Entries Tagged as 'Korea'

Protesting Navy Base Construction that will Destroy Coral Reefs in South Korea

Call for Signatures
Protesting Navy Base Construction
that will Destroy Coral Reefs in South Korea

jeju Military Base
The proposed Navy base on Jeju Island in South Korea

The South Korean government plans to build a Navy base where pristine coral reefs, fishing, and tangerine groves are now integral to the people’s way of life.

The base construction is soon set to begin in Gangjeong. The villagers are currently setting up a tent camp along the rocky shore line where the Navy intends to pour concrete to cover the rocks and tiny marine life to make their wharfs where the Aegis destroyers will be homeported. The ships, from the South Korean and US fleets, are outfitted with “missile defense” systems and will surely be used to continue surrounding China’s coastal region. Jeju Island, now called the peace island, will thus become a prime military target.

The coral reefs have been named by the United Nations as key environmental treasures that should be saved. Building a naval base on top of these wonders of nature will not ensure they will be protected. The traditional way of life in this small fishing and fruit growing community will be severly impacted. …

With that in mind I wish to compile a list of organizations and concerned individuals from around the world who wish to voice their protest with the US and South Korean governments about this Navy base. If you would like to be listed on this letter please send me your name. group name, and your city/state or country. Write me at globalnet@mindspring.com

It is the least we can do.

Bruce K. Gagnon,
Coordinator, Global Network Against Weapons & Nuclear Power in Space
www.space4peace.org

LASTEST on Jeju Island

A 70 year old man is in comma after hitting his head on the stone when he was pushed by a police man. He was protesting against the police who was pushing an old woman.

A Korean Confederation of Trade Union activist was carried to the hospital but released hours later.

Village people and Jeju activists are doing a candle light vigil overnight in the confined area. The police blocked the people entering the place.

A Jeju activist there says, once they are all taken away by the police tomorrow, they may not be able to enter the area again.

In the area for the planned ceremony, all the barricades of cars by the village people were removed.

A wire fence was set up. And the contacted cranes have begun the basic construction process. There are about six cranes in the area for tomorrow’s continued construction.

Follow it all – with pictures and video: http://nobasestorieskorea.blogspot.com/

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Korean naval base to bring unwanted change

The Jeju Weekly
November, 12, 2009

Gagnon encourages Jeju residents to fight for the preservation of the Island
Bruce K. Gagnon gave a speech in Gangjeong village to oppose the construction of the navel base due to environmental concerns and fear the base will make the “island of peace” a military target in the future.

Despite heavy opposition from Jeju residents the proposed Korean naval base is scheduled to begin construction later this year. Jeju Governor Kim Tae-hwan survived a recall vote over his plan to allow the base in early October. The Jeju Elections Commission resolved the vote was invalid after a turnout of only 11 percent of the 33 percent required showed. In lieu of the negative attention surrounding the contradictory notion of missile defense warships docked at Jeju’s proclaimed “Island of Peace,” people from all over are coming out of the wood work to shout about how destructive the base would be not only to the ideal of a peaceful society, but to the precious environment that will inevitably suffer as well.

The southern part of the island, specifically Gangjeong, the proposed location of the base, bears international significance for multiple reasons. Bruce Gagnon is coordinator of the Global Network Against Weapons & Nuclear Power in Space and recently, he visited Jeju to determine the severity of the proposed naval base. He says the most noteworthy reason for the base is structured around the fact that Jeju is the crossroad for the Malaka Straight where 80% of China’s oil is transported from the middle east.

“If the United States is able to militarily choke off the straight then the U.S. would be able to hold the keys to China’s economic engine. As the U.S. economy is collapsing the U.S. military strategy has been determined that the way we will control the world is to control the distribution of oil and natural gas…I believe that the base at Jeju is the key for this particular strategy and particularly for choking off the straight and controlling China,” said Gagnon.

Gagnon believes the base to be a “provocative, dangerous base that makes Jeju Island a target. It makes the island of peace, not an island of peace, but an island of power projection for the US empire… Especially a place that sees itself as a tourist destination to have a military base that would clearly be a target for the Chinese.” …

www.jejuweekly.com/news/articleView.html?idxno=395

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Korea, US Devise Broader Air Operations Command

Korea Times
September 27, 2009
By Jung Sung-ki

A broader joint air operations command of South Korean and U.S. Air Forces is being set up here in tandem with the planned transition of wartime operational control (OPCON) in 2012, a military source said Sunday.

The Hardened Theater of Air Control Center (HTACC), the Korea-U.S. combined air operations command led by a three-star American general at Osan Air Base, has been working to expand its roles and missions after being renamed the Korea Air and Space Operations Center (KAOC), the source said on condition of anonymity.

The Master Control and Reporting Center (MCRC), a computer system to monitor and track aircraft on a real-time basis, at the KAOC is also receiving upgrades, he said.

“KAOC will be developed further to serve as an integrated joint air force command of the two allies on the peninsula by 2012, effectively orchestrating all operations of the two air forces in the case of an emergency,” the source said.

The U.S.-led Combined Forces Command (CFC) is to hand over almost all operations authority on the peninsula to South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) in 2012 before being deactivated.

But the U.S. military will still lead air operations after the transformation to take advantage of its dominant aerial assets against North Korea in time of war. …

www.koreatimes.co.kr/www/news/nation/2009/09/205_52552.html

We (Lindis Percy represented CAAB) joined a demonstration at Osan US Air base during the Global Network Against Weapons and Power in Space internattional conference in Seoul (May 2009).

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Cost of US-Japan missile defense effort up sharply

Reuters: Aug 3, 2009
By Andrea Shalal-Esa

A joint U.S.-Japanese missile defense program being built by Raytheon Co (RTN.N) is now slated to cost $3.1 billion, $700 million more than expected, mainly due to a Pentagon decision to cancel a separate program, a top military official said on Monday.

U.S. Rear Admiral Brad Hicks, program director of the Aegis sea-based leg of an emerging U.S. anti-missile shield, said the Standard Missile 3 Block IIA ballistic missile interceptor being developed by Raytheon jointly with Japan would be a “game-changer” for the military.

Sailors had nicknamed the missile “the Beast,” he said.

North Korea’s test-firing of a ballistic missile over Japan in August 1998 spurred Tokyo to become the most active U.S. ally in building a layered shield against missiles that could be tipped with chemical, biological or nuclear warheads.

Hicks said the new SM-3 IIA missile, slated to fly in 2014, would make it possible for one ship — instead of three — to protect Japan from enemy missile attacks. The missile could even be placed on land, if needed. …

www.reuters.com/article/rbssIndustryMaterialsUtilitiesNews/idUSN0352811220090803

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U.S. Preps for Possible Showdown with Pyongyang

By Nathan Hodge
June 8, 2009
Wired News – USA

The U.S. military is stepping up training and reviewing target sets in case the North Koreans decide to go to war …

As we learned last week, North Korea looks to be prepping for another long-range missile test, and South Korea has reportedly outlined plans to strike back if North Korea targets its warships. The U.S. military is also preparing for the worst; Aviation Week ace reporters Amy Butler and Dave Fulghum have an excellent rundown of stepped-up military preparations in the event North Korea follows through on its belligerent rhetoric.

Fulghum, reporting from Osan Air Base, South Korea, notes that the U.S. Air Force is identifying critical training fixes for close air support and air-to-air combat — two missions that would be critical in the first 72 hours of the fight. He also takes a close look at a first-day-of-the-war mission for joint tactical air controllers: XATK (pronounced “ex-attack”), the mission to destroy long-range, North Korean artillery.

… the U.S. Missile Defense Agency is boosting its sensor capabilities so U.S. decisionmakers will have more reaction time in the event of a missile launch or an actual attack. The U.S. military made a deliberate decision not to try to intercept a North Korean Taepodong-2 in April; it will be interesting to see if this time around … commanders deploy more missile defense assets or step up their alert.

www.wired.com/dangerroom/2009/06/us-preps-for-possible-showdown-with-pyongyang/

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