Tag: protests

Here is an update from the anti-THAAD frontlines in Seongju county:

In Soseong-ri, a small farming village of about 80 residents in southern South Korea, a band of elderly women is at the forefront of protests against the deployment of a U.S. anti-missile system next to their neighborhood.

A dozen or so women, in their 60s to 80s, stand watch each day around the clock to make sure no military vehicles enter the deployment site through the only road to it — a former golf course owned by a leading conglomerate, the Lotte Group.

The vigil has forced the U.S. military to use helicopters instead to shuttle fuel and supplies to the site hosting the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) system.  (………..)

The women, who brandish canes and umbrellas at the military helicopters and shout for them to go away every time one flies through the village, say they have no interest in the politics of the deployment.

But they protest, longing for the peace they had before.

“I can’t sleep. I’m taking sedatives at night but I still get only two hours of sleep,” said 87-year-old Na Wi-bun, who lives within a kilometer (0.62 mile) of the site and says she can hear the generator that powers THAAD humming around the clock.  [Reuters]

You can read more at the link, but it is ironic they are complaining about noise when their protest is causing the noise.  The helicopters would not be flying if trucks were allowed to drive up the road to the site.  Also the generators as we have seen in with the radar site in Japan can be muffled and the noise ultimately eliminated when the radar is hooked up to commercial power.  However, if construction crews cannot drive up the road to hook up to commercial power then the noise will remain.

A weekly rally is under way in front of the Japanese Embassy, which is being renovated, in downtown Seoul on May 17, 2017, to demand Japan apologize for the sexual slavery of Korean women by the Japanese military during World War II. (Yonhap)

A stone tower of peace stands on the roadside in Seongju, 296 kilometers southeast of Seoul, on May 3, 2017, as a symbol of protest against the deployment of the U.S. THAAD missile defense system in the county. (Yonhap)

Residents of Soseong Village, North Gyeongsang Province hold a press conference calling for the US to make a formal apology for a soldier who was seen smiling as he used his mobile phone to film residents protesting the deployment of the THAAD missile defense system, Apr. 28.  [Hankyoreh]

Civic environmental activists carry out a protest warning about fine dust in Incheon, west of Seoul, on April 19, 2017. Fine dust, mostly from China, poses a serious threat to the health of the country especially in the spring. (Yonhap)

Pedestrians look at workers on top of a billboard in central Seoul on April 14, 2017, who started a hunger strike there to demand the abolition of layoffs and temps, and the guarantee of primary labor rights. (Yonhap)

Residents of Seongju County confront policemen on May 29, 2017, as they block the entry of trucks to the site picked for the deployment of a U.S. anti-missile defense system. Five trucks tried to enter the golf course in the county, 296 kilometers south of Seoul, that will host the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) for environmental inspection but then turned back. The deployment is fiercely opposed by local residents and some civic groups and religious organizations, including Won Buddhism which provided this photo. (Yonhap)

Rep. Won Yoo-chul of South Korea’s ruling Liberty Korea Party stages a protest in front of the Seoul-based Chinese Embassy on March 4, 2017, against China’s economic retaliation over the country’s plan to install an advanced missile defense system. (Yonhap)

Liberal and conservative groups host two separate rallies — one calling for President Park Geun-hye’s resignation and the other against Park’s impeachment — in central Seoul on Feb. 25, 2017, as she marked the fourth anniversary of her presidency. Park was impeached in December over a massive corruption scandal centered on her close friend Choi Soon-sil. The Constitutional Court is expected to determine whether to approve the impeachment or not next month. (Yonhap)

Here is yet another example of someone in Korea doing something wacky to show their displeasure with something:

An elderly man unsatisfied with the capital city’s development policy stabbed himself while Seoul Mayor Park Won-soon was delivering a congratulatory speech at an opening of an exhibition at the city hall Friday, municipal officials and witnesses said.

The 79-year old man, identified only by his last name Lee, approached Mayor Park with a weapon at around 10 a.m. and stabbed himself in the abdomen, after shouting “Can you say you are a mayor?” and “I need to die,” according to the witnesses. He was drunk when the incident took place.

Lee was rushed to a nearby hospital and is in stable condition.

He reportedly had conflicts with a district office after the city government decided not to carry out a development project. The amount of compensation suggested by the district office fell short of what was asked by a development committee headed by Lee.  [Yonhap]

You can read more at the link, but I wonder if this guy was inspired by this brave defender of Dokdo?