attentive works during the night time operation; and on the violation of maritime environmental destruction in relation to oil leak.

    It is an another example to dilute the essence of event to investigate and book the tug boat captain who has merely made a contract with the navy, the order-placing subject, and Samsung  C & T, the main construction company who brought upon themselves such accident by enforcing unreasonable construction (destruction)

    The Samsung C & T has illegally opearted its floating dock without permission to carry 8,800 ton caisoon made in the Hawsoon port to the Gangjeong Sea in the beginning of this year. On March 11, 2012, the Samsung C & T floating dock has also made an accident to hit three fishing ships when it was to moor into the outer port of the Hwasoon port in the situation when high sea wave warning had been informed

     

    Disclose the fundamental reason behind the death of a crew on the day of the budget snatched in the National Assembly!

    On Nov. 28, the very day that the ruling Saenuri Party unilaterally railroaded 2013 budget bill on the Jeju naval base project in the National Assembly, the problem of the navy’s unreasonable enforcement of construction became obvious with the death of a chief mate, Mr. Kim (43, living in the Jeju City) of a tug boat named Jungseungho (216 ton) at 11:25 am. He was hit in the head by rope on the sea 300 meter southward from the Hwasoon port, Andeok-myoen, Seogwipo City. Of course, most conservative media was silent on that  most mainstream media did not dealt with it with great concern.

    According to the Seogwipo Coast guard and headquarter of the Jeju Fire Fighting and Disaster Prevention, 10 meter rope was broken and hit the head of Mr. Kim when the tug boat, Jungseungho, was dragging a barge named Sanchung 2700 with the rope. The tug boat belonged to the T Construction company, a participating company in the naval base construction.

    Mr. Kim, shocked, fell down into the sea. Even though the captain of Jeungseung No. 3  immediately saved him into the land and moved him to the Seogwipo medical center, he died. The Nov. 28 Jeju media mentioned that the Seogwipo Coast guard is investigating on correct reason for the accident, calling for Mr. Kim’s colleagues. However, we haven’t heard yet on the afterward in the media even after a week. Even though it happened on the very day of the railroaded budget in the National Assembly, the Government and National Assembly evaluated it with weak concern.

     

    The exploiting structure on the workers in the construction areas of Hwasoon and Gangjeong should be disclosed.

    Otherwise, as disclosed by the testimony of a worker who exposed on unreliable caisson production, the workers in Hwasoon are not getting proper wages at proper time. They are also having difficulty to communicate with the foreign workers with whom they can hardly communicate in language in works. The foreign workers are even taking charges of the works as company thugs along with the Korean thugs employed by the companies.

    The situation of Gangjeong is similar regarding workers’ job condition. According to the facts disclosed from Nov. 10 to 19 when there were no night time entry/exit of construction vehicles, at least 18 workers have been laid off when they complained on the bad work condition. The workers who came to hear that they would get 4 million won monthly wage and get higher daily wage 150,000 won, compared to daily wage 60,000 won for the Vietnamese workers, were expelled as soon as they taught techniques to the Vietnamese workers and became useless. The Korean workers are told to have questioned why the Vietnamese workers should be employed in the so called National security project and why they so often take photos of construction site with their phones.(Is it right that it is a national security project?) (For details, see here).

    We even hear that some Vietnamese workers quit the jobs because of coldness staying in  containers on the cold coast. According to a peacekeeper, they were even mobilized as ‘Gochak‘ (detention circle usually being done by the police) thug around 3 am, Nov. 26,Monday. The peacekeeper, looking at the Vietnamese workers who only finely smile  concerned about possible incident with them with whom he cannot properly communicate with same language. (For details, see here.)

     

    Salvaging broken caissons by cutting? The Jeju naval base project of irresponsible destruction on environment, occupation and human rights should be immediately stopped and all the budgets on it should be totally cut!

    According to the Dec. 3 Jeju media, it was confirmed that the navy is considering not to remove seven broken caissons (by typhoons) that became the cause of recent submersion of a tug boat in the naval base construction on Nov. 26 until the typhoon period, next year.

    It is told that Yoon Seok-Hwan, a navy captain and Construction Director of the Jeju naval base project committee explained that “salvage of caissons are not urgent. They do not even affect such as environmental damage in current situation.”

    Has captain Yoon  already forgotten the Nov. 28 accident when a tug boat hit the broken caisson and leaked oil? Does he ignore the fact that the caissons of which each costs 5 to 10 billion won in production and its price is 1.5 billion won have been poisoning the sea with its cement materials and chemicals such as retardation material inside it?

    Beside safety matter, local fishermen are already having difficulty in navigation and having trouble in their occupation because of caissons put in the sea like reefs.

    The navy assertion that cement dusts that would occur from cutting of broken caissons would less affect environment than explosion of those brings fury beyond its absurdness

     

    The enforcement of construction came from lie and manipulation by the Government

     It has already been disclosed that the Office of Prime Minister who declared enforcement of the Jeju naval base construction on Feb. 29, 2012 had replaced official simulation report by the technical verification committee with the report that the Ministry of National Defense had ordered to Samsung and that was merely a reference material. The Government lie and manipulation have been disclosed through the exposure by Jang Hana, National Assembly woman who made public the meeting minutes of the technical verification committee on Oct. 10 and testimony by Professor Kim Gil-Sou, member of the technical verification committee on Nov. 19. Before Feb. 29, there was a declaration by the President Lee Myung-Bak who declared the enforcement of construction in his speech upon the  4th anniversary of his inauguration on Feb. 22. On the same day, the chief of the Seogwipo Police station was replaced with  Lee Dong-Min, a man from the main land. And the blast of the Gureombi Rock that would be done for two months started on March 7.

    If the Presidential Candidates look on such illegal and unreliable national policy project and allow the naval bass budget to be passed in the National Assembly, even though it has become clear that all the state of things were clearly of collusion among the Government, navy and Samsung, they will be greatly punished.

    Jeon Joon-Sou, chairman of the technical verification committee belongs to the think thank (국가미래연구원, Institute of National Future) of Park Geun-Hye, the Presidential runner of the ruling and conservative Saenuri Party (See here). He has been also promoted as a member of the local development committee on the Jeju naval base project. He has pressured the members of the technical committee not to conclude on construction stop and not to change base layout (* though change of base layout was needed for the proper function for 150,000 cruise), which is told to take 150 billion won more.

    Park Geun-Hye, Presidential candidate of the ruling Saenuri Party, who says so and so on her ambition to make the Jeju as the 2nd Hawai’i and Moon Jae-In,  Presidential candidate of the Democratic United Party who still mentions on the Civilian-Military Port of Call should stop their words on them and take position on construction stop, whole budget cut and revocation of the naval base project!

    Otherwise, Samsung has demanded 23 billion won reasoning of construction delay. See here.

     

    We should stop the Fascism of Samsung in Jeju

    On Jan. 21, 2011, Woo Geun-Min, Jeju island Government and Samsung C & T whose  total yearly sale price is 4 times more of the whole yearly budget of the Jeju Island government made a secret contact behind the open cause of the Samsung C & T’s support for the Island Government  to reach the goal of 1 trillion won export.  If we can say it is Fascism that the root of democracy is destroyed by the corporate greed, we have already seen the Fascism in the regime of the Lee Myung-Bak who originally came from Hyundae. If Park Geun-Hye, the daughter of the military dictatorship, Park Chung-Hee, becomes the President, the Fascism of Samsung  will more stifle the Jeju. We should stop this Fascism in Jeju.

    If the naval base is built in Gangjeong and Jeju becomes militarized, the only jobs for workers would be building of military bases. The vision and concrete practice for peace industry is needed than any other time in Jeju.

    …………………………………………………..

    Reference

    http://www.jejusori.net/news/articleView.html?idxno=123131
    ‘공사강행’ 제주해군기지, 이번엔 항해사 사망
    2012.11.28 16:12:17

    http://www.pressian.com/article/article.asp?article_num=10121128173120
    새누리당 ‘날치기’ 한 날, 제주해군기지서 인명 사고
    해군기지 공사 관련 세번째 사고
    2012-11-28 오후 05:39:37

    http://www.jejusori.net/news/articleView.html?idxno=123305
    제주해군기지 앞바다 예인선 침수사고 선장 입건
    2012.12.03 13:48:26

    http://www.headlinejeju.co.kr/news/articleView.html?idxno=166337
    해군기지 공사현장 침수 예인선 선장 형사입건

    해경, 업무상 과실 등 혐의 적용

    2012.12.03 15:09:05

    http://www.jejusori.net/news/articleView.html?idxno=123312
    파손된 제주해군기지 케이슨 1년 동안 묵히나?
    2012.12.03 15:21:23

    Presidential election poster put on the walls of the village, since the start of the Presidential election period, Nov. 27.
    Around 5:40 pm, Dec 3, if construction vehicles come, company thugs remove the lumbers people have filed up in front of gate. Then the police remove people. Despite this windy and rainy weather, construction still goes on after weekend break. 24 hour entry/ exit of construction (destruction) vehicles started again on Monday, Dec. 3.

    ……………………………………………………………………………………

    Photo and caption by Paco Booyah/ In Seoul at the Gwanghwamun Methodist headquarters, the 2nd Methodist prayer gathering for the release of Jeju peace prisoner Methodist pastor Jeong Yeon-Gil and other Gangjeong prisoners of conscience, Dec. 3
    Photo and caption by Paco Booyah/ Jo Hae-Won, wife of imprisoned Methodist pastor Jeong Yeon-Gil, gives a short moving talk at the Seoul 2nd Methodist prayer meeting for the release of the pastor and other prisoners. Pastor Jeong Yeon-Gil has been imprisoned for 89 days since climbing and occupying a caisson dock in September.

     

    ……………………………………………………………………………………

    See also Yonhap News

    Tension lingers on Jeju Island over naval base construction

    By Kim Eun-jung

    Dec. 4, 2012

    (Post by Christian Karl)

    ‘Hi, interesting article. It may be the Yonhap bias, but I noted a few things I took exception to. 1. they take as fact that “2 cruiseships” will be there along with 20 warships – i.e. the tourist-military thing; 2. people have staged protests “or as long as 2 years” (I know much longer); 3. villagers, etc, “occasionally clash with police” when we know that every time the trucks come the police clear people away from gates, 4. the “opposition lawmakers boycotted” the budget hearing – is that true? never heard it. We heard Saenuri party rammed it through without the opposition being there. What say?’ (Comment by Koh Ae-Rin)

     

    Today (Tuesday’s) Korea Times, in 3rd page article on Moon Jae In’s idea of building a athletic venue in DMZ for 2018, also says “Moon and his party have called for a halt on construction of a naval base in Jeju Island, claiming that the military seaport will destroy the environment in the country’s resort island.” I think Yi Whan Woo, the reporter, is mistaken about Moon’s intentions, but we can hope that is what Moon is committed to – peace for Gangjeong  (Post by  Catherine Christie )

  • December starts with continuous sit-in in the center of Seoul and release of all the arrested on Nov. 28

    On Dec. 1, while two young activists who were arrested on Nov. 28 and indicted by prosecutors since then were finally released by the court review on arrest warrant, the people who have started fast sit-in along with hair-shaving on Nov. 29 ended their sit-in in front of the National Assembly, after confirming many people’s solidarity and pledge by the politicians (See the below translated statement). Instead the sit-in will continue in the outdoor sit-in camp in the center of Seoul. Many people were happy at the good news that happened all together on the day. Today, Dec. 2 is Sunday. The Presidential election day of Dec. 19 is approaching soon. Construction vehicles passing the naval base project gates in Gangjeong stopped from the evening of Friday, Nov. 30 and people could take care life again after the high points of Nov. 28 and 29. However, in front of construction gate, the company thugs are removing people’s lumbers that people have filed up as barricade.  Gangjeong can never rest. Anyway, here are the stories on Dec. 1.

    Photo by Park Yongsung/ Two people who were arrested on Nov. 28 were finally released on Dec. 1. By the Dec. 1, all the three arrested on Nov. 28 were released.

    …………………………………………………………………………

    1. People’s statement ending the outdoor sit-in in front of the National Assembly on Dec. 1

     

    Statement by the ‘Let’s live together’ Sit-In Camp Village:

    The struggle to cut the budget on the Jeju naval base project and to stop construction will be continued

    Mayor Kang’s overnight sit-in protest on the street without the tent in front of the national assembly in Seoul. . .enduring the coldest night with the vinyl. . .Photo by Park Rae-goon (Facebook post by Regina Pyon)

    On Nov. 28, the Saenuri Party unilaterally passed the original budget bill on the 2013 Jeju naval base project that the Government has submitted, in the National Defense Committee of the National Assembly. The Jeju naval base is a project  full of flaws from the design to construction process; such as suspicion on the unreliable construction, charges on manipulation and unreasonable construction have been endlessly raised. However, despite such numerous problems, the Saenuri Party committed undemocratic and unjust behavior confirming, without proper verification,  whole amount of 209 billion won that the Government has submitted as the Jeju naval base project budget next year, .

    Thereupon, to stop the 2013 Jeju naval base budget to be passed in the Budget and Balance committee of the National assembly, Fr. Mun Jeong-Hyun, mayor Kang Dong-Kyun, Fr. Mun Kyu-Hyun, Father Jeong Man-Young (Kolbe Chung), Mr. Song Chang-Wook (a Jeju resident), Park Soon-Hee (ex-representative of Nationwide Catholic Committee for the Justice) etc. decided hair-shaving and started fast sit-in, bearing an outdoor sleep amid the cold winter winds along with the friends of ‘Lets’ Live Together’ Sit-In Camp Village in front of the National Assembly.

    When such hair-shaving and fast sit-in started, members of the Democratic United Party, Progressive Justice Party and United Progressive Party visited the camp and pledged the budget cut on the naval base. The Green Party members and Kim So-Yeon, Presidential candidate of the Workers also expressed their same will, having the outdoor sit-in together. Various human rights, civic labor movement, environmental groups supporting the cause of outdoor sit-in, also pledged to join the struggle to stop the Jeju naval base budget next year being passed in the National Assembly.

    Currently it is told that the National Assembly tentatively agreed to postpone the [decision] by the Budget and Balance committee that decides the budget next year, to the afterward of the Presidential election. The politicians who visited the outdoor sit-in camp in front of the National Assembly and who promised that they would stop the passage of the Jeju naval base budget [in the National Assembly] must keep the promise without fail. If not, we would stage a struggle to inquire the responsibility for breaking their words not only to the Saenuri Party(* the ruling conservative) but also to the opposition parties including the Democratic United Party.

    Now trusting their promise, we are to return back to the “Let’s live together Sit-In Camp Village” in front of the Daehanmoon [of the Deoksou Palace, in the center of Seoul]. However we make clear that our struggle does never finish with the ending of our sit-in in front of the National Assembly. Through the sit-in struggle extended in the “Let’s Live Together Sit-In Camp Village,” we will fight to the end for the whole cut on the 2013 Jeju naval base budget, and further, to totally revoke the Jeju naval base project.

    The sit-in in front of the National Assembly is not the sit-in only for the Gangjeong villagers and activists who oppose the Jeju naval base. It is also an outdoor sit-in of the “Let’s Live Together Sit-In Camp Village,” being with the bereaved families of Yongsan, laid-off workers of Ssangyong automobile company and anti-nuclear activists fighting against the nuclear development. We who are evicted and pushed away are fighting in solidarity, feeling one another’s pain together. Our fighting is a joint action in life and solidarity in struggle to stop this cruel system that increases the wealth and power of the haves who take the bitter grievous tear and cry of the poor and powerless as manure.

    We will fight together to the end until the day of total revocation on the Jeju naval base project with our power of solidarity and joint action. Our solidarity and struggle will continue.

    Dec. 1, 2012

    Let’s live together Sit-In Camp Village

    (The original Korean statement(see here) was forwarded by Baek Gayoon, National Network of Korean Civil Society for Opposing to the Naval Base in Jeju Island)

     

    Videos on Sit-In in front of National Assembly from Nov. 29 to Dec. 1

    The 2nd night of Sit-in protest in Seoul urging the entire budget cut of Jeju naval base. . .Enduring the coldest night of this winter with the music. . .Lee Tae-ho, secretary general of PSPD, is playing the alto recorder(flute) ‘Gabriel’s Oboe’ of ‘The Mission’. . Video by Fr. Youngmin Choi, Jesuit priest (Facebook post by Regina Pyon)

    Freezing night on the street. . .even the vinyl roof was not allowed for the sit-in in front of the national assembly bldg. . .After the catholic mass at noon on December 1, the overnight sit-in has closed as the budget and balance committee of national assembly was informed to be held after the presidential election on December 19 to decide the funding of Jeju naval base of 2013 finally. Flim by Dunguree Park Seong-su (Facebook post by Regina Pyon)

     

     

    Other images in Seoul

    Post by Christian Karl/ No naval base sign projected on the City Hall building, Seoul
    Photo and caption by Emily Wang/ Festival in front of Deoksugung Palace. In front of the Deoksugung palace, a delicious and cheerful festival is going on. It’s a festival to give the solidarity to many social issues in Korea, including the budget issue of naval base. People are making the struggle cheerful in the cold winter in Seoul.

     

    ………………………………………………………………………..

    2. All the activists  were released by the evening of Dec. 1. However, abuse of state power has to be continuously raised as an issue. 

    Among the three arrested on Nov. 28, Mr. Kim Kook-Nam, a Jeju native who climbed up to a car wearing wire net at the risk of imprisonment was released by the evening of Nov. 29. However, Mr. Park Han-Baek and Mr. Park Jong-Hoon, two young men at their 20s and 30s who came from the main land were not released until the evening of Dec. 1. Mr. park Jong-Hoon was underneath a construction vehicle to stop the entry/exit of construction vehicles while 25 year old Park Han-Baek was just sitting in front of car with other people. Both of them were told to be charged with accumulated charges in the past, too, for their protests to stop the base project.

    Photo by Jang Hyun-Woo/ The photo is Mr. park Jong-Hoon who was not released until Dec. 1. Mr. Park Jong-Hoon entered underneath a car to block construction vehicles on Nov. 28. See more photos by Jang Hyun-Woo, here.

    Otherwise, in case of Mr. park Han-Baek,  “The police carried a 25 year old young man away to a police car by an error judgment in presence of Lee Dong-Min, chief of the Seogwipo Police station(* A man from the main land and who ordered the blast of the Gureombi Rock, which went for two months, starting on March 7, this year). While the police acknowledged wrong order, the police and prosecutors were complicit to request imprisonment of him for investigation, charging him obstruction of business. See the below video.

    On the unjust arrest of a 25 year old young man on Nov. 28

    Video by Gami Kim (Source: Click here)

    Photo and caption by Park Yong-Sung on Nov. 30/”Two men are now in the Dongbu Police station, Jeju City and there would be the court review on the execution on arrest warrant against them in the Jeju local court at 4 pm, Dec. 1.”

     

    Upon the release of the two, peace activist, Park Yongsung wrote:

    ‘It is very clear that there is happening cracks among the police, prosecutors and court. I want to believe that the power of people can change politics. We want to believe that Gangjeong can change the world.

    Two friends told running to us, “I am sorry to make you have worried on me. My conviction for Gangjeong and peace became stronger when I acknowledged that I may be imprisoned. It is thanks to you who made all the efforts for us. “

    The lawyer is told to have succeeded to dishearten the infamous prosecutor, Park Kyun-Joon [who has seldom failed to send people opposing base project to the prison.’

    Another peace activist, Jo Yak Gol mentions that  abuse by state power to indiscriminately issue arrest warrant to people should be stopped.  Here is his video and summary on what really happened on Nov. 28.

    On the day of ruling party’s unilateral pass of budget bill in the National Defense Committee of the National Assembly, violent police oppression on the people’s non-violent civil disobedience happened.

    Video and summary by Jo Yak Gol(Source: Click here)

    Summary( translated)

    1. The police are dragging an international peacekeeper to the ground. He was only taking photos. The police even lie that he fell down because he mis-stepped. The police even prevent people’s rights to free speech and report.

    2. A peacekeeper(Mr. Park Han-Baek)  was arrested by the order of the chief of the Seogwipo police station, Lee Dong-Min, with no reason given, during the police roughing out of people. While the police acknowledge that arrest of him was by an error judgement, the chief of the Seogwipo Police station escapes the site amid people’s protest. The young man is now facing the court review on arrest warrant against him.

    3. The police arrest a peacekeeper(Mr. Kim Kook-Nam) who was just quietly sitting on the car with wire net in his upper body. The police threw down him to the police vehicle with no safety equipment around.

    Eventually the man was injured by the wire net during the police’s violent arrest of him. (released on the night of Nov. 29)

    4. A woman cries during the police roughing out of people, while she was pushed down here and there, with her under clothes exposed. The police just continue their job, ignoring the woman.

    5. While a peace keeper(Mr. Park Jong-Hoon) underneath a truck with his hands handcuffed to the truck, Koo Seul-Hwan, the security director of the Seogwipo police station order his policemen to forcefully cut the handcuffs and take him away. Koo Seul-Hwan, the chief of the security director is the very guy who ordered to use hammer on March 19 and electric air saw on April 16 to cut the PVC pipes through which people connected their arms together to stop explosive cars and construction vehicles. Despite Park’s  scream of pain, the police ignores it. The young man, Mr. Park Jong-Hoon  in his early 30s is now facing court review on arrest warrant against him.

    The police overexertion of crackdown in violation of human rights is only for the interest of navy and Samsung!

     

    …………………………………………………………………………..

    3. See also Carol Reckinger’s blog: “Gochak “Detention Circles