CINA

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The following is the full text of MB's today's "Address to the Nation" (in Pyongyang it'll be possibly interpreted as "Declaration of War"!!):

Fellow Koreans,
I am standing here today, keenly aware that the Korean Peninsula is facing a critical turning point.

My fellow citizens,
The Cheonan was sunk by a surprise North Korean torpedo attack. Again, the perpetrator was North Korea. Their attack came at a time when the people of the Republic of Korea were enjoying their well-earned rest after a hard day's work. Once again, North Korea violently shattered our peace.

The sinking of the Cheonan constitutes a military provocation against the Republic of Korea by North Korea.

Since the end of the Korean War, the North has perpetrated incessant armed provocations against us, including the bombing attack against the presidential delegation at the Aung San Martyr's Mausoleum in Myanmar and the bombing in midair of Korean Air Flight 858. The North Koreans, however, have never officially admitted the crimes they committed. This time is no different. They continue to insist that my Government fabricated the sinking of the Cheonan.

I am not surprised by such North Korean behavior and this was the reason why I emphasized, from the very beginning, the importance of conducting a thorough and objective scientific investigation into the incident. I also asked the nation to exercise patience and self-restraint. It was important for us not to come to any hasty conclusion until the results of the investigation came out.

Finally, on May 20th, the international joint investigation group released their conclusive findings, backed by definitive evidences. With the release of the final report, no responsible country in the international community will be able to deny the fact that the Cheonan was sunk by North Korea.

Fellow citizens,
We have always tolerated North Korea's brutality, time and again. We did so because we have always had a genuine longing for peace on the Korean Peninsula. But now things are different. North Korea will pay a price corresponding to its provocative acts. I will continue to take stern measures to hold the North accountable.

From this moment, no North Korean ship will be allowed to make passage through any of the shipping lanes in the waters under our control, which has been allowed by the Inter-Korean Agreement on Maritime Transportation. The sea routes meant for inter-Korean exchanges and cooperation must never again be used for armed provocations.

Trade and exchanges between the Republic of Korea and North Korea will also be suspended. We still remember the killing of an innocent South Korean tourist by a North Korean armed guard at the Mt. Kumgang resort. More recently, North Korea unilaterally confiscated South Korean assets at this same resort. Worse yet, the North sank the Cheonan taking the precious lives of our young sailors. Under these circumstances, any inter-Korean trade or other cooperative activity is meaningless.
However, we will continue to provide assistance for infants and children. Matters pertaining to the Kaesong Industrial Complex will be duly considered, taking its unique characteristics into consideration.

From now on, the Republic of Korea will not tolerate any provocative act by the North and will maintain the principle of proactive deterrence. If our territorial waters, airspace or territory are violated, we will immediately exercise our right of self-defense.

The North's military provocation against the Cheonan on March 26 violated the Charter of the United Nations and contravened the existing agreements reached for the sake of peace and stability on the Korean Peninsula, including the Korean War Armistice Agreement and the Basic Agreement between South and North Korea.

In close consultations with the nations concerned, the Government will refer this matter to the UN Security Council, so that the international community can join us in holding the North accountable. Many countries around the world have expressed their full support for our position.

I solemnly urge the North Korean authorities to do the following. Apologize immediately to the Republic of Korea and the international community. Immediately punish those who are responsible for and those who were involved in the incident. These are basic measures that the North has to take before anything else. If the North continues to make excuses and wild assertions as it has always done in the past, they will not find any place to stand in the world.

My fellow Koreans and our compatriots in North Korea,
The overriding goal of the Republic of Korea is not military confrontation. Our goal has always been the attainment of real peace and stability on the Korean Peninsula. Our goal is to bring about prosperity for all Koreans. Our vision is to realize the peaceful reunification of the Korean Peninsula.

This year marks the 60th anniversary of the outbreak of the Korean War. The Republic of Korea is no longer what it once was-an impoverished nation, suffering from the scars of war. Rising above the ruins of war, the Republic of Korea has achieved an impressive miracle of progress guided by the constitutional foundations of liberal democracy and a free market economy. The Republic of Korea is continuing its confident march toward the center stage of the world.

All countries across the globe are competing with one another to ensure the prosperity of their own citizens. At the same time, all nations are working together for the sake of co-prosperity and peace in the global community. The entire world is changing. Changes are taking place faster than ever.

But, what is the situation in North Korea? Nothing has changed over the last sixty years. It is a country still holding onto an empty ambition of forcefully reuniting the Korean Peninsula under the banner of communism. It is a country that still believes in making threats and committing terrorist activities. North Korea's goal is to instigate division and conflict.

For what reason and for whom is it doing what it does?

As compatriots, I am truly ashamed.
It is now time for the North Korean regime to change.
Today, no country can maintain peace and make economic development on its own. It is imperative to conduct exchanges and cooperate with the world and to join the path that everyone else is taking. It is time to look at reality and make that courageous decision. It is time for the North Korean regime to start thinking about what is truly good for the regime itself and its people.

The Korean Peninsula must not be left standing as the danger zone in Northeast Asia. The two Koreas must take the initiative and resolve this problem. The Peninsula must become a new cradle of world peace.

Fellow Koreans,
Permeating this War Memorial of Korea are the spirits of the soldiers of the Republic of Korea and United Nations who shed blood on this land. Also dedicated here was the monument memorializing the 46 fallen warriors of the corvette Cheonan.
Through the Cheonan tragedy, we learned a painful lesson once again. We had been forgetting the reality that the nation faces the most belligerent regime in the world.

We have to admit that our Armed Forces made mistakes as well. On the occasion of this incident, the Government will solidify the national security readiness. The discipline of the Armed Forces will be reestablished, military reform efforts will be expedited and combat capabilities will be reinforced drastically. The ROK-US joint combat readiness will be further strengthened on the basis of strong ROK-US alliance.

Public awareness of the importance of national security will be strengthened as well. We must never waver in the face of threats, provocations and divisive schemes by the North. We must become one when it comes to national security.

Fellow citizens,
Regardless of how rough the storm may be, we will continue to walk steadily on the path toward a prosperous nation, a compassionate society and a strong country.
The great people of the Republic of Korea will build an even greater country.

Fellow Koreans,
Let us all join forces and march forward together.

Thank you very much.

Source: Korea Times, 5.24

Related articles:
☞ Seoul: North will pay for sinking (al-Jazeera)
☞ South Korea suspends trade with North (Guardian)
☞ South Korea lashes out at North Korea (CNN)

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As today's (bourgeois) Korea Times is reporting, the LMB administration intensifies its repression campaign against the KTU:

134 teachers to be fired over political activities 
 

The progressive Korea Teachers and Education Workers' Union (KTU) is facing an uncertain future as education authorities are moving to dismiss more than 100 of its unionized teachers.

The planned dismissal will be the largest ever since the union's establishment in 1989, and has sparked a strong protest from the union.

The Ministry of Education, Science and Technology announced Sunday it was moving to sack 134 public school teachers, who reportedly signed up for the membership of the minor opposition Democratic Labor Party, and suspend four others.

"Teachers are bound to maintain their political neutrality. Paying membership fees to support a certain political party is illegal," the ministry said.

Of those fired, 50 ― who publicly denounced the government last year ― will be dismissed without benefits, depriving them of pensions and other perks given to civil servants.

The dismissal process is expected to take about 60 days.

The action comes following prosecution indictments of 148 teachers at public and 35 from private schools for joining the progressive political party earlier this year.

The KTU leader, Chung Jin-hwo, labeled the incident as a "Bloody Sunday" and said the union will join hands with liberal civic groups to pressure the government to reverse the decision.

Some leaders have already started a hunger strike in front of the ministry building in central Seoul, and are planning anti-government demonstrations during the June 2 local election campaign period.

"We have explained to the government several times that the money handed to the DLP was a donation, not a membership fee. Moreover, being interested in political issues should not be grounds for dismissal," Chung said in a press conference in Seoul.

"Punishing the members before a court ruling is ridiculous. They are holding a witch-hunt before the local elections," said Yang Sung-yoon, head of the Korean Government Employees' Union.

The KTU has been at odds with the conservative administration over state-run standardized exams for elementary and secondary school students, and teacher evaluation programs.

Recently, Rep. Cho Jeon-hyeok of the ruling Grand National Party disclosed a list of its members on his Web site, citing parents' right to know the political affiliation of their children's teachers. A court banned this for violating the teachers' privacy and ordered him to pay 30 million won in fines for each day the names were left posted on his site.

 
http://www.koreatimes.co.kr/www/news/nation/2010/05/117_66356.html

Related article:
☞ Teachers’ union faces crisis (K. Herald, 5.23)

 
PS:
Just three weeks ago K. Times reported about 'New ways' to harm KTU...

For more about the subject please check out LabourStart!

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Well, a few parts of NK's official statements regarding the "3.26 Hwanghae CheonAn - CHT.02D Meeting" (*) were already quoted by the SK and in'l media...
But here and now you can "enjoy" the complete stuff (source: KCNA, 5.21)!

1. Statement by the National Defense Commission:

We had already warned the south Korean group of traitors not to make reckless remarks concerning the sinking of warship "Cheonan" of the puppet navy.

Nevertheless, the group of traitors had far-fetchedly tried to link the case with us without offering any material evidence. It finally announced the results of the joint investigation based on a sheer fabrication, which assert that the warship was sunken by our torpedo attack, in a bid to mislead the public opinion inside and outside Korea.

It is, at the same time, crying out for "punishment" and "retaliation" internally and foolishly seeking to prod the international community into applying additional "sanctions" against the DPRK.

What matters is that traitor Lee Myung Bak is taking the lead in such anti-DPRK smear campaign, even daring slander the headquarters of our revolution.

Meanwhile, Kim Thae Yong and other gangsters of the south Korean puppet military accustomed to flattery and blind obedience echo Lee Myung Bak's outbursts. This smear campaign is fanned up by Ryu Myung Hwan and other ultra-rightist conservatives of south Korea.

This is also joined by the U.S. and Japanese aggressors who are making desperate efforts to keep their hostile policy towards the DPRK on its orbit.

We would like to question them so busy linking the above-said case with the DPRK why they don't link with it the death of a puppet army soldier, crashes of fighter plane and gunship of the puppet navy and air force and the sinking of a civilian fishing boat that occurred one after another almost simultaneously.

It is the age of science and technology.

As a swollen balloon is bound to break, any lie is bound to be brought to light no matter how hard one may try to make it sound plausible.

What is evident is that the sinking of warship "Cheonan" can never be construed otherwise than a "conspiratorial farce" and "charade" orchestrated by the group of traitors in a deliberate and brigandish manner to achieve certain political and military aims because only 46 soldiers met miserable deaths while officers survived the case.

This being a hard reality, they are pointing a dirty accusing finger at us like a thief crying "Stop the thief!"

It is a trite method of the successive south Korean puppet regimes to fake up a shocking case and use it for floating a story about "north wind" whenever they find themselves in a crisis.

These days they are using for this plot even "deserters from the north" who had found their ways to a dumping ground and human scum.

The National Defence Commission of the DPRK responsible for the defence of the country and the security of the nation clarifies the principled stand of our army and people in view of the grave situation where the sinister plot of the group of traitors may lead to reckless actions against us.

1. As the group of traitors declared that the sinking of the warship "Cheonan" is linked with us, the NDC of the DPRK will dispatch an inspection group to the spot of south Korea to verify material evidence concerning the linkage.

The group of traitors should produce before the dignified inspection group of the DPRK material evidence proving that the sinking of the warship is linked with us.

We remind the group of traitors in advance that there should be not a shred of doubt about the material evidence to be produced before the inspection group.

2. Our army and people will promptly react to any "punishment" and "retaliation" and to any "sanctions" infringing upon our state interests with various forms of tough measures including an all-out war.

The all-out war to be undertaken by us will be a sacred war involving the whole nation, all the people and the whole state for completely eliminating the strongholds of the group of traitors who orchestrated "the conspiratorial farce" and "charade" and their followers and building instead a reunified power in which the whole nation emerges powerful and prosperous.

The tough countermeasures to be taken by us will prove to be practical actions of justice for dealing unpredictable sledge-hammer blows at the group of traitors who blocks national reconciliation and unity and stirs up an atmosphere of confrontation in the south Korean society.

3. Now that the group of traitors declared what it called "decisive actions", we will brand any small incident that occurs in the territorial waters, air and land where our sovereignty is exercised including the West Sea of Korea as a provocation of confrontation maniacs and react to it with unlimited retaliatory blow, merciless strong physical blow.

It is our invariable iron will to react to "retaliation" with more powerful retaliation and to "punishment" with indiscriminate punishment of our style.

Availing ourselves of this opportunity, we sternly warn the U.S. and Japanese authorities and riff-raffs, their poor lackeys, to act with discretion.

The world will clearly see what dear price the group of traitors will have to pay for the clumsy "conspiratorial farce" and "charade" concocted to stifle compatriots.

http://www.kcna.co.jp/item/2010/201005/news20/20100520-04ee.html

2. Statement by the Committee for the Peaceful(^^) Reunification of Korea:

          S.Korea Accused of Linking Ship Sinking with North 
 
A spokesman for the Committee for the Peaceful Reunification of Korea issued a statement on Friday assailing the south Korean puppet forces for releasing extremely provocative "results of the investigation" into the sinking of a warship of the south Korean puppet navy in a bid to hurl mud at the north.

The statement noted that the publication of the above-said "results of the investigation" is another extremely ridiculous charade staged by the puppet group in a bid to hurt the dignity of the DPRK, steadily tighten the "sanctions" against it, harm and suffocate it in conspiracy with its U.S. and Japanese masters, much upset by the might of the Republic advancing by leaps and bounds toward a thriving nation.

The Lee Myung Bak group, while working with bloodshot eyes to escalate confrontation with fellow countrymen, drew the conclusion from the day the case occurred that the warship was "sunken by the north" and has since conducted intensive investigation on its basis to hatch a plot, the statement said, and went on:

In the course of nearly two month-long investigation the puppet group fabricated what it called "circumstantial evidence" with conjecture, supposition and random guess. It just produced fragments and pieces of aluminum whose origin remains unknown as "evidence," becoming the target of derision.

Greatly irony is that it deliberately linked the case with the north, talking about the results of the analysis of composition of the unidentified "evidence" without any marking and its size and type.

This is nothing but a shameful deed of those keen on escalating the confrontation with the north.

The Lee group's assertion that the above-said case is linked with the north is the last-ditch effort of those who face destruction as it is a premeditated and deliberate plot to tide over a serious crisis created due to the total failure of its domestic and foreign policies and smoothly stage the "elections to the local self-governing bodies" in a bid to maintain the fascist rule and bring the inter-Korean relations to a collapse.

The puppet forces are now kicking up such fuss as creating atmosphere reminiscent of a wartime situation in south Korea, blustering they would not "rule out a war" and crying out for "counter-measures", urgently evacuating the personnel, equipment and materials of the south side from the areas of the north side and issuing top secret order for taking steps for personal safety and making preparations for withdrawal.

This racket reminding one of an eve of a war goes to prove that the group's recent publication of the "results of investigation" was not a mere clarification of the sinking of the warship but a carefully calculated provocation to seek a pretext for igniting a war of aggression against the north together with outside forces.

The puppet group has created such grave situation on the Korean Peninsula that a war may break out right now.

Pursuant to the statement issued by a spokesman for the National Defence Commission, the Committee for the Peaceful Reunification of Korea solemnly declares as follows, speaking for the DPRK government authorities:

Firstly, from now on the DPRK will regard the present situation as the phase of a war and decisively handle all matters arising in the inter-Korean relations to cope with it.

Secondly, in case the puppet group opts for "counter-action" and "retaliation" under the pretext of the sinking of the warship, the DPRK will strongly react to them with such merciless punishment as the total freeze of the inter-Korean relations, the complete abrogation of the north-south agreement on non-aggression and a total halt to the inter-Korean cooperation undertakings.

The DPRK will never pardon anyone hurting its supreme dignity and doing harm to it, warned the statement.

http://www.kcna.co.jp/item/2010/201005/news21/20100521-03ee.html

* Related articles:
☞ Seoul firing blanks at North Korea (Asia Times, 5.20)

☞ Questions raised following Cheonan announcement (Hankyoreh, 5.21)

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While since today - surprise, surprise!! - 'Seoul officially held Pyongyang responsible for the sinking of the "CheonAn" navy frigate', not everyone in S. Korea seems to be really convinced...

Unsurprisingly(^^), today's ("left"-liberal)Hankyoreh has some problems with the "evidences" provided by the "Int'l Investigation Team":

Indisputable evidence?

A Korean military official points at the fragment of a propeller labeled “I am North Korea” and says, “I found it!”
   The fragment has been presented as the evidence that North Korea was responsible for the attack on sunken Navy vessel Cheonan by the joint military-civilian investigation team.　
   The joint investigation team has insisted that serial number on the fragment of a propeller includes North Korean-style characters. Some, however, have voiced concern about the announcement, saying that this fragment may be too old to trace to the manufacturer.
   According to Cheong Wa Dae (the presidential office in South Korea or Blue House) spokesman Lee Dong-kwan, during a telephone conversation between President Lee Myung-bak and Japanese Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama yesterday, Lee promised to present “indisputable evidence” in reporting the findings of the joint military-civilian investigation team.

http://english.hani.co.kr/arti/english_edition/e_entertainment/421693.html

Related stuff:
☞ Seoul: N. Korean torpedo sank ship (al-Jazeera)

☞ DPRK warns retaliation will triger "all-out" war (Xinhua) 

☞ North Korea slams report that it torpedoed... (CNN) 

☞ Tension set to heighten as Seoul takes steps (K. Herald) 

☞ 'The Official Announcement Edition' (Marmot's Hole) 

☞ Gov't warns against 'groundless rumors' (K. Times)

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"Day X": Protesters under Fire - Bangkok on Fire

Since the early morning APC, tanks and thousands of troops are storming Bangkok's center with the aim to smash the "red-shirt" protest campaign(*):

The result: While "six key leaders of the red shirt movement surrendered to police after Thai soldiers breached the barricades", as al-Jazeera reported six hours ago, right now at least 12 sites in downtown Bangkok, incl. the Bangkok Stock Exchange, a TV station and several of the most famous department stores got up in flames:

And meanwhile from more and more cities in Thailand's north-eastern provinces mass riots (incl. attacks against police stations, city halls etc.) were/are reported...

* Related updated reports:
☞ Bangkok burns after army crackdown (al-Jazeera)

☞ Thai forces surge into protest area... (CNN)
☞ Troops storm redshirt protest camp (Guardian)
☞ Thailand going up in smoke (Asia Times)  

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Today's 30th anniversary of the Gwangju Democracy Uprising in the Korean media:
☞ S. Korea honors May 1980 pro-democracy uprising (Yonhap)
☞ Gwangju democracy uprising 30 years on (JoongAng Ilbo)
☞ Korea marks 1980 Gwangju uprising (K. Herald)
☞ Gwangju and Bangkok (Korea Times)

Today's Hankyoreh also "celebrated" the date - but in its own inimitable(^^) way:

President Lee Myung-bak shakes hands with Chun Doo-whan, president during South Korea’s military dictatorship, who says “Have you decided not to attend the May 18 Democracy Movement commemoration ceremony for protestors in Gwangju? Those people were really out of control rioters, weren’t they?” President Lee and President Chun smile in front of the May 18th National Cemetery in which victims of the brutal suppression that took place during May of 1980 are buried.
   Above late President Chun, a sign pictures him as a soldier who was deployed to Gwangju and suppressed protesters at that time and says, “This type of person is ... an elder who is to be admired.” Above President Lee, a sign pictures him as a riot police officer repressing a candlelight vigil demonstration and says, “This type of person is ... a church leader.”
   The phrases “respected elder” and “leader of a church” point to the absurdity of both individuals as one to be admired and one who talks of adhering to Christian values while supporting and ordering violent acts against civilians.
   Chun was found guilty of the bloody suppression against innocent civilians that took place on May 18 in 1980.

http://english.hani.co.kr/arti/english_edition/e_entertainment/421281.html

☞ Lessons of the Gwangju Democratic Uprising (Chosun Ilbo)
☞ Meeting Marks Anniversary of Kwangju Uprising (KCNA)

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India: People's Struggle Against the POSCO 'Empire'

Last Saturday, heavily armed police units and locals - mostly women and children - clashed in the Jagatsinghpur district of Orissa. The cops used batons, tear gas and fired rubber bullets, injuring over 100 people while hundreds of local villagers and some supporters were attempting to block POSCO-India from beginning the construction of the planned steel plant.
☞ 100 injured in police action at Posco-India project site (The Hindu, 5.16)

The background: The South Korean multicorporate enterprise POSCO, one of the largest producers of steel in the world, is well-known in India and, not precisely because “steel loves nature” as stated on the cover of its presentation file and still less because it loves people.

In 2005 POSCO signed an agreement with the Indian government for the establishment of a steel plant, a port and mine prospecting in the Eastearn State of Orissa. Since then, tens of thousands of people have been opposing the project because of the huge negative impact it will have on the villagers.

The area where POSCO is proposed to be allotted the mines spreads over 6000 hectares of primary forest. These forests are inhabited by a wide variety of wildlife and flora.

Furthermore, the tribal communities which form 74 per cent of the population in the surrounding area are completely dependent on these forests for fuel, fodder, fruits and medicinal plants. The water springs in the area provide water for drinking as well as irrigation...

In August 2007, a large group of people belonging to various political parties and social organisations protested at the doors of the POSCO offices, protected by a large contingent of police force.  The demonstrators, that included many women, raised slogans against the Korean company and blamed the government for facilitating the Posco steel project in Jagatsinghpur district, despite the opposition of displaced villagers.

In October 2008, a resolution signed by more than 100 organizations and people, most of them academics, condemned the increasing state of repression in Orissa against the peaceful resistance of people to the anti-people POSCO steel Project. Despite the state’s increasingly repressive regime, the struggle had reached a new height, with more local residents, especially women, joining in and more democratic voices from all over the world condemning the state for acting in denigration of Constitutional values and human rights, and in favour of corporate interests. The level of repression reached its highest point when the president of the anti Posco movement, Abhay Sahu was jailed...

But the struggle against POSCO's steel project goes on!

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With Slingshots Against Machine Guns
Scenes from Bangkok's "Live Fire Zones"

At least since last Friday Bangkok is "a city at war", as The Guardian (UK) describes the current situation in the Thai capital (*):

* Related reports:
☞ Protesters seek U.N.-mediated talks (CNN, 5.16)

☞ Parts of Thai capital under curfew (al-Jazeera, 5.16) 

☞ Redshirts warn of civil war (Guardian, 5.15)

☞ Bullets shatter fragile Thai peace (Asia Times, 5.14)

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From today's Hankyoreh:

Satire of S.Korea’s redevelopment created by German artist

An art installation near the Blue House was created to highlight the “contradiction” of redevelopment

“So they are redeveloping the neighborhood right next to Cheong Wa Dae? Is that the president’s decision? How big is the area?”

“What, they’re doing this without even telling the people that live here?”

These are the sorts of whispers heard around the area of 30, Tongui-dong, opposite the western side of Cheong Wa Dae (the presidential office in South Korea or Blue House) and the Gyeongbokgung Palace in Seoul. It began on May 7, after a real estate agent’s office in a shipping container appeared on the corner of two alleyways and put up a bird’s eye view drawing of a plan to redevelop the entire area by putting up blocks of massive apartments in front of the Blue House.

Lying up against the side of a nearby building site, the office features a neon sign saying “Royal Blue Real Estate.” Unusually, its facade is made entirely of glass. A look inside reveals a drawing of state-of-the-art, 18-story apartment blocks filling the Tongui neighborhood area that are outrageously to be erected directly in front of the Cheong Wa Dae, an area reserved for the president. The telephone number on the sign, 02-77*-8888, does not exist.

Is it fake? The answer is yes. The whole real estate agent is fake. The drawing and the sign are also fake. It turns out that they are an installation work by an artist. The fact that the site of the building sits just next to an art gallery adds extra, delicate resonance.

The creator of the work is Oliver Griem, a 46-year-old German video installation artist. Griem, who has worked in South Korea for 14 years, says his intention was to express the absurd paradox of redevelopment by installing a structure like a real estate agent’s office on a construction site.

“My aim was to surprise people by showing them a plan for redevelopment next to Cheong Wa Dae, thereby giving them a new sense of the contradiction of redevelopment,” he says. “I live in Bogwang neighborhood, and when I saw the Hannam New Town construction project going obstinately ahead recently despite opposition from the people living there, I thought of creating this work.” Griem added, “My inspiration for using a shipping container also came from the temporary real state agent offices that spring up like mushrooms when redevelopment takes place.”

“The hardest thing to understand is how most South Koreans, who are always talking about tradition, like living in apartments and like to see the neighborhoods they live in being torn down as long as it brings them the promise of money,” says Griem.

The installation is a space project by Tongui neighborhood’s KunstDoc Gallery & Institute and will be demolished after “operating” until May 27...(*)

http://english.hani.co.kr/arti/english_edition/e_national/420803.html

* Some more info you'll get here!

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After a (really) short cooling off period in Bangkok many there are expecting in the coming hours a new and possibly massive escalation of the conflict beween the Thai gov't and the so-called "red-shirts", as al-Jazeera reported a few hours ago from the Thai capital(*):

 Security forces in Thailand are preparing to seal off a protest site in Bangkok occupied by protesters who ignored a deadline to end their two months of street rallies. Security forces said that they would surround the protest site with armoured vehicles from 6pm (local time), and would allow people to leave but not enter.

Shortly afterwards, a leader of Thai anti-government protesters urged supporters to surround armoured vehicles that converge outside their protest site to prevent them from being used to disperse the crowds.   

"We will send out groups to surround these vehicles to prevent them from advancing," Jatuporn Prompan, a protest leader, told supporters. "We believe the army will try to crack down this evening or tomorrow morning."

 
* Since about one hour heavily armed troops are storming Bangkok's central district, occupied by the "red-shirts"... According to BBC and CNN one of the protesters' leading figures was shot by live ammunition. BBC reports right now: "A Thai general who supports the 'red shirt' protesters (**) has been shot and seriously wounded, according to a witness at a Bangkok hospital."

 
MUST READ(!!): Asia Times(HK) recently published two interesting pieces about several surprising backgrounds of some ideas/persons related to the "red-shirt" movement:
☞ Thai power grows from the barrel of a gun (5.13)
☞ On guard at Bangkok's frontlines (5.11)

** According to several independent sources in Bangkok: ex-Major General Khattiya "Seh Daeng" Sawatdiphol (-> "On guard at Bangkok's frontlines")

Related report(10pm, KST): 

☞ Gunfire heard in the Thai capital (al-Jazeera)