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게시물에서 찾기korean news/reports

403개의 게시물을 찾았습니다.

  1. 2006/05/13
    오늘, 土, 투쟁..
    no chr.!
  2. 2006/05/12
    反美.. 反군국주의 투쟁..
    no chr.!
  3. 2006/05/08
    평택 투쟁.. #4
    no chr.!
  4. 2006/05/07
    평택 투쟁.. #3(3)
    no chr.!
  5. 2006/05/06
    평택 투쟁.. #2
    no chr.!
  6. 2006/05/05
    反 미군..평택 투쟁..
    no chr.!
  7. 2006/04/28
    이주노동자의 방송..
    no chr.!
  8. 2006/03/30
    삼각수하洞 철거민..
    no chr.!
  9. 2006/03/02
    철도노조 파업...
    no chr.!
  10. 2006/03/01
    韓國정부/법무부..
    no chr.!

평택 투쟁.. #9

22 DAYS OF HUNGER STRIKE

by MOON JEONG-HEON

 

 

 

문정현 신부 단식 21일 만에 마무리

"평택 주민들의 아픔을 호소하고 싶었다"

 

 

 

The struggle is not over

(Voice of People/민중의소리)

 

For more infos pleae check out:

http://www.saveptfarmers.org/




진보블로그 공감 버튼트위터로 리트윗하기페이스북에 공유하기딜리셔스에 북마크

대포동 2호, #1

..국제 뉴스, 反戰DPRK news.. or whatever..

 

 

Actually yesterday in the afternoon the people of the DPRK should celebrate huge fireworks:

 

 

Pyongyang may fire missile on Sunday: reports

(Yonhap, 6.18)

 

The North Korean government has ordered its people to hoist the country's national flag and watch a state message on television at 2 p.m. on Sunday, a move possibly linked with Pyongyang's missile activities, a Japanese newspaper said.

Citing unnamed Japanese government sources, the Sankei Shimbun reported Sunday that the reclusive communist state's leadership gave the instructions amid a series of reports of its readiness to test-fire a long-range ballistic missile.

http://english.yna.co.kr/Engnews/20060618/410100000020060618092211E0.html

 

北, 오후2시 국기게양...대국민 메시지 청취 지시
외신들 대포동 2호 발사 관련 가능성 제기

민중의 소리

 

But oops.. - how boring - nothing was happen until now! 

 

 

But better to be a little more seriously..

 

Just short time ago, the intl.(of course bourgeois) media - especially from Europe and the US - was warning that a possible N.K. long-range missle test will take place soon.

 

The S.K. media was writing that THEY have no evidence about this kind of plans by the DPRK, not at all.

 

Just a few days later, during 6.15 celebrations in Gwangju S.K. officials wanted to warn, according to S.K. media, the North to test a Daepodong missile(^^since when the DPRK is impressed by warnings from outside, especially from the South??).

 

And now since about at least two days the S.K. govt. is "very concerned" about a planned missle test..

 

But on the other side, at the same time the S.K. govt. is telling the natl. and intl. audience
that only supporting the N.K. economy and securing the stability there is bringing forward peace, reconciliation and(hopefully soon) unification on the peninsula(so Roh to a group of S. K. military leaders).

 

Hey, its very funny/interesting that both articles - about the "warning" during 6.15 celebration and yesterday’s speech by Roh to a audience of S.K. military leaders – are disappeared since a short while on the home page of K. Times...^^

 

 

Meanwhile the intl. media is a kind of alarmed about the latest developments on the missile test areal in the DPRK:

 

N. Korea Gets Reminder on Missile Freeze (AP, 6.18)

 

Japan warns N. Korea against missile test (IHT, AFP, 6.18)

 

Japan warns N Korea on missile test (Al Jazeera, 6.18)

 

 

In the so-called S.K. "left" daily Hangyeore you can read this stuff:

Washington holds key to North’s missile test

 



진보블로그 공감 버튼트위터로 리트윗하기페이스북에 공유하기딜리셔스에 북마크

네팔뉴스 #35..

Yesterday the new Nepalese Prime Minister Koirala returned home completing his four-day India visit. And following, according to eKantipur, some of the results of his negotiations with the Indian govt.:

 

India to release Nepalese Maoists, supports UN involvement in arms monitoring


Now it's official. India will soon release Nepalese Maoists jailed in India, and it will support the United Nations role in the monitoring of arms during the Constituent Assembly elections.

Prime Minister Girija Prasad Koirala told reporters on Friday that India has agreed to release Nepalese Maoists currently in Indian jails and that India has no objection over the UN monitoring of arms during Constituent Assembly elections in Nepal.

"I am quite satisfied with the outcomes," Koirala told newsmen as he prepared to wind up his four-day-long India trip Friday. "I found them extremely concerned about the situation in Nepal. Everybody has extended their support for peace."

It was not immediately clear when India would release the 150-odd Nepalese Maoists jailed in different parts of India. They also include top leaders Mohan Baidya and C.P. Gajurel, who are jailed in Siliguri and Chennai, respectively.

 

Billions in financial package

 

Significantly, the southern neighbour has decided to extend direct budgetary assistance of Indian Rs 1 billion, increase its annual budget outlays for Nepal to Indian Rs 1.5 billion from the present Rs 650 million. Plus, it has decided to extend a soft loan assistance of US $ 100 million, officials said.

 

Military debts written off

 

New Delhi has also decided to write off debts worth I Rs 1.5 billion from Nepalese Defense Ministry, which has been receiving non-lethal and lethal military assistance from India since 1964. Besides doubling the quotas of scholarships to Nepalese students, it has also decided to defer the recovery of dues of about IRs 5 billion from Nepal Oil Corporation.

 

India positive on aviation concerns

 

After meeting Indian Civil Aviation Minister Praful Patel Friday morning, Finance Minister Ram Sharan Mahat said the talks were positive. According to him, the Indian side has positively responded to Nepalese demands that "unlimited seat quotas" be granted to Nepalese airlines operating in various Nepal-India sectors.

 

Hydropower, infrastructure development

 

The Indian side, according to officials, has also renewed its commitment to develop the infrastructure projects like the 1,500-km Hulaki Highway in the Terai region, Budhi Gandaki hydroelectricity project, the East-West Railways, a Polytechnic School in the Far-Western region. India had announced cooperation in the development of these projects during former premier Sher Bahadur Deuba's India visit in September 2004.

 

Advani calls on Koirala

 

Also on Friday, Opposition leader and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) veteran L.K. Advani called on PM Koirala at his hotel. Emerging out of the meeting, Advani told reporters -- echoing BJP chief Rajnath Singh who met Koirala on Thursday:  "Our view is that Nepal stands to gain a lot from Loktantra. We also support constitutional or ceremonial monarchy in Nepal."

 

Concerns over Maoists

 

Welcoming the ongoing peace negotiations between the popular parties and the rebel Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist) in Nepal, Advani said, "Maoists or Naxalites have created a huge crisis from Nepal to Andhra Pradesh [in South India]. Now you are holding talks in Nepal, that's no problem for us."

But he warned, "That should not in any way have any adverse negative affect on India's internal security."

 

Joint task force to assess mil assistance

 

At noon, Defense Minister Pranab Mukherjee called on Koirala at his Imperil Suit at Janpath. After the half-an-hour-long meeting, Mukherjee ruled out any possibility of immediate military assistance to the Nepalese Army but said, "a joint task force would assess the situation and any future decision would be made on the basis of its recommendations."

 

Nepal's Shiva Senas at Jantar Mantar

 

Also on Friday morning, a group of Shiva Sena Nepal activists held a demonstration at Delhi's Jantar Mantar protesting against last month's declaration of Secular -- and not Hindu -- Nepal. Holding placards and chanting pro-Hindu and anti-Koirala slogans they tried to march towards the Imperial Hotel, but the police stopped them.

 

...

http://www.kantipuronline.com/kolnews.php?&nid=76097 

 

 

진보블로그 공감 버튼트위터로 리트윗하기페이스북에 공유하기딜리셔스에 북마크

평택 미군기지..

..확장 반대와 한미 FTA 반대 문화한마당 "평택, 들이 운다"

 

 

 

6월 7일 (수) 광화문..!!
윤도현 밴드, 전인권 등 유명가수들이 공연을 하고,
29명의 소설가와 시인들이 1500여권의 책을 사인해서 나눠주며,
배우 최민식, 봉준호 감독 등 영화인들도 사인회를 열고,
전 장르를 망라한 예술가들이 모여 다양한 전시와 놀이마당을 펼치며,
대추리, 도두리 주민들과 함께하는...
촛불집회를 겸한 범국민 문화한마당!!
많은 분들이 이 뜻깊은 자리에 함께하셨으면 좋겠습니다.
평택, 들이 운다 홈페이지 가기


진보블로그 공감 버튼트위터로 리트윗하기페이스북에 공유하기딜리셔스에 북마크

2006 독일월드컵 #5

IHT, NYT wrote today following..

World Cup plans defense against racism

As he left the soccer field after a club match in the eastern German city of Halle on March 25, the Nigerian forward Adebowale Ogungbure was spat upon, jeered with racial remarks and mocked with monkey noises. In rebuke, he placed two fingers under his nose to simulate a Hitler mustache and gave a Nazi salute.

In April, the American defender Oguchi Onyewu, playing for his professional club team in Belgium, dismissively gestured toward fans who were making simian chants at him. Then, as he went to throw the ball inbounds, Onyewu said a fan of the opposing team reached over a barrier and punched him in the face.

International soccer has been plagued for years by violence among fans, including racial incidents. But FIFA, soccer's world governing body, which is based in Zurich, said there had been a recent surge in discriminatory behavior toward blacks by fans and other players, an escalation that has dovetailed with the signing of more players from Africa and Latin America by elite European clubs.

This "deplorable trend," as FIFA has called it, now threatens to embarrass the sport on its grandest stage, the World Cup, which opens June 9 for a monthlong run in 12 cities around Germany. More than 30 billion cumulative television viewers are expected to watch part of the competition, and Sepp Blatter, FIFA's president, has vowed to crack down on racist behavior during the tournament.

The issue has been included on the agenda at FIFA's biannual congress, scheduled to be held this week in Munich. A campaign against bigotry includes "Say No to Racism" stadium banners and television commercials, and team captains will make pregame speeches during the quarterfinals of the 32-team tournament.

Players, coaches and officials have been threatened with sanctions. But FIFA has said it would not be practical to use the harshest penalties available to punish misbehaving fans - halting matches, holding games in empty stadiums and deducting points that teams receive for victories and ties.

Players and anti-racism experts said they expected offensive behavior during the tournament, including monkey-like chanting; derisive singing; the hanging of banners that reflect racist beliefs; and perhaps the tossing of bananas or banana peels, all familiar occurrences during matches in Spain, Italy, Eastern Germany and Eastern Europe.

"For us it's quite clear this is a reflection of underlying tensions that exist in European societies," said Piara Powar, director of Kick It Out, an organization against racism in soccer based in London. He said of Eastern Europe: "Poverty, unemployment, is a problem. Indigenous people are looking for easy answers to blame. Often newcomers bear the brunt of the blame."

Yet experts and players also said they believed the racist behavior would be constrained at the World Cup because of increased security, the international makeup of the crowds, higher ticket prices and the prestige of the event.

"Racism is a feature of many football leagues inside and outside Europe," said Kurt Wachter, project coordinator for the Football Against Racism in Europe, an international network of organizations. He said he expected most problems to occur outside stadiums, where crowds are less controlled. "We're sure we will see some things we're used to seeing. It won't stop because of the World Cup."

Germany has one of the world's lowest rates of violent crime. Still, an immigrant group called the Africa Council said it would publish a "No Go" guide for nonwhites during the World Cup, particularly for some areas of eastern Berlin and for surrounding towns in the state of Brandenburg.

Chancellor Angela Merkel has warned that "anybody who threatens, attacks or, worse, kills anybody because of the color of his skin or because he comes from another country will face the full force of the law."

The Bundesliga in Germany is one of the world's top professional soccer leagues and has not experienced widespread racism. Incidents involving racial abuse of black players are more prevalent in semiprofessional and amateur leagues in Eastern Germany.

After making a Nazi salute, which is illegal in Germany, Ogungbure of Nigeria was investigated by the authorities. But a charge of unconstitutional behavior against him was soon dropped because his gesture had been meant to renounce extremist activity.

"I regret what I did," Ogungbure said in an interview by telephone from Leipzig. "I should have walked away. I'm a professional, but I'm a human, too. They don't spit on dogs. Why should they spit on me? I felt like a nobody."

Gerald Asamoah, a forward on Germany's World Cup team and a native of Ghana, has been recounting an incident in the late 1990s when he was pelted with bananas before a club match in Cottbus. "I'll never forget that," Asamoah said during a television interview. "It's like we're not people." He has expressed anger and sadness over a banner distributed by a rightist group that admonished, "No Gerald, You Are Not Germany."

Cory Gibbs, an American defender who formerly played professionally in Germany, said there were restaurants and nightclubs in Eastern Germany - and even around Hamburg in the West - where he was told, "You're not welcome," because he was black.

"I think racism is everywhere," said Gibbs, who will miss the World Cup because of a knee injury. "But I feel in Germany racism is a lot more direct."

Racist behavior at soccer matches is primarily displayed by men and is fueled by several factors, according to experts: alcohol; the perceived "us versus them" threat of multiculturalism in societies that were once more ethnically homogeneous; the difficult economic transition of East European countries since the fall of the Berlin Wall; and crude attempts to unnerve opposing players during bitter, consuming rivalries.

Other observers say the soccer stadium in Europe has become a communal soapbox, one of the few remaining public spaces where spectators can be outrageous and where political correctness does not exist and is even discouraged.

"Nowhere else other than football do people meet someplace and have a stage for shouting things as an anonymous mass," said Gerd Dembowski, director of an anti-racist organization called Floodlight, based in Berlin. "You can shout things you would never say in your normal life, let out your frustrations."

Not all the misbehavior can be traced to fans or to Europe. Players and coaches have also been transgressors.

Luis Aragonés, Spain's World Cup coach, was fined in 2004 after making racial remarks about the French star Thierry Henry. In March, in the Brazilian league, the defender Antonio Carlos was suspended for 120 days, and four additional matches, after an incident in which he shouted "monkey" at an opposing player who is black.

But it was an incident in Spain on Feb. 25 that galvanized anti-racist sentiment and prodded FIFA into taking a tougher stand against bigoted behavior. That match, in Zaragoza, was temporarily halted in the 77th minute by the referee, who threatened to cancel the remaining 13 minutes after Samuel Eto'o, the star forward for Barcelona, was subjected to a chorus of racial taunts. Eto'o threatened to leave the field, but his coach and teammates persuaded him to continue, and last month Barcelona won the European Champions Cup.

Eto'o, who was voted European player of the year this spring, has become one of the sport's most outspoken players on the subject of racism.

"I'll continue to play," Eto'o, whose national team, Cameroon, did not qualify for the World Cup, said last week through his agent. "I'm not going to give up and hide and put my head down. I'll score goals against the teams whose fans are making rude noises."

Under pressure to curb what it acknowledged was an increase in racist incidents, FIFA announced in late March a stricter set of penalties that would apply for club and national team matches. The sanctions would include suspensions of five matches for players and officials who make discriminatory gestures, fines of $16,600 to $25,000 for each offense and two-year stadium bans for offending spectators. It also said teams, which receive three points in the standings for a victory, would have three points deducted on a first offense by misbehaving players, officials or fans.

Blatter, the FIFA president, told reporters that the three-point deduction for abhorrent fan behavior would apply during the World Cup, then backed away from his comments in April. Blatter declined to comment for this article. And it remains unclear exactly what penalties will be levied against World Cup teams for offensive behavior by fans, coaches and players.

Nicolas Maingot, a FIFA spokesman, said World Cup sanctions would be made public later. But in an e-mail response to questions, he said: "Only racist abuses in the field of play will be punished. For fans, it will be impossible, due to the multinationality of the audience.

"In other words, it would be impossible to identify from which side would potential racist abusers come."

Critics counter that spectators are supposed to have their names on their tickets, so identifying offending fans should be relatively easy.

Onyewu, the American defender who was punched by an opposing fan in Belgium, said the man was identified through an anonymous tip and was barred from attending matches for two years. Onyewu said he did not retaliate, because he believed that racist behavior reflected acts of a minority of fans.

"I'm anticipating a more professional environment in Germany because it's the World Cup," Onyewu said. Even so, he said, although anti-racist efforts could restrict public behavior, "that's only helping the exterior."

He added, "The interior mind thinking, you can't really change that." 

 

http://www.iht.com/articles/2006/06/04/sports/racism.php 

 

 

But how the World Cup, as a extreme expression of capitalism, can fight against racism?? Racism is just an integral component of the (German) capitalist society!!

 

 

Tomorrow I'll write more about this issue(World Cup and capitalism..)... perhaps

진보블로그 공감 버튼트위터로 리트윗하기페이스북에 공유하기딜리셔스에 북마크

北/南.. ^^

Uhuu... how stupid and ugly...

 

IHT published before yesterday, 5.25, following report..

 

In South Korea, all things North are in
 
At the Pyongyang Moran Bar on a recent Friday evening, a large video screen showed uplifting images of rocky mountains and an open blue sky. A slogan appeared at the bottom: "Kim Jong Il, a man who comes along only once in a thousand years."

The North Korean waitresses wore traditional dresses in the bright colors that were fashionable in the South some years back. The singer's interpretation of "Whistle," a North Korean standard of the 1980s, was shaky and off-key. Service was bad and included at least one mild threat. Drinks were spilled, beer bottles left unopened and unpoured.

But the South Korean customers could not get enough of the Pyongyang Moran Bar.

"Encore!" cried Bae Seong Wan, 44, at the end of "Whistle."

The Pyongyang Moran Bar is located, not north of the Korean demilitarized zone, but here in Taejon, a city in the South Korean heartland.

The 120-seat bar opened in February, complete with inferior North Korean beverages, North Korean landscape posters, North Korean songs, a photo of Kim above the bar counter with his South Korean counterpart and, most important, North Korean waitresses - or, as a sign outside announced, "beautiful girls from North Korea!"

Until the 1990s, South Korean schoolchildren were awarded prizes for drawing posters depicting diabolical North Koreans. Then the South's so- called sunshine policy of engagement transformed North Koreans into real human beings in the minds of South Koreans and in popular movies like "Joint Security Area."

Now, after more than half a decade of rapprochement, the North is all the rage, in a retro- kitschy fashion, and North Koreans are seen not as threatening aggressors, but as country bumpkin cousins, needing an introduction to big-city life.

North Korean defectors and South Koreans alike are opening North Korean-themed restaurants, selling North Korean goods and auctioning off North Korean artwork on www.NKMall.com.

Half a century of division has turned the South into the world's most wired society, as its consumer products and pop culture increasingly shape the tastes of youth across Asia.

North Korea, meanwhile, has remained frozen in time, a repository - at least to someone with a sharp nose for marketing - of an unchanged Korea.

"North Korea is retro," said Jong Su Ban, 42, a North Korean defector who plans to open a North Korean restaurant, Ok Ru Ok, in Seoul soon. "It reminds South Koreans of the 1950s and 1960s, before South Korea industrialized. They see handmade crafts that are not sophisticated, and they think, 'It's like us before we developed.'"

The timing was now right, Jong said, pointing out that only a few years ago a restaurant in Seoul with a waiter dressed as a North Korean soldier went belly up fast. "He made people uncomfortable," he said.

At a company called NK Food, Hong Chang Ryo, 45, a South Korean who opened two North Korean restaurants in Seoul this year and is planning to open a third here, agreed.

"Even two or three years ago," he said, "we couldn't have done this. We would have been fingered as commies."

Hong's first restaurant, Nalrae, Nalrae - or fast, fast in the North Korean dialect - "invites you to a different taste" with more than 27 dishes named after places in the North. Shelves stocked with mushrooms, alcoholic beverages, seaweed - "straight from Pyongyang" - are the main attractions in the restaurant, which is painted organic green. A menu promises "nonpolluted, well-being dishes using natural resources from North Korea."

"It feels rural, natural, unpolluted," said one first-time customer, Lee Sae Mie, 23, a university student.

While about 40 percent of the dishes' ingredients come from the North, Hong said, the flavors had to be adjusted, considerably, to appeal to South Korean palates.

"We had to rack our brains," Hong said. "We all know they just eat cornmeal over there. Well, we just don't know what they're eating over there. So we mixed and matched. Dishes may look North Korean, but actually taste South Korean."

Increasingly, though, people are parting with South Korean won to buy goods from www.NKMall.com, which Park Young Bok, a South Korean, set up in 2003. The site sells mostly food products, which shoppers can also buy at 70 stores nationwide.

Last September, Park added an auction for North Korean paintings, which have been selling briskly, reaching $115,000 in sales in April.

With South Korean officials still banning artwork with political content, most of the imports are of landscapes - though, oddly, a tapestry of the Virgin Mary was auctioned off recently for $80.

At his warehouse just outside Seoul, Park showed off some of the 30 North Korean alcoholic beverages he sells - some of them with labels slapped crookedly on the bottles, others with the contents partly evaporated because of poor bottling.

But to hear some of the patrons at the Pyongyang Moran Bar here tell it, leaking bottles, even bad service, are part of the North Korean appeal.

"I don't know how to open this," said one waitress struggling with a bottle of Budweiser. The waitress - who had worked at the bar for only two days and who, like many North Koreans, had never opened a bottle before - tried to get the top off, then handed the bottle to the customer, who opened it himself.

Another customer, Kim Chung Sig, 39, said, "I don't expect the service to be good here."

Choi Jung Hee, 37, the manager, said she had trouble training her North Korean staff of five waitresses. "At least, they should say, 'Hello!' properly when customers come in, but they don't," she said.

"Things are very different in North Korea," she said. "Over there, waitresses and salespeople are kings because they have access to goods. But here you have to treat customers like kings. You have to bow to them and be polite even if they are rude."

Everything has fallen into place now for Jong, who came to South Korea in 2000 and earned a living writing pornography before plunging into food. He has even secured a supply of the North's coveted Taedong River beer.

"When I lived in North Korea," Jong said, "I never knew that this beer even existed. I'll have North Korean beer for the first time in South Korea. I lived in a very funny country."
진보블로그 공감 버튼트위터로 리트윗하기페이스북에 공유하기딜리셔스에 북마크

평택 투쟁.. #8

Asia Times, HK, published this article some days ago..

 

US feels sting of South Korean protest

The prayers and chants of the elderly farmers and young activists waft from the circle of land in front of a small white-walled church at the heart of this village on the prow of a hill some 65 kilometers south of Seoul.

 

"No US base," they shout in Korean. "Save our land."

It is a daily ritual staged in defiance of thousands of South Korean police against a plan to turn the region of rice paddies and orchards into one of America's largest overseas bases.

 

The police control the countryside, blocking off traffic, but the farmers cling to this enclave of sturdy brick homes in a standoff that embarrasses the United States and South Korea - and reveals some of the weaknesses in a deteriorating alliance.

 

"It's up to the Korean police to get them out of there," grumbles an American officer, observing the standoff from the security of nearby Camp Humphreys, shielded by double rows of wire fencing. "I can't see why they don't get them out of there."

 

The reason appears to be the desire of Korean leaders to avoid a showdown of tear-gas grenades and bashed heads and also underlying questions about South Korea's relationship with the United States.

 

Korean officials swear they're living up to their agreement for the US to build the base, and South Korean soldiers are busy setting up a 24km barbed-wire fence surrounding the whole area set aside for the base.

 

The fact is, however, they're appalled by the prospect of the base becoming an easy target for the same activists who've been demonstrating off and on for years outside US bases elsewhere. An assault by 10,000 police officers on May 4 managed to dislodge hundreds of activists from an abandoned school building but failed to stop the protest, much less get the farmers to leave the homes that they view as their reward for more than half a century of hard work tilling the soil since the Korean War.

 

That refusal of farmers to leave makes their cause an easy one for activists, who for years have demanded the departure of all US forces from Korea.

 

A firebrand Catholic priest leads daily slogan-shouting protests at the epicenter of the worst standoff in nearly four years between South Korean forces and an array of student groups and labor organizations.

 

The priest, Moon Jeong-hyun, 69, returned here less than a week after holding out for most of a day on the roof of the school building with nine other priests and two National Assembly members defying the riot police, who drove the activists from the building, some of them kicking and screaming.

 

A distinctive figure with a flowing beard, often seen holding a video camera as he records prayer meetings and confrontations, Moon and his cohorts were promised they would not be arrested before descending down a ladder from the roof on May 4.

 

Moon has lived in the village for the past two years, making it the center of the same anti-US struggle that he led during enormous protests in Seoul after the deaths of two schoolgirls, run over by a 50-ton US armored vehicle during military exercises nearly four years ago.

 

"Pray for this land," Moon preaches to the villagers. "You have prospered on this land. Pray for your homes. You have built these homes. The land is yours. Your prayers will protect you."

 

Now Moon is protected by activists manning checkpoints at entrances to the village within shouting distance of police blocking off narrow paved roads across the rice paddies into the village, on the western fringe of the bustling town of Pyongtaek, on the main railroad to Seoul.

 

The activists carry banners, not weapons, but they're clearly ready to battle any attempt by police to enter the village. They appear to have returned quietly by night across the rice paddies, staying in the homes of farmers who view them as defenders against government forces. They meet in the church and a small government building, having lost the school to demolition by bulldozers and loaders that tore it down as soon as Moon and his cohorts came down from the roof on May 4.

 

Police officials directing the thousands of officers in well-ordered array at strong points on the roads are under strict orders to avoid violence, stopping protesters with shields, throwing them back in occasional clashes, but refraining from bashing heads, much less using weapons.

 

Conservatives fear the fracas over the base plays into the hands of North Korea, while South Korea and the US are at odds on how to pull the North back into six-party talks on Pyongyang's nuclear program.

 

Some wonder if the South's governing Uri Party is actually encouraging the standoff in which an assembly member from the party, Im Jung-in, is playing a leading role.

Im was up on the roof with the priests before they all came down on May 4 - and has appeared again at rallies in the village. He talks frequently on his mobile phone with party officials, and his presence in the village symbolizes support for the farmers and activists in the government.

 

US officials, fearful of upsetting already strained relations with the government, say only that they expect South Korea to live up to the agreement and turn over the land for a base. They wonder, however, how the US can move its military headquarters from Seoul to the base while protests persist.

 

"We'll have to build a new headquarters building," says a US officer. "That's not going to be easy."

 

More difficult, the US Army has to move combat forces, now headquartered at Camp Casey on the historic invasion route from North Korea to Seoul, down here. The base, when it opens, will have facilities for 20,000 US troops, the vast majority of the 25,000 expected to be left in Korea by the end of the decade. Most of the remaining US forces remain just 16km closer to Seoul at Osan Air Base, headquarters for US combat aircraft.

The ruckus over the base provides a rallying cry for anti-American forces at a time when the US and South Korea are at odds over how to deal with the North on such issues as nuclear weapons, counterfeiting and human rights.

 

Although none of these issues immediately affects the base, the relationship is clear.

The US Command regularly advances the argument that US forces have to move south of Seoul to keep them out of the way of North Korean artillery. No one conjures the specter of a North Korean attack, but the threat remains - and could increase if other issues persist.

"A nuclear North Korea is a problem for everyone," says Jon Wolfsthal, a fellow at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington. He sees no solution, though, while North Korea refuses to attend the six-party talks and the administration in Washington loses interest in a solution.

 

"We're likely to see a prolonged death that nobody wants to watch," says Wolfsthal. "We're not likely to see any progress any time soon." He sees those favoring regime change in North Korea as "on the ascendancy".

 

Washington hardliners, he believes, are proud of the impact on Pyongyang of economic restraints imposed on banks and trading companies dealing with North Korea in retaliation for that country's counterfeiting and still hope for collapse of the regime.

 

"The United States is back into isolation and [it's] a waiting game," says Wolfsthal, while "North Korea is content with its nukes." In the meantime, the Pentagon sees the base relocation as part of a "global repositioning plan" in which forces here would be free to deploy anywhere in the region, possibly, in some unforeseen war, against China, a short hop across the Yellow Sea.

 

At this village, Moon and other activists see the whole military issue as irrelevant.

"South and North Korea are reconciling with one another," says another priest visiting the village. "We don't need US forces in Korea at all."

 

That's a view that US officials fear may come to dominate the outlook of a South Korea government already seen as left of center as thousands of police face the unpleasant task of finally removing the diehards from their homes - and the troublesome priest from the village chapel.

 

http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Korea/HE17Dg03.html


 

진보블로그 공감 버튼트위터로 리트윗하기페이스북에 공유하기딜리셔스에 북마크

oops...

IHT reported yesterday about this surprising development...

 

North Korea calls off cross-border train runs

 

North Korea on Wednesday abruptly canceled highly symbolic test runs of trains across its heavily armed border with South Korea, embarrassing the South Korean authorities who had billed them as a milestone in reconciliation with the North.

 
North Korea cited an atmosphere of confrontation and war in halting the test runs scheduled for Thursday. The cancellation came amid indications, including increased activities at a launching site for long-range missiles in the North, that the Communist regime was escalating tension in the stalled international talks on its nuclear weapons program.
 
The two test runs on small lengths of rail links between two border towns were laden with symbolism. The last train between the two Koreas ran during the 1950-53 Korean War.
 
South Korea has tried to reconnect the railways as a landmark project in its efforts to ease half a century of hostilities on the divided peninsula, a policy the Seoul government has pursued despite skepticism among U.S. policy makers who favor a harder line on the North.
 
South Korea, a major supplier of aid and trade for the isolated North, was not expected to change its policy on the North because of the cancellation of the test runs.
 
But North Korea's latest move demonstrated the regime's unpredictability.
 
"The government finds it very regrettable that the North unilaterally put off the test runs just a day before the event," said Deputy Unification Minister Shin Eon Sang of South Korea in a statement.
 
"The responsibility for the collapse of scheduled trial runs lies in North Korea."
 
North Korea told the South that it was canceling the test runs and criticized "pro-U.S. ultraright conservative forces" in the South for "pushing the situation in Korea to an extreme phase of confrontation and war."
 
Nam Sung Wook, an analyst at Korea University in the South, said that North Korea was slamming a brake on recent attempts by the South to open up the Communist North. While Washington tightened its economic sanctions on North Korea, Seoul has pursued its reconciliation with the North, hoping that the U.S. pressure will make the North more willing to open up to the South for economic exchanges and political dialogue.
 
"The North wants cooperation with the South as a key policy goal," Nam said. "But it wants to do it in its own pace. The latest move means that the North doesn't like the tempo the South is trying to set."
 
Experts also said that North Korea saw any project of reconciliation with the South as an opportunity to win economic aid. In the latest project of relinking the rail lines, the North thinks it has not won enough economic rewards, they said.
 
At high-level military talks between the Koreas last week, the two sides failed to agree on a military protocol for cross-border travel on reconnected rail and road links. The North Koreans instead insisted on discussing the redrawing of an inter-Korean sea border.
 
But the South said then that it was not a problem and that the test runs would go ahead as planned on Thursday.
 
Every day, abut 500 people travel a newly built cross-border road from the South to Kaesong, where South Korean companies make goods at factories using cheap North Korean labor and land.
 
About 1,000 South Koreans daily visit North Korea's Diamond Mountain resort by using another road link.
 
Work has already been completed on laying track to reconnect the two rail lines running parallel to the roads. South Korea hopes to use the rail link to carry goods in and out of the industrial park in Kaesong. It eventually hopes to connect the railway to China, Russia and Europe.
 

Former President Kim Dae Jung of South Korea is planning to travel to North Korea next month. He had hoped to go there by the train. But now that plan is in doubt.

 

http://www.iht.com/articles/2006/05/24/news/korea.php

 

 

The semi official S. Korean newsagency Yonhap wrote this..

 

N. Korea calls off test runs on cross-border railways

 

North Korea, on Wednesday called off scheduled test runs of cross-border railways, citing political and military tension, an official at the Unification Ministry said.

The cancellation came one day before the Koreas were set to test the railways...

 

The full article here..

http://english.yna.co.kr/Engnews/20060524/610000000020060524164636E2.html

 

Chosun Ilbo, Korea Times... wrote, of course, also about it..

 

JoongAng Ilbo wrote this..

Rail tests off, North informs Seoul abruptly

 

KCNA, DPRK, reported ... NOTHING

진보블로그 공감 버튼트위터로 리트윗하기페이스북에 공유하기딜리셔스에 북마크

통일........

Yonhap wrote yesterday following...

 

Korean unification crucial for regional stability: UN chief

 

 Korean reunification would mark a significant step forward in helping stabilize relations in Northeast Asia, U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan said Monday. 

"This kind of development will be positive for the region, for the Korean people and especially for the stability of the region as a whole," Annan said during his lecture to students at Seoul National University (SNU).

"I am for the unification of the two Koreas... I hope the day will come sooner or later," he added.

Annan, an advocate of former South Korean President Kim Dae-jung's "sunshine" policy of rapprochement with the reclusive North, also stressed the role of six-party talks in resolving the North Korean nuclear issue.

"The six-party talks haven't been successful, but we haven't given up. I hope it will resume and I hope the talks are approached through trust and support," he added.

The U.N. chief, now on the first leg of his two-week
Asian tour, visits South Korea amid growing interest over who will succeed him when he steps down later this year.

South Korea hopes its Foreign Minister Ban Ki-moon will be the winning candidate after he threw his hat in the ring earlier this year.

"If Ban wins, Koreans will be very happy to see one of their nationals in the post," Annan said.

He added that his replacement should be careful not to take the job lightly.

"One should know that he is the secretary of the whole world and must be fair and equitable... Koreans should not expect any favors but at the same time, they should not be handicapped," he added.

Annan stressed the need for the U.N. to reform itself, pointing out that the current security council does not adequately represent the organization.

"We have not made (much) progress yet, and the U.N. cannot say that it ever had a good reform," Annan said.

The secretary-general has insisted that two to three more countries must be added as permanent security council members, despite heavy opposition from current members.

"The composition currently reflects the geopolitical nature of 1945. The world has changed, there are major players that are not adequately represented in the organization, and therefore, I believe it has to transform into a new scene that is more representative," he added.

After three decades spent serving the U.N., the 68-year old said his most formidable challenge came from America's push to unseat Saddam Hussein.

"My most difficult challenge was the Iraq war. Many people including myself from within and outside the organization wanted to avoid the war," he added.

"However, in Iraq what touched me deeply as a secretary-general and as a human being was the fact that, although I didn't support the war, at the end, it helped the Iraqi people redeem their sovereignty and prepare for the future," he added.

 

http://english.yna.co.kr/Engnews/20060515/610000000020060515155145E8.html

 

 

NO COMMENT, PLEASE..

진보블로그 공감 버튼트위터로 리트윗하기페이스북에 공유하기딜리셔스에 북마크

평택 투쟁.. #7

 

About the latest developments you can read here, 민중의 소리 

http://www.voiceofpeople.org/new/2006051443151.html

nearly everything..

 

 

The semi official news agency Yonhap wrote this..

 

Korean activists protest against U.S. military base expansion

 

 

Ignoring a government appeal for restraint, about 2,000 militant students, shouting "Yankee go home," clashed with riot police in a remote farming village on Sunday, opposing plans to expand a U.S. military base there.

Initial police reports said that 20 protesters were arrested. There were no reports of injuries, however.

Sunday's protests, the second in a little more than a week, were against the U.S. military's plan to drastically expand Camp Humphreys in Pyeongtaek, 70 kilometers south of Seoul.

Under a 2004 agreement with Washington, most of the U.S. military bases in South Korea, including its headquarters in the center of Seoul, will be relocated to Camp Humphreys by 2008.

By the time the expansion is completed, the number of U.S. soldiers in South Korea will be reduced from the present 30,000 to 25,000.

The relocation requires South Korea to level a farm village to triple the size of Camp Humphreys. Most farmers have moved out after being compensated but a few hundred, supported by anti-U.S. groups, have been refusing to leave.

In two days of fierce protests at the farm village, Daechuri, about a week ago, 200 activists and police were injured. Police detained over 500 protesters, of whom 16 were put under formal arrest.

Authorities deployed 18,000 riot police in preparation for Sunday's protests. They blocked all roads leading to the village and checked all vehicles to and from it.

The Pyeongtaek City government has zoned a vast area in the area, including the contested farm village, for the expansion of Camp Humphreys. The area was fenced off by South Korean Army engineers with barbed wires.

To bypass the police cordon, the students, who were unarmed, gathered at a remote school and walked several kilometers along paddy dikes to reach the village where they confronted police.

"Withdraw U.S. military forces. Pyeongtaek is our land," protesters shouted as they kicked and punched riot police who formed human barriers to block their march.

The students, many of them wearing gauze masks apparently to conceal their identity, vowed to break through the police lines.

A South Korean military helicopter showered down leaflets warning that protesters who would violate the fenced-off military zone could face punishment under military laws.

On Friday, Prime Minister Han Myung-sook, in a special statement, appealed for restraint, saying that violence would not do any good to the nation. She said the U.S. base expansion is unavoidable.

Separately in the center of Pyeongtaek, a city of 350,000, several hundred protesters, mostly workers, held a protest rally, demanding that the U.S. base expansion project be cancelled.

After the rally, the workers planned to march a few kilometers through the city and may try to join the students, organizers said.

South Korea plans to draw up a master plan on the expansion of Camp Humphreys by September, along with studies on its possible environmental impact and the location of cultural assets in the area. Construction is scheduled to begin in October at the
earliest.

The U.S. military presence in South Korea is a legacy of the 1950-53 Korean War. The U.S. led 15 other Western countries to fight against invading North Korea in the conflict.

 

Korea Times will publish today following article..

Pyongtaek Rally Ends Quietly

 

Korea Herald is publishing this...

Thousands of activists staged violent protests in Seoul and Pyeongtaek over the weekend against a planned expansion of a U.S. military base.

http://www.koreaherald.co.kr/SITE/data/html_dir/2006/05/15/200605150004.asp 

 

Chosun Ilbo..

Major Violence Averted as Pyeontaek Protests Resume

 

JoongAng Ilbo..

Demonstrators fail in new effort to enter base site

 

PS..

 

NEVER, NEVER, PRAYERS, CANDLELIGHT RALLIES, CULTURE FESTIVALS WILL CHANGE THE MIND OF THE CLASS ENEMY!!


 

FINALLY EVERYTHING WILL END LIKE THAT...



 

...AND THEY WILL F.. US.. at least!

 

It is just my opinion...


진보블로그 공감 버튼트위터로 리트윗하기페이스북에 공유하기딜리셔스에 북마크

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