Save Jeju Now

Update: See the Dec. 29 statement to Cut the budget at the end of this (Dec. 31).

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Fwd from Save Jeju Now

Today, you may help us by sending this to the members of the Budget and Balance Committee of the National Assembly.

The villagers and people have been doing peace bows despite cold weather  in front of the National Assembly, Seoul,  since Dec. 24. Today, Dec. 29 is the final day on the talk on the 2013 Jeju naval base budget.  See the below for contact email address

PHOTOS OF A KOREAN ENVIRONMENTAL HOLOCAUST, DECEMBER 29, 2012 Snapshot #1: The south Jeju Sea, which contains one of the world’s largest and most spectacular soft-coral forests as well as a UNESCO Biosphere Reserve, has been infiltrated by 13 coral-dredging barges. The barges are working around the clock to crush and destroy the precious and amazing coral habitats. The idea is to build a state-of-the-art military navy base that will accommodate sonar-emitting nuclear submarines, Aegis-missile technology destroyers, the largest U.S. nuclear aircraft carrier, and other warships. Snapshot #2: Villagers from Gangjeong perform thousands of full bows in the snow from morning to night in front of the Seoul Assembly. They have been here since before Christmas to protest the construction of the base. Construction of the base will destroy everything they value dearly: their food source, their culture, their history, their future. The Korean government tells them the base is needed for national security. But the villagers do not believe turning their island into a military target will make them more secure. Security for the chaebol minority is death to Korea’s working class people and nature. Gangjeong villagers protest base construction on Christmas Eve. Snapshot #3: Far to the south, on Jeju Island, Gangjeong villagers hold a continual protest vigil at the construction gate, around the clock, through snow and hail. They block the continual parade of construction trucks entering the base-construction zone, in an effort to delay the project as much as possible. Snapshot #4: A worker on one of the dredging barges has collected a few of the many beautiful, once-living shell creatures he dredged up in the course of a day’s work. The marine life here is some of the most diverse and abundant in the world. If the base is not stopped, all life here will be dead, from the siltation, release of heavy metals and other toxins, and sonar. Korea’s last pod of dolphins will perish, since they are not long-distance swimmers and there is no temperate refuge in proximity of the destruction. The Gangjeong villagers are crying, “They are killing all the creatures in our sea!” *               *               *               *               *               * If the Jeju base is built, nothing could be more dangerous to the future security of Korea (or more profitable to the chaebol). It would be a message, loud and clear, to China and North Korea that the Republic of Korea staunchly supports the U.S. military agenda. We must emphasize DIPLOMACY, NOT BASE-BUILDING. CUT THE 2013 BUDGET FOR THE JEJU NAVY BASE CONSTRUCTION!

1009 General Kennedy Ave. #2 | San Francisco, CA 94129 US

Members of the Budget and Balance committee, Democratic United Party (21)and United Progressive Party(2)

ggh000@naver.com, kdc2000@na.go.kr,
kimcj@assembly.go.kr, ktn21@assembly.go.kr,
wraenoh@hanmail.net, bdmin1958@assembly.go.kr,
parknamchun@naver.com, jhok100@hanmail.net,
intoan429@hanmail.net, ams@osan21.or.kr,
YSJ@assembly.go.kr, lmk2014@na.go.kr,
smlee@assembly.go.kr, lys6062@assembly.go.kr,
lys6062@assembly.go.kr, ssaribi317@hanmail.net,
choiminhee51@gmail.com, js21@assembly.go.kr,
youngvote@hanmail.net, ksd519@gmail.com,
jinbosk@gmail.com, moonriver@gmail.com

Members of the Budget and Balance committee, ruling Saenuri Party(27)

ggotop@assembly.go.kr, ksdd22@naver.com,
ldek3525@naver.com, my733@hanmail.net,
kst0331@assembly.go.kr, kjg7942@jinjucity.com,
taewon@ktw.or.kr, ansung@assembly.go.kr,
sungkull@na.go.kr, 2020shp@na.go.kr,
yg4namgu@naver.com, ljy2111@assembly.go.kr,
yschang49@assembly.go.kr, bgchoung@assembly.go.kr,
jhs01000@hanmail.net, johj98@assembly.go.kr,
ijysoon@naver.com, mphonglove@hanmail.net,
hip@assembly.go.kr, jiman0530@naver.com,
khp316@na.go.kr

(For the details of 50 members in the Budget and Balance committee in Korean, see here. The address above are collection of the available)

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The below is a translation of the Dec. 29 statement by the Civic Peace Forum, Civic Society Organizations’ Solidarity Meeting. You can see the original Korean statement, here.

Statement

The 2013 Jeju naval base budget should be totally cut

Park Geun-Hye, President-Elect and ruling and opposition party members should keep promise with the Jeju Island people.

1. The National Assembly discussion on the 2013 budget is approaching to its very end. The ruling and opposition party members and National Assembly members should cut all 2013 Jeju naval base budget. The reasons that the whole cut of naval base budget is inevitable are in the below.

2. Firstly, ‘objective verification on base layout,’ that has been the promised with the Island people, agreed by the ruling and opposition party members in Dec. 2011 was not properly carried on. The purpose that the Budget and Balance committee of the National Assembly in 2011 cut most part of 2012 naval base budget was to straighten out the layout flaws of the so called ‘civilian-military complex port for tour beauty’ that the government and navy have made a pledge. When the National Assembly cut the budget in 2011, it demanded the Government and navy to ‘objectively verify on the matter of the cruise ships, regarding their entry/exit of port and coming/leaving alongside the pier. Since then, the technical verification committee composed under the supervision of the Office of Prime Minister acknowledged on ‘flaws on the base design.’ However, in the field, construction has been enforced without fundamental change on layout that would not settle the cause of problems. Even though the navy made some makeshift remedy proposals such as rearrangement of the structures in harbor & bay, change in navigation route, super tug boats that are to partly change the layout without construction stop and fundamental re-layout, the matters on the cruise entry/exit of port, cruise coming/leaving alongside the pier have never been proved. Any simulation that would verify an independent and objective simulation has not been carried out by now yet. Therefore the navy and government have no basis to demand necessary budget to enforce construction as the agreement by the ruling and opposition parties have not been made in 2011.

3. Secondly, the problems of the layout that were partly changed after the technical verification committee acknowledged the layout flaws are being disclosed one after another. The representing case is that the altered cruise navigation route (30° angle navigation route) for the reason of safety matter goes through the natural protection zone of the Tiger Island (natural memorial No. 421) and UESCO Biosphere Reserve (Buffer zone) therefore serious environmental destruction is expected. Also despite the navy’s change of base design in parts, it was disclosed that the space for the 150,000 ton cruises to turn is still lack and it is even far from the standard brought up by the Ministry of Land, Transportation, and Maritime Affairs. The verification on those new points in disputes have not been established at all, either.

 4. Thirdly, caissons that are the core facilities of the harbor and bay construction have been largely destroyed due to the typhoons of this summer. Further, suspicions on unreliable construction have been raised through ‘inside’ reports (emphasis by me). It is not only unreasonable to continue cassion installation construction without proper investigation and measures but could bring a tremendous budget waste.

 5. Those basis consistently show that the base currently being built in the Gangjeong village is not the civilian-military complex port for tour beauty that the Jeju Island people have promised to the Government and navy but it has a serious defect in technical and environmental way. It is not reasonable to compile the budget of more than 200 billion won budget to enforce the naval base construction that the villagers strongly oppose without the fundamental measure or objective verification that the Jeju Island people can trust. Park Geun-Hye, President-elect (*Suspicions on unfair vote and ballot-counting process have been continuously raised) has stated that she would drive for the construction of civilian-military complex port for tour beauty when she visited the Jeju during the {Presidential election. It is not to be responsible and to follow the will of the Island people to push a military base with technical and environmental defects in the name of the Civilian-Military Complex Port for Tour Beauty.

 6.As the ruling and opposition parties have set up the standard of ‘no verification, no budget,’ by the ruling and opposition party agreement in 2011, it is reasonable that the National Assembly cut the whole Jeju naval base project budget proposed in the situation when the verification that the National Assembly has not been properly established. If the political field enforces the naval base construction without keeping promise to its own principle and Island people, the Jeju island will be wrapped up by more serious conflicts. We demand the wise choice by the ruling and opposition parties again.

Dec. 29

Civic Peace Forum, Civic Society Organizations’ Solidarity Meeting.

 (Fwd by Kim Hee-Soon, PSPD. National Network of Korean Civil Society for Opposing to the Naval Base in Jeju Island)