PRESIDENT LEE - TEAR DOWN THAT WALL!

Fr. Paul Moon Kyu-hyon was violently arrested today.

Smugglers? Sort of. Due to villagers blocking entrances to Navy base construction site the Navy had to bring their blasting explosives by the sea.

Villagers and supporters began tearing down the Navy's fence yesterday in Gangjeong village. People had recently spray painted the long white wall so the Navy two weeks ago began covering the graffiti with scenic photos of Jeju Island's many environmental treasures - a tragic display of irony and green washing.

30 were arrested in this wall dismantling including Fr. Paul Moon, Jesuit Fr. Lee Young-chan, Jesuit Br. Pak Do-hyun, Catholic Human Rights workers, Kang Eun-joo and Lee Eun-jeong, and Angie Zelter.

Some of them were moved to Seobu police station in Jeju city. The Navy intends to charge them with "violence". More irony. Protecting the peace and the fragile environment is violence. Destroying the peace and fragile environment is what? Security, safety, god sent? Give me a break.

Veterans for Peace now has three of its members leaving for Jeju early next week. Enough funds are coming in to likely pay for a second delegation in the coming weeks. Contact us if you are interested in going. We are particularly interested in folks who can go for two weeks or more.

Al-Jazeera reports this morning on the growing protests over the blasting.

The petition site Avaaz sent campaign organizers an email this morning saying, "We’re seeing a massive spike in public attention around Jeju, both internationally and in our petition, which has had 1,000 more signers in the last 3 days."

One South Korean newspaper reports that Adm. Choi Yun-hee, the Navy’s chief of staff, filed a complaint with the prosecution Friday against Kim Ji-yoon, a proportional representative candidate for the Unified Progressive Party, for defaming the Navy.

The complaint was made after Kim referred to the naval base as a “pirate base.” On her Twitter account, she posted Wednesday, “Let’s oppose the Jeju pirate base to protect Gangjeong”.

It is obvious people are looking for ways to express their outrage. I still think a good way to send a message to the South Korean government (and the Pentagon) is to call Capt. Kim (the defense attache) at the South Korean embassy in Washington DC (202-939-5600).

A friend sent me a message the other day that she had called Capt. Kim and he was complaining that he had a sore throat after taking calls for three days in a row. Keep sharing the love.

If you live outside the U.S. please call the South Korean embassy/consulate nearest you and say No Navy base!

You can also write a letter to the editor of your local newspaper.