PREPARING TO DIE FOR THE ROCKS, THE FISH, THE CORAL, THE WATER

A villager in Gangjeong, South Korea joins the protest against Navy base

Supporters visited Yang Yoon-Mo at the jail yesterday on Jeju Island. He is now on his 42nd day of hunger strike. People tearfully begged him to resume eating but he vows to die if necessary to stop the Navy base construction. Yang met his friends in a wheelchair and said his blood sugar was down. His pulse is gradually dropping as well.

According to Sung-Hee Choi, "He said even though the prison officers have been trying to persuade him to stop fast, he would not submit to it until, Woo Keun-Min, the Island governor, withdraws the Jeju naval base plan and protects peace in the Gangjeong village. It is to emphasize that his heart has never been changed. He finally said he would not regret his decision and his death would be the fertilizer for the struggle."

Yang made the following short statement:

Since I am a son of society, son of history and son of national history, I have seldom attached myself to my own family.

I have struggled for social justice, film society’s democracy and against the Free Trade Agreement, and that is why I could carry out the absolute opposition movement against the naval base for the Gangjeong village, Jeju Island.

I will protect the Gangjeong Sea until I die and protect it even after it.

Please do my funeral in the simplest way.

And please shed my bone powders after cremation everywhere of the Joongduk coast, carried by Mr. Kim Jong-Hwan and Go Young-Jin, the two Gangjeong villagers.