DMZ: Disney World of Military Recruitment

Yesterday Will Griffin and I were taken north to the DMZ (Demilitarized Zone) between North and South Korea.  We were joined by several South Korean activists who specialize in Imjin River protection and landmines.  My son Julian and his friend Emily (both also visiting South Korea) joined us for the day as well.

We began by going to the overlook area between North and South where the Imjin River helps create a natural barrier between the two nations.  Then we moved to another part of the DMZ where we walked down a tunnel (one of four) that North Korea created to allegedly infiltrate the south.  This tunnel gradually sloped downward eventually equaling 24 stories below the ground.  What began as an extremely hot place soon got colder and colder as we headed downward.  Coming back up was quite a challenge.

I could not help but wonder if the South Korean government's demonization of North Korea for the tunnels, at what is essentially a DMZ tourist trap, might be better explained as a defensive effort on the part of the north to send troops deep into southern territory after a US-South Korea attack on the north.

I know that during the Korean War the US bombed every standing target in North Korea and the people, in order to survive, had to move underground.  At night they would come outside to tend their farms and then return underground during to day in order to stay safe.  It is likely they kept digging tunnels after the war in order to have a way to militarily respond in the event they were ever attacked again.

Today 600,000 South Korean military are stationed along the DMZ.  About 2,000 US troops are also along the border.  These days most US troops are being moved south to get them out of range of North Korean artillery.  New bases and expanded bases to the south are now home to more than 25,000 US troops.  At those bases the US has high-tech weapons systems that allow them to wage war from a 'safe distance'.

The DMZ tour finally took us to a former US Army outpost called Camp Greaves that has been turned into a 'youth hostel' where tourists are taken to pretend they are in the Army.

As our bus arrived in 'Camp Greaves' a young woman dressed in military attire (with a cheer leading skirt) boarded the bus to explain we could go inside air conditioned tents and try on a military jacket, make ourselves dog tags, put on a military back pack, and experience the actual setting for a film about South Korean 'peace keeping missions' around the world that is now popular on TV throughout the Asia-Pacific. In fact the woman later said when we got into the tent, pointing to a chair Will was sitting in, the TV star "sat right here".  Will quickly got up and left the tent.

One of our guides told us that local farmers said this former US Army base was known as a major toxic contamination zone.  (All US military bases are infamous for oil, solvent, and jet fuel pollution that poisons the local groundwater supply.) The thought that today kids are brought to the 'youth hostel' and put in dorms that were once military barracks is rather concerning.  (I hope they are drinking bottled water rather than from underground wells.)

I walked around the base a bit and saw other old barracks being taken over by nature.  Soon they will be covered completely and ultimately will collapse under the weight of mother nature.

I see this process of nature taking over the base as symbolic of the reality that these US military outposts of empire are contradictions in nature.  These bases are not sustainable in time - due to cost, due to pressure inside of South Korea for them to be closed, and due to pressure inside the US for our tax dollars to be used at home for human development and physical infrastructure repair rather than endless war.

When we earlier had stood at the DMZ tourist overlook site peering out at the Imjin River into North Korea I asked the two South Korean activists from the area what they were thinking.  One of them said he was feeling "A sense of longing to go to North Korea to see for himself what is actually going on there."  But under the last two right-wing presidents South Korea has stopped the progress previously made in steps toward reunification.

Where once union workers from the South would go play soccer with workers in the North, these days the doors to reestablishing brotherhood have been closed.  The current Park administration, more in line with US interests, has escalated tensions and shut down talk of reconciliation.

It appears to me that Washington is hell-bent on war against China and Russia.  There is a deep sense of fear, despair and disempowerment with many of the people and activists here. Many young people feel they have no future in South Korea as the economic divide between rich and poor widens.  People care but don't know what to do.

War, and rumors of war, keep the people (whether in South Korea or the US) distracted from fighting against our growing impoverishment by the corporate elites.  In the US the circus sideshow 'election' between Clinton and Trump is designed to ensure that the nation does not seriously reflect on these same key issues.

It is clear that the globalization of the corporate agenda must be met by the globalization of the peace, social justice and environmental movements.  We are all in the same boat now and must face our common enemy together.

Bruce

Release the Jailed Progressive Activists in South Korea!

Former UPP political prisoner Han Dong-geun (2nd from right) spent two years in South Korea prison for wanting the reunification of Korea and an end to war conditions between the north and south.  He was one of 10 UPP members jailed by the government in an anti-communist witch hunt.

Will Griffin and I today had a very instructive and moving meeting with two members of the international support team of the Korean Committee to Save Rep. Lee Seok-ki.

One of those who met with us was Han Dong-geun, who himself was released from prison last year after a two-year sentence.

A South Korean court sentenced Seok-ki, a left-wing lawmaker, to 12 years in prison and nine colleagues to shorter terms for allegedly plotting a "pro-North Korea rebellion in the event of a war on the Korean Peninsula".

Prosecutors also asked judges to strip United Progressive Party (UPP) Member of Parliament Lee Seok-ki of his civic rights for 10 years following his eventual release from prison. The UPP was a small party with only six seats in the National Assembly.

In South Korea it is illegal under the "National Security Law”, which was created by the occupying Japanese WW II imperial Army, to criticize US military bases in that country or to call for reunification between North and South Korea.

Lee Seok-ki has described himself as the victim of a “witch hunt” by South Korea’s spy agency, the National Intelligence Service (NIS). Many believe the NIS used the show trial to distract the public from overwhelming evidence that the intelligence agency interfered in the last national election in favor of right-wing President Park Geun-hye's "successful" campaign.

President Park is the daughter of former brutal dictator Park Chung-hee. During Park’s iron-fisted rule from 1961 to 1979, dissidents were tortured and sometimes executed on charges of "plotting" against South Korea.  While on previous trips to South Korea I met several older activists who spent as many as 20-25 years in prison for opposing the first Park dictatorship.

Both the past and present Park regimes in Seoul were and still are obvious US puppets. 

More than 100,000 South Koreans belonged to the UPP before it was banned following the jailing of Seok-ki and the other party members.

After appealing their sentences to the Korean Supreme Court the charges of "insurrection" were dropped but lesser charges remained that are keeping the activists in prison.  The Supreme Court agreed that the UPP members were not engaged in any violent overthrow of the government.

The initial charges all stemmed from a 90-minute lecture by Seok-ki three years ago entitled "How to achieve peace on the Korean peninsula".  A spy within the UPP, who had befriended Han Dong-geun 20 years before, taped the speech which the government used as 'evidence' during the trial of the party members who were ultimately jailed.

The NIS manipulated the tape recording by taking out some words and inserting 700 new words in order to make the governments case against the UPP.  Eventually the NIS had to admit they had monkeyed with the tape.

Religious leaders from five leading denominations throughout South Korea came to the defense of the jailed UPP leaders and the Jimmy Carter Center called for their release.

International solidarity is required to help relieve pressure on the progressive movement in South Korea today.  In September the Seok-ki support committee will do a tour of North America making stops in Chicago, New York, Toronto and other major cities.

During his time in prison Han Dong-geun was confined to a tiny cell for 23 hours a day, only able to see the sun for one hour.  But he told us he didn't feel isolated because of the strong support he received from supporters on the outside.

At the end of our meeting I said that I've long felt South Korean activists are currently experiencing the kind of repressive treatment that activists in the US will be facing in the coming years.  I remarked that I believe American activists should be paying attention to, and learning from, the current struggles of our Korean friends as they fight back to protect their democratic and human rights that are steadily being taken from them. 

The National Security Law says it is illegal to call for US military bases in South Korea to be closed or to call for the reunification of Korea.  It is also illegal to say that you want North and South Korea to "make a peace agreement" because that is the same position that the government in the North takes.

The Korean War is officially not over - there was only an Armistice signed but the US is the one that refuses still to this day to negotiate a full peace treaty with North Korea. I think the reason is obvious. As long as no peace treaty exists the US can justify its massive military presence in Korea which in the end is aimed at China and Russia as much, if not more, than aimed at North Korea.

There is no doubt in my mind that South Korean progressives would not be jailed unless the US government wanted the puppet regime in Seoul to do so.  Can we in America not understand that some day very soon this same treatment will fall on our shoulders as well?  Now is the time to speak out and resist this growing corporate fascism that is gripping the entire world.

Han Dong-geun handed Will and I a booklet entitled, "As he is not free, I am not free."  Those words pretty much sum it all up in a nutshell.

Bruce

Sick Neocon Wants to Kill Russians & Iranians

It's been a busy week for former acting CIA director Michael Morell. First, over the weekend he published an op-ed in the New York Times humbly titled, "I Ran the CIA. Now I’m Endorsing Hillary Clinton."  In the piece he explained that Hillary Clinton was his choice for president because of:

...her belief that America is an exceptional nation that must lead in the world for the country to remain secure and prosperous; her understanding that diplomacy can be effective only if the country is perceived as willing and able to use force if necessary...

Morell pitched his tent in Hillary's camp because of her aggressive, you might say neoconservative, foreign policy.

Have a listen and see the kind of people who are supporting Clinton for dictator.

Does Western Media Mislead about Syria?

The following is the transcript of an interview given to Be Curious TV by Dr Nabil Antaki, a doctor based in the Syrian government held western sectors of Aleppo. In this interview, given during his recent trip to France, Dr Antaki once more observes that Western media has been misleading and obscurantist in their reporting of events in Syria.  Dr Antaki reinforces that President Assad’s popularity has increased rather than waned since the US-NATO-GCC confab’s war against Syria began five years ago and he deconstructs much of the propaganda upon which the US and NATO base their interventionist, neo-colonialist policies.


Dr Antaki: “Firstly I would like to clarify..you have mentioned several times, Assad’s “regime” and Assad’s “army and its a confusion that we dont appreciate in Syria..when we read in all the media about Bashar’s airforce, Bashar’s army.  In fact, it is the Syrian army, the army of the State of Syria and when you mentioned that I live in western Aleppo which is under “regime” control, no, it is under the control of the Syrian state. Our people are not afraid of the Syrian army because it is an army that defends all of Syria against armed terrorists who have invaded Syria in order to establish their Islamic state. Therefore we should never say at all that the Syrian people are afraid of the Syrian army because it is not a “regime” army as described by the media, people are, in reality very grateful for the presence of the Syrian army.  

Let me give you an example. A few months ago the Syrian army launched an offensive to bring some relief to Aleppo which has been surrounded or besieged [by terrorists] for the last 3 years.  According to the western media the Syrian army was imposing a siege upon the Syrian people in Aleppo when in fact the opposite was true and the Syrian army was trying to break the three year terrorist siege of Aleppo. Therefore, no, the people are not afraid of the Syrian army, they are afraid of the terrorists.

See the rest of this important interview here

Assange Suggests Dead Man was DNC Leaker

Julian Assange seems to suggests on Dutch television program Nieuwsuur that Seth Rich was the source for the Wikileaks-exposed DNC emails and was murdered.

Meeting with South Korean VFP

This morning fellow VFP member Will Griffin and I had the pleasure to meet with four members of the Korean VFP chapter.  On previous trips to South Korea I've met with the Korean chapter and once brought them the US VFP flag given to me by Tom Sturtevant who was a Korean War veteran in the Maine chapter.  Tom insisted that I be sure to deliver the flag to them, which I did.  Since Tom's passing a few years ago our Maine VFP chapter has been re-named in his honor.

Two of the Korean VFP members we met with today were Captains in the South Korean Army.  One was a tank commander and the other taught PsyOps at the Army Academy.

During our discussion they made a strong statement about their concerns over the growing US-Japan-South Korea military alliance.  They told Will and I that they have long experience having lived under the occupation of the imperial Japanese fascist occupation and worry that the American people are far to ignorant of this history.

I suggested they might consider writing an article about the dangers of this new military alliance the US is creating in the Asia-Pacific region.  I promised them I'd be sure to get it printed in the excellent newspaper produced by VFP called Peace in Our Times.  They were eager to do this and promised to send me the article soon.

Following our meeting they took Will and I to lunch at a wonderful Asian buffet restaurant.

I had met with two of these men in the past and I immediately felt close to them upon meeting them again today.  They are going to try to arrange another meeting, maybe a protest together, before Will and I conclude our visit to South Korea.

Bruce

Letter of Solidarity to People of Montenegro

NATO is pushing its aggressive weight all around Eastern Europe.  The Global Network has received a letter from the Union for Military Neutrality of Montenegro asking that we offer words of solidarity in their effort to force their government to hold a public referendum on the issue of membership in NATO.  Below is our response to their request. 

 
Dear friends at Union for Military Neutrality of Montenegro,

It is with great pride that we send you greetings and solidarity in your wise effort to seek a national referendum on the question of NATO membership.

We have long maintained that NATO has become the military arm of corporate globalization - a run-a-way program of excessive greed and corruption aimed at stealing the declining natural resources of the planet for corporate control.

As member countries join NATO they are required to make all of their military hardware "inter-operable" with existing NATO military technology. This usually means that a new member country must cut social spending and instead use your national resources to purchase new military technology from mega-weapons corporations which are usually based in the US. All of this new high-tech military hardware is then run through the US Space Commands military satellite systems which means that the Pentagon is really in control of all NATO member military operations.

Thus the US has figured out a way to create a massive global military machine and to have smaller nations like Montenegro help pay for it. This massive military machine is now being aimed at China and Russia who remain the two primary nations in the world not yet fully under corporate control and domination. NATO members will have very little input into what wars NATO involves itself in.

The US has been hollowed out and turned into a nation of endless war. Our economy in the US is addicted to war. Our nation is falling apart due to defunding of our human and physical infrastructure. The Pentagon has long been saying that America's role under corporate globalization will be "security export".

We strongly urge the good citizens of Montenegro to pause before jumping into the arms of NATO which has nothing to do with freedom or democracy. It is a military alliance of greed, corruption, and endless violence.

We urge the people of Montenegro to support a national debate and referendum on NATO and to ultimately reject joining that ever expanding war machine which only represents those who want to pillage and plunder the people of this beautiful planet.

Our best wishes to all of you.

In peace and solidarity,

Bruce K. Gagnon
Coordinator
Global Network Against Weapons & Nuclear Power in Space 

Remembering Another Movement of U.S. Troops

This is an ugly piece of American history that has been swept under the rug. Very few people know about this shameful event where the US Army, led by some of the most revered heroes of WWII (MacArthur & Eisenhower), were turned on the veterans of WWI in the streets of Washington, DC.

Don't ever forget what the Native Americans said - the white man speaks with a forked tongue.

Drop the Lawsuit Against Jeju Activists!

Joyakgol sings his new hit single 'drop the lawsuit', in reference to the recent $3 million lawsuit for damages filed by the Navy against 116 Gangjeong villagers/supporters - just the latest in a brutal attempt to suppress the irrepressible resistance that characterizes the Gangjeong peace movement!

This song was sung throughout the peace march - blared from the sound trucks and by the end of the six day event everyone was singing it - including the international guests who at least learned the chorus.

The Navy, and lead Navy base construction contractor Samsung, claim that the protests delayed the base construction.  The case is now pending in court.

In South Korea they have a law that can hold the families of the 116 named in the lawsuit liable as well.  The intent of this law is to actively suppress opposition to government policies. 

Bruce

GI Resistance Movement

I joined the Air Force in 1971 as a gung-ho GI (who had grown up in an Air Force family) and wanted to be a lifer in the military just like my step-dad was.

My first roommate in the barracks at Travis AFB in California was one of the organizers of the GI resistance movement at our base. They had meetings in our room at night - white guys talking about the war - black guys talking about racism in the military and across the country.

I got the education of my life and this was where I became a peace activist. I owe my career in the peace and social justice movement to those GI's who taught me what was really going on in Vietnam and in Washington. All of my illusions about freedom and democracy were shattered behind the barbed wire fences at Travis AFB.

This film tells the story about this GI movement.

Bruce

Walk Around Jeju Island

Video compilation of the Grand March for Life & Peace on Jeju Island, South Korea.

No Navy base on Jeju!
No THAAD in Korea!
No US bases in Korea!
We support peace and reunification of Korea!

Bear Witness to the Truth

Dr. Cornel West says he endorsed the candidate (Jill Stein) who wants to bring justice, jobs, and solidarity to Black people.

Lessons from Jeju Grand March for Life & Peace

The east & west teams met at a busy intersection in Jeju City - a very exciting moment

The totem banners were symbolically joined at the center of the intersection

Auto union workers performed during the finale rally - the guy on the far right was very friendly to me and he was quite a singer.  Their songs were about their struggle against lay-offs and the companies attempts to force workers into part-time (temporary) work - the same kind of issues that French workers have lately been protesting about.  

Joyakgol sings his new hit single 'drop the lawsuit', in reference to the recent $3 million lawsuit for damages filed by the Navy against the villagers of Gangjeong - just the latest in a brutal attempt to suppress the irrepressible resistance that characterizes the Gangjeong peace movement!

Some of the tired but happy crowd at the finale event.  We figured that at least 60% of the walkers were students.  Koreans do a great job of making their events inter-generational.

 

Throughout the peace march, back in Gangjeong village at the Navy base new front gate, activists kept the morning 100 bows ceremony going as well as the mid-day demonstration.

(Click on any of the photos for a better view)

Fellow Veterans For Peace (VFP) members Will Griffin, Ken Jones and I flew back to the Korean mainland yesterday afternoon to Daegu (the hottest city in Korea we were told) where we will spend the next two days resting.  Our events here were surprisingly cancelled on us.

After some challenges we found a nice hotel and I was happy to see they had a washing machine available to us.  I've been washing some of my clothes in the shower and it has been a chore to get them clean.

We are all online trying to get caught up with email and social media.  Will is making reservations to fly to Okinawa at the end of the month to metjoin another group from VFP who are heading there on a similar solidarity trip.  (It's great to see VFP taking on the Obama-Clinton Asia-Pacific 'pivot'.)

Ken flies to California tomorrow to attend the VFP national convention in Berkeley.  He hopes to be able to share his experiences in Korea at the confab.  Will and I will head to Seoul for more protest and conference events.  We will miss Ken as we all have become close during this time together.

In the meantime the two Korean-American women Juyeun Rhee and Hyun Lee who were to be our guides and translators on this trip are daily in contact with us even though they were deported by the South Korean government when they arrived in Seoul.  They also been doing media work about their deportation and the latest interview with them can be seen here

We all firmly believe they were deported because of their recent work to oppose the THAAD 'missile defense' system that the US will soon deploy in South Korea.  (THAAD has already been deployed in Guam.) It is clear that the reactionary South Korean government is doing everything possible to disrupt protest movements against THAAD as they clearly have been ordered by Washington to push the deployment of the provocative system forward despite the will of the people.

In particular the corporate controlled government in Seoul is trying to paint any critics of THAAD as agents of North Korea - a standard strategy by the government here to suppress the opposition.  So far it ain't working.

The Seoul government is trying to isolate anyone opposing THAAD - especially those living in the melon farming community called Seongju which appears to be the Pentagon's preferred deployment site.  Currently the government is working feverishly to create a climate of fear and intimidation to keep activists from around South Korea from going to Seongju who wish to express their solidarity with the local residents.

This attempt to drown democracy is something we now see happening all over the world as the corporate globalists attempt to stomp out people's efforts to protect their economic and human rights as well as peace and the environment.  It's a full scale war against the people as the regional capitalist oligarchies arm themselves to the teeth in preparation for their final push for control and domination.

The spirit we witnessed during the Grand March for Life & Peace indicates that the people here will not easily surrender to the forces of darkness.  People understand what they are up against and are facing the challenge with steady determination and much joy.  They are a good model for all of us.

Bruce

Sunday Song

We Must Support One Another

The Grand March for Life and Peace concluded last night with a rousing rally in Jeju City along the sea wall (that reminds one of the Malecón in Havana).

As our east team met the west team in the center of the city each side carried one of two large banners depicting wooden totems that now stand in front of the peace center in Gangjeong village.  The two banners were brought into the busy traffic clogged intersection and symbolically joined.  From there the two merged teams walked the last few miles to the rally site.  The totem banners were erected onto the large stage and as dark came, and the stage lights hit the banners, the beautiful colors came alive in a brilliant display.  I was very moved to stand on that stage and deliver the message representing the international guests.

As you can see in the short video above, taken of the west team during a storm, not even a down pour bothered the walkers.  Very few pulled out umbrellas or raincoats - most just keep moving along to the music coming from the sound trucks.

There is so much to say about this walk including the many things I learned and about the Korean people that we had the great fortune to meet during these days.  I will likely write a series of posts, with many more photos, in the coming days as time and the words make themselves available to me.

In the meantime I must say thank you to all our new friends and co-walkers for this incredible experience.  Despite the fun and the excitement of the walk what must come first is the reminder that the people in South Korea are witnessing their democracy being dismantled each day by the right-wing Park government.  They are seeing their country, already long a US military colony, become even more so as Washington rushes to prepare for war with China and Russia.

People here, like in Okinawa and Guam, know they are a prime target in a conflict because of the US bases on their islands.  They are doing all they can NOW while they still can.  They wonder why people in the US and in Europe are largely so silent and inactive when it comes to the massive expansion of the US-NATO war machine into the Asia-Pacific (including new NATO partnership agreements with South Korea, Japan, Australia and New Zealand).

In my short talk last night I told the hundreds who were assembled at the final rally the story of our protest in Bath, Maine last June when 12 of us (Zumwalt 12) were arrested at the Bath Iron Works shipyard for blocking the road and gate into the 'christening' ceremony for a new warship.  I said that warship was likely to visit Gangjeong village at some point.  I told the people that they inspired us in Maine to act - in fact five of the 12 of us who were arrested have been to Gangjeong village over the past few years.  I said we'd continue to support them into the future.

The only way we can prevent WW III is to become bolder during this dangerous time of military expansion and the drowning of democracy.  The people of Korea who have come to Jeju Island in large numbers (union members, human rights activists, peaceniks, parents of the Sewol ferry students killed in that terrible accident, Korea Green Party members, priests & nuns, environmentalists, and community leaders) are showing that it is possible to build effective coalitions in order to protect democracy, peace and our Mother Earth.

We all have much to learn from the biggest little village on the planet called Gangjeong.

Bruce

Our Tour of Kunsan AFB in South Korea

Peace Walk Day 3 - Jeju Faces Even More Militarization

Day 3 from the 5th annual Grand March for Life and Peace here on Jeju Island, South Korea.

Yesterday we walked about 13 miles in the hot heat (and sometimes rain).  We hit the area called Seongsan by the end of the day that is presently mired in its own fight against the government.

Without consulting the residents of Seongsan, or any other villages in the area, the South Korean government (which is totally controlled by the mega-corporations) has announced their intention to build a second airport on Jeju Island.  The current airport is in Jeju City which is on the northern part of the island while Seongsan is on the southern side of the egg-shaped island.

Last night during the after dinner nightly walk program we heard from the local committee leaders opposing the airport plan.  It appears that more than 75% of the villagers in Seongsan would lose their homes and four other nearby villages would also be severely impacted.  The chairman of the opposition committee told us that they believe the airport is related to the Navy base in Gangjeong village.  It seems that the Pentagon does not want to port their expensive destroyers, nuclear subs, and aircraft carriers in Gangjeong village without 'close air support' thus the need for an airfield nearby.  But the government knows that another US military base would create big political problems so they are saying the airport would only be for civilian use.  By now the people here understand that the US and South Korean governments lie about virtually everything.

(It must be remembered that the announced Obama-Hillary Clinton 'pivot' of 60% of US forces into the Asia-Pacific means that more airfields, ports-of-call, and barracks are needed for military operations.) 

One of the most impressive things about the peace walk is the numbers of children and young people who are walking.  There are a group of 5-6 kids who have undertaken the job of handing out walk flyers and they spend the entire day running from house to shop as well as plastering the flyers at bus stops and on light posts.  As we pass by people watching us walk, I notice that most find it very difficult not to take a flyer from these kids.  I think of them as the 'wild pack' and smile.  I don't know where they get the energy to keep it up all day long but I need some of it!

Today Ken Jones and I are taking a break from the walk.  I had some Global Network tasks needing immediate attention and later in the day I will take Ken to the April 3 (1948) massacre museum near Jeju City.  You can't come here without learning more about the US-directed massacre of more than 30,000 Jeju Islanders after Washington took over Korea from Japan at the end of WW II.

The US installed into power the Koreans who had collaborated with the imperial Japanese during their occupation of this country.  The public, thinking that the defeat of Japan meant their freedom, were angered and began to protest against the US installation of these right-wing Koreans.  The US responded by enforcing the systematic killing of well over 100,000 Koreans across the nation who opposed the way the US was running the country.  In the end this dynamic is what led to the Korean war that still is unsettled as Washington refuses to sign a peace treaty with North Korea.

Ken and I get back on the walk tomorrow morning and over 2,000 people are expected in Jeju City for the big finish program on Saturday evening.

Bruce

Blocked from Entry for Peace Work

On July 26, two Korean American peace activists – Juyeon Rhee and Hyun Lee – had planned to be part of a peace tour as representatives of the U.S.-based Solidarity Committee for Democracy and Peace in Korea but were denied entry into South Korea by its government.

After being deported back to the US, Rhee and Lee spoke with ZoominKorea about their deportation and their thoughts on the South Korean government’s attempt to isolate the residents of Seongju (where the THAAD missile defense system is to be deployed) from international solidarity.

Day 2: Jeju Peace Walk Update

• Day two of the Jeju Island peace walk in South Korea was another hot one.  We did 13 miles and everyone was very tired by the end.  One man who specializes in fixing blisters was quite busy from morning until 8:00 pm helping the walking wounded.  I developed just a tiny blister on the back of my heel from the rubbing of my sandals.  Going to have to wear socks and shoes today which I have dreaded doing because of the heat.
• In the photo above you can see the dish washing operation back at Gangjeong village.  They make three meals a day and bring the food out to the walk in trucks.  Then the dirty dishes are brought back to the village and washed.  Remember that there are two walking groups - going east and west - so this is a major logistical undertaking.
• Last night as we lined up for the supper meal - served outside - I was transfixed as the long line of people began singing together, accompanied by guitar and flute.  The walkers come from across the country and are activists from various movements including labor, church, human rights, Korean Green Party, alternative schools, peace and more.  Quite a few Catholic priests and nuns (dressed in their grey habits) are also walking.
• It's amazing to experience 150 or more people constantly singing as we walk along (yesterday we began at 8:00 am and finished at 5:30 pm.  We took 90 minutes for lunch and took a 20 minute break every hour).  The singing helps keep the tired and hot feet moving along nicely.

I just learned that the court arraignment today of the Zumwalt 12 in Bath, Maine resulted in a pre-trial motions hearing of September 7 being set.  Everyone declared 'not guilty'.  The Zumwalt 12 were arrested on June 18 at the 'christening' of the second Zumwalt class destroyer at the Navy shipyard in Bath.  The 'stealth' destroyer's job is to sneak up on China and blast it with new electromagnetic railguns which can fire a shell the size of a car the distance from New York City to Philadelphia.  These warships would likely be deployed at some point at the new Navy base in Gangjeong village.  We felt it important to get the Navy crew used to seeing protests so that when they arrived in Gangjeong village they understood the message!  The trial story was covered by local and national media including the military newspaper called the Stars & Stripes.  You can see more on this here

The Crimes of the 1%