Here is an update from the No Bases Stories Korea blog about the struggle to stop the construction of a naval base in Jeju island, a world peace island. Although the base will be technically a South Korean base, it will be used by the U.S. as part of its missile defense system encircling China.
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http://nobasestorieskorea.blogspot.com/2010/03/translation-fwd-construction-for-jeju.html
Jeju Naval Business Committee: Construction Set to be at the End of March, and Construction for the Harbor and Bay to be Started around June
Image source: Kim Kyung-Duk, Seogwipo Daily Newspaper, March 4, 2010‘Shall the Spring Come to Gangjeong?:
[Report] Visiting to Gangjeong Village before the Ceremony for Naval Base
“ Even though, this tent vigil is very hard, we cannot have the spare to concern about farming.”’ # ‘The village people are doing the tent vigils in the naval base planned area’
‘The villagers are setting the tents even in the planned area for the ceremony to set to work
on the naval base and doing the tent vigil.
‘The roads are so stuffed and filled with the placards and flags of such as, ‘Please keep Gangjeong’,
‘ [We death-defiantly] oppose the naval base’, and ‘Withdraw the naval base [plan] of the great environment damage’. The peaceful good-water & land of the village landscape has gone.
Only the tension that would burst out whenever, is flowing, along with Gangjeong stream.’
Image source: same as the above link
# ‘The villagers are setting the tents even in the planned area for the ceremony to start to work
on the naval base and doing the tent vigil.
‘The villagers live at tent 24 hours, make-shifting by 4 ~5people as one team each time.
A villager (54) still clearly remembers Jan. 18 when the police indiscriminately took away the protesting villagers,
to prepare the ceremony to start to work on the construction of the naval base.
“I can not forget my stunned heart when the innocent ordinary people without any crime for their whole life time,
were helplessly being dragged. The elder women and men are still suffering for the pain in their waists and heads
due to shock at the time.” The hardest thing is the apathy of people…
he says that the villagers’ basic request to stop the ceremony
at least until the result of lawsuit has been totally ignored.’
* The construction of the 1st part (harbor and bay constructional work),
which had originally been planned to be in January, had been handed over to Samsung and Daerim.
The Navy wants to finish the construction by the end of 2014. See the Dec. 18, 2009 blog.
The government has allocated the budget for the Jeju Naval Base
at about 92.5 billion won [about $90 million] for 2010.
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* Below are the arbitrary translations of the most parts of the two articles of Sisa Jeju and Seogwipo Daily Newspaper on March 4, which were combined together for compensating the contents each other.
The translated Sisa Jeju article (black regular letters):
Construction for the Jeju Naval Base Would be Set Up at the End of March
:Jeju Naval Business Committee, “The Basic Plan for the Reclamation of the Public Sea has been permitted”… Construction for the Harbor and Bay Would be Started around June
March 4, Thursday, 2010
Kang Soo-Jung (kkangsoo83(at)sisajeju.com)
The translated Seogwipo Daily Newspaper article (Blue italic letters):
Despite the Villagers’ Resistance, the Naval Base is Being Steadily Prepared
: The Navy [has Requested] the License for Reclamation on March 3, and the Approval for the Realization Plan on March 4
: Villagers Demand, “Stop it Until the [Result] of the Administrative Lawsuit.”
March 4, Thursday, 2010
Kim Kyung-Duk (tree (at)seogwipo.co.kr)
(* Seogwipo is the area where the Gangjeong village is located and the naval base would be set up.)
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