Sign the petition to Save Jeju – No Naval Base!
The Jeju Weekly published a good update on the Jeju anti-base protests and recent crackdown by authorities:
Rising tension in Gangjeong
Conflict continues surrounding naval base construction on the south of the island
Tuesday, July 19, 2011, 13:25:27
Nicole Erwin
contributor@jejuweekly.com
On the proposed site of the base sits the tent where film critic Yang Yoon-Mo lived for three years. Yang, after a 70-day hunger strike in jail, is no longer allowed access to the site. Photo by Alpha Newberry
Four passenger vans of Seogwipo City police came to Gangjeong on the morning of July 15 to arrest three men: village Chief Kang Dong Kyun, activist Song Kang Ho, and Ko Kwon Il, all key figures in a protest movement against construction of the Gangjeong naval base, located on the south side of the island.
The orders came from Chief of Police Song Yang Wa after receiving a warrant from the Jeju District Court. On the same day came a directive issued by the South Korean Navy and Minister of Justice Lee Gui Nam that aims to bar the village chief along with 71 other individuals and members of five civil service organizations from entering the land, owned by the government, on which the naval base is to be constructed. Kang Dong Kyun has since been released.
Protesters of the base have occupied the land — on the shores of Jongdeok — for some time, and these latest arrests come not long after the June 20 clash between Kang and Song on one side and Samsung and Daelim workers along with South Korean naval officers on the other. On June 20, Kang and Song attempted to board a Samsung-owned barge. They were violently resisted, and Song was transported unconscious to a local hospital. He later checked out with minor back pain.
A villager anxiously looks on as village leader Kang Dong Kyun has a heated discussion with workers on the dredger. Photo by Alpha Newberry
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Governor Woo Keun Min has not been without comment. On a July 1 interview with Headline Jeju he said, “I think this is the time for Gangjeong village residents, the navy, the government and Jeju Island to make a rational decision together in order to map out specific construction plans of naval base.” The governor also restated that he would settle the related conflicts based on the principle of connecting national security to future Jeju development and protecting Gangjeong residents before everything else.
Other civil action is pending. Since Jongdeok is located in an “absolute preservation area,” protesters say that construction is not legal at all. Jeju University Law Professor Shin Yong In says the base resisters are awaiting the Supreme Court ruling on the litigation appeal in the “Change of Disposition on Absolute Preservation Area” submitted by the citizens of Gangjeong.
The Jeju District Court dismissed the case in question earlier on the grounds that “there is no standing of citizens.” Shin said the court did not judge the illegality in the change of disposition on an absolute preservation area. The ruling is expected within the next year. If a Supreme Court ruling is in favor of the litigation then the Navy will be forced to build elsewhere. If built, the 97.5 billion won ($86 million) naval base, is proposed to be the home of 20 Aegis destroyer warships.
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