Gangjeong is Strong and Beautiful...Truth from the Villagers

* For more important details, please see HERE.

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It has been raining on and off for more than a month in the Gangjeong village.
Still the lights in the tents have never been put out in the nights.
About 4~5 people in shifts make vigil every day and night.
The tents are just off from the site for the planned ceremony for the naval base construction.

Mr. Koh was one of the villagers in the tent on the night of March 5. He complained
how the navy was making the propaganda on the naval base construction as if it was an established fact,
despite most villagers’ strong opposition against it. He was critical of press
that counts only the government and navy’s positions.

“ Look, even though the navy says about 50 % of the land was compensated, it is exaggeration and you should know that the navy bought most of it from the outsiders of the Gangjeong village, who had owned the lands in the village. There might be some in the village who sold their lands to the navy. But the number is very few. Further, they received the money in the condition that, if the naval base is not constructed, they should return the money back. And even though the navy says 80% of fishing industry has been compensated, each of the sea diving women have not gotten money yet because of the complicated distributing issue. Then who were compensated really?
The navy is manipulating the public opinion
as if Gangjeong is in favor of and has submitted to the plan. ”

Joongduk, named after the beautiful rocky Joongduk coast where the navy plans to set up the naval base is the dog of Mr. Kim, the head of the tent vigil. Along with Mr. Kim who sleeps almost every night in the tent, Joongduk does same, being loved by all the villagers and visitors of the tents. Many times, his little friend accompanies him.

More on 'Joongduk' (Click the images for larger view)
* The red ribbon tied in Joongduk’s neck says, “ No, naval base”.

Image source: Above series of photos were composed from the images by
Mr. Kim, a young cartoonist and photographer of beautiful Gangjeong
and Boreum Doraegi, a native of Gangjeong.

After loading the photos, I called some in the village by phone to ask whether they liked the photos.
A villager and cartoonist, Koh said that he wanted to show the Joongduk’s other photos
when Joomduk was not yet chained. His young friend and artist, Mr. Kim sent his photos of Joongduk
and a blog link by the villager whose blog was about the opposition against the naval base.

Until Joongduk was recently lost in the village, he had been freely running the everywhere of the village, including the Joongduk coast his name had been named after. The dog of Mr. Kim, head of the tent vigil (in the furthest left photo), has become the 'comrade' for all the villagers who oppose the naval base because the dog happened to come to them when the struggle was the hardest and has witnessed all the people’s struggle. When Joongduk was lost, people were crazy to find him and some were even protesting against the navy for suspicion that the navy was the cause of Joonduk being lost, much crying after it, the blogger noted. Even though it was sad to chain 'Joongduk' once he was found, the villagers’ love of Joongduk seemed to have been very deep, the blogger was writing in his blog.

Despite it is one of the busiest seasons for tangerine farming, villagers would come to tent
even though it is not their shifting turn for vigil. They share their anger against the naval base plan,
and build up their will to fight against it. The fire in front of tents has kept them warm through the cold winter.

Flags cover the tent site. “We death-defiantly oppose the naval base!”

Banners across the tents site:
‘Withdraw the naval base plan of the treacherous economic logic and tremendous environmental damage’, and ‘Withdraw the naval base plan that devastates the world-renowned soft coral reefs in the Gangjeong sea’
-by Pan-Island people’s committee to stop the Jeju military base and to realize the Island of Peace-

The tent sites are just off the navy’s planned site for the ceremony for the planned naval base construction.
Yellow flags cover along the road to the site.

After the navy and police raid on Jan. 18, the navy has set up the gate, fence and wire-fence to block the people’s access on it. The ugly construction stuff pretends as if it is the hope for the Island people:

“ A new hope with the Jeju Island people_ The Site for the Jeju Naval Base (civilian-military complex beauty harbor for tourism),” it says.

The logos of the construction companies such as Samsung and Daerim are clear with the Logo of the ROK navy.

“ It was just right before Feb. 24 when the Joint chief of the ROK navy dropped by Gangjeong
that the navy hurriedly set up those infuriating boards to pretend that all the preparation for navy construction is going well. It is laughable and infuriating,”, villagers can not bear those boards
and want to make the alternative against them.
The navy set up the board depicting how the naval base would be fantastic site for tourists with all the luxurious cruises, flowers and photo-taking tourists. “It’s just nonsensical. If the military base is set-up, who can freely take the pictures of the base? The navy is insisting the logic that persuades nobody,” villagers say.

From the gate, one sees the people’s struggle site on Jan. 18.
The site has been heavily wire-fenced after the raid. Now some were cleared.

"The navy has said that there would be no fence since it would be the beauty harbor for tour
but it installed the wire fence. How all of its words are bluff and lies!"

It is a bird view of the planned site for ceremony for the navy construction.
The navy has set up the tent and makeshift buildings inside the site.
“The navy knows that they can not well progress the naval base because of many obstacles such as people’s lawsuits
that they can not avoid. Still they are desperate to attempt to make the naval base construction
as an established facts.”

Beyond the site, one sees the rocky Joongduk coast that the navy wants to dredge for the naval base.
The greenhouses for tangerine farming are lined to the coast. One of the reasons
that the navy wants to set up the naval base in Gangjeong is
because it is almost only village from which the coast is relatively far than any other villages, a villager guessed.
In the Joongduk coast,
a movie critic has lived in a tent for more than six months to keep the coast from the naval base.

“It is the end of land. The people have only sea in their back when they fight against the navy.
The people don’t have any place to go once they are pushed by the navy and police”, an activist has described about the people’s struggle site where the navy wanted to set up the construction stages for the ceremony before Jan. 18.

From the gate the navy has set up, one can see the tents site (right) and Gangjeong village along the roads.

The stream under the bridge that you see in the right side of the photo is Gangjeong stream.
The Gangjeong stream has long time been the pride for the villagers. As the village name, Gang (means ‘river’) and Jeong ( means ‘water) implies, Gangjeong is proud of it abundant and clean water by which all the crops,
whether they are rice, garlic or tangerine are considered the best not only in the Jeju Island but nationwide.
Further, the water of Gangjeomg stream feeds the 70% of people in the Seogwipo area.
However, the navy wants to start the construction of the naval base from here.

“I am a long time seaman. I oppose the naval base’, a villager with the strong vernacular Gagngjeong language,
Cho with a young visitor, Kim who has lived in Gangjeong for more than six months and helped to record people’s struggle.

“The persistent will win!,” people shout before they leave the dinner
in which the mayor Kang Dong-Kyun was present, as well.
Villagers’ trust and love of mayor seemed to be very deep. The mayor has lost the weight of 17kg
since he involved in the struggle. A villager was saying to me, “Why don’t you load more photos of him?”
and I replied that I was planning to make the video in which he would appear many times.


* For more important details, please see HERE.

Click the images for larger view.