Text Fwd [Translation] KAPM Report on the Oppression against the KAPM

* This site was thankfully translated in Japanese by M. S. in Japan. Click HERE.


* Image source: KAPM report (여기 클릭)

Members of the KAPM protesting in front of the NIS on July 2, 2010

'We denounce the Lee Myung-Bak government who condemns the legal [inter-Korean] exchange & co-operation as the illegal!
Do you want to make the Korean peninsula for the exchange & cooperation, co-prosperity, peaceful unification into that of the military confrontation & war crisis?'

'Stop the oppression against the KAPM, that is the retaliation against the [mass] candle [protests in 2008]!
Are you afraid of the 2nd Candles, facing the total import of the more than 30 months US beef at the risk of mad cow disease?'

Failure of the diplomacy on the Cheonan ship [incident] and increment of the suspicion
-Stop the retaliation investigation against the progressive organizations!
Are you afraid of the KAPM who demands the total re-investigation on the Cheonan ship incident and the stop of military confrontation?'
___________________________________________________________

* Below is the arbitrary translation of the KAPM Report in the KAPM site.

국문은 여기를 클릭하세요.

1. Report on the Situation

In the morning of June 29, the NIS and Security Investigation unit of the Police Agency in collaboration carried out the restraint warrant and confiscation & search warrant in the houses of Mr. Han Choong-Mok, Mr. Jung Dae-Yeon and Ms. Choi Young-Ok.

- At the same time, executed the confiscation & search of the offices of the KAPM, and Jinbosarang(* meaning progressive love) (sponsor group)

- Originally, attempted to subpoena to ten people but the justice department turned down it except for the three people.

-As a result of the substantial review of the warrant processed on July 1, the warrants of Jung Dae-Yeon and Choi Young-Ok were turned down. The two were released.


2. Situation of the Distortion and Fabrication of the Charges of the National Security Law by the NIS and Police.

- Define the principals and rules of the KAPM on August 23, 2007, in accord with ‘The Foundation Measure for the Koryeo Democratic Federation Republic,’ ‘Kim Il-Sung’s New Year Speech’ and ’ The Faced 10 rules for the Anti-imperialism and the People’s Front’ of the North Korea.

-Define the holding of the ‘2008 KAPM staff training meeting’ on Feb. 22, 2008 for the discussion and resolution of the agendas on the Koryeo federation unification and withdrawal of the USFK.

- Define that Han Choong-Mok has occupied and lead the Anti-War Peace Self-Reliance and Unification Committee of the KAPM on September 17, 2008.


1. ◯ Premising the partner of the legal inter Korean exchange as the North Korean spy against the South Korea, define the exchange as the meeting & communication with and order-receiving from [enemy] and drive as if the activities of the unification solidarity and progressive solidarity were for the purposeful carrying out of the order [from the enemy].

◯By such way, all the people who have joined the inter-Korean exchange last period can be harmed under the same crime charge.

◯ The turn over of Jung Dae-Yeon and Choi Young-Ok reveals it was the prosecutors’ unreasonable investigation.

◯ The reason that even though they had confiscated & searched the Committee against the Mad Cow disease & KAPM and such above items had been stated in the prosecutors’ announcement of the investigation during the candle light protests against the mad cow disease in 2008, the items were omitted during the indictment stage, could be because the criticism against the prosecutors' unreasonable investigation was fierce.


2. Currently Applied Law Items Revealed in the Confiscation & Search Warrants (Those may be changed later on)

- Article 7, National Security Law (Admiration and Encouragement [of the enemy])

- Article 8 (Meeting and Communication [with the enemy])


3. The Nature of Oppression

1) The incident this time is to mask the inter Korean exchange & the practical affairs’ Conference that have been legally and openly processed under the permission of the [former] Ministry of Unification as the activities of receiving the order from the NK, therefore to arrest and confiscate & search of the KAPM staffs, which is, from the view of common sense, non-persuasive and unreasonable investigation and political retaliation against the KAPM who lead and accomplished the solidarity of the opposition parties during June 2 local election.

2) It is the retaliation against the [protests of] candle lights that the Lee Myung-Bak government, who has to import the beef of more than 30 months mad cow disease, connecting it to the delay of the wartime operational transfer, became to be put in the situation not being able to get out of the fear of the people’s candles, therefore oppresses the KAPM whose eight staffs have been arrested for the charges that they were the leaders behind the scenes of the [mass] candle light [protests] in 2008.

3)It is to oppress the KAPM as [the Lee government] predicts that there would be the response against the move of the government who tries to realize the SK-US FTA, import of the U.S. beef of more than 30 months, expansion of the dispatch to Afghanistan, increment of the USFK stationing cost, in the latter half of the year, and seeing that it has applied the arrest warrant against 10 staffs including the already arrested three, at the same time, it is to destroy the KAPM, by defining it as the enemy-benefiting organization.


4. Basis for the Response

_ Will proceed the joint response works collecting all the units and persons who are oppressed under the Lee Myung-Bak government.

_ Will jointly prevent the security oppression that is, after the oppression of the Net-i-zens who raised the questions on the Cheonan ship, Pan-Korean Teachers & Education Workers’ Union, expanded to the whole of the progressive & reform front.

- Concentrate into the public relationship of the contents that the public echoes with

- Expansion of the struggle on the public opinion such as the ‘The reality of the Security Oppression and Response Measure.


5. Concrete Plans ( KAPM Proposal)

1) Indict the NIS agent who misrepresented himself as the MBC reporter
2) Rally in front of the NIS, from 1 2to 1 pm everyday.
3) Rally in front of the NIS, at 2pm on July 3(Sat)
4) Support via on-line, encouragement and joining to Jinbosarang


6. Expected Trial Date

- Sending to the Prosecutors: July 15 to 20 (It is possible that the NIS will investigate [Han] for maximum 20 days)
- Indictment: early August (It is possible that the prosecutor investigation stage is for maximum 30 days)
- 1st trial: In the middle of August

Text Fwd: [KAPM Commentary] Restraint Warrant Turned Down [Except for Han], Proving that the Investigation was unreasonable

* Image source: KAPM

‘Han Choong-Mok, Co-representative of the KAPM, forcefully taken away by the NIS and police in the dawn of June 29, 2010’

'Stop the Oppression against the KAPM, for the turn-over of the election defeat!'

______________________________________________________________

* Below is the arbitrary translation of the link

Korean Alliance of Progressive Movements (KAPM)
[논평] 무리한 수사였음이 입증된 구속영장 기각
[KAPM Commentary] Restraint Warrant Turned Down [Except for Han], Proving that the Investigation was unreasonable
10-07-02
July 2, 2010

사법부조차 이번 국정원의 무리한 수사를 차마 봐주기 민망했던 모양이다.
6월 29일 자행된 국정원의 강제연행으로 구금당했던 한국진보연대 한충목 공동대표, 정대연 전 집행위원장, 최영옥 자주통일위원회 부위원장에 대한 영장실질심사에서 정대연 위원장과 최영옥 부위원장의 영장이 기각되었다.

It seems even the judiciary felt embarrassed to accept the unreasonable investigation by the National Intelligence Service. In the substantial review of the warrant against Han Choong-Mok, co-representative of the KAPM, Jung Dae-Yeon, former Executive Chairman, and Choi Young-Ok, Vice-Chairman of the Self-Reliance Unification Committee, who have been detained for the forceful arrest by the National Intelligence Service, on June 29, the warrants against Jung Dae-Yeon, former Executive Chairman, and Choi Young-Ok, Vice-Chairman of the Self-Reliance Unification Committee were turned down.

세 명 중 두 명의 영장이 기각된 것은 이번 수사가 무리한 것이었음을 명백히 입증한 것이라 하겠다. 국정원과 검찰은 국면전환용 끼어맞추기 수사를 즉각 중단할 것을 촉구한다.

The thing that the warrants against the two were turned down clearly proves that the investigation this time was unreasonable. We demand the NIS and the Prosecutors to immediately stop the framed investigation that is for the turn over of the political deadlock.

또한 우리는 한충목 대표의 영장이 발부된 것을 안타깝게 생각하며 5년이 넘은 사건, 통일부에 허가를 받고 북측 인사와 접촉한 사안을 가지고 국가보안법 혐의를 걸고드는 검찰의 무리한 수사에 대해 이후 법정에서 조목조목 무죄임을 밝혀 나갈 것이다.

We, feeling sorry that the warrant against Han-Choong-Mok , co-representative of the KAPM, was subpoenaed, will reveal his no-guilty, item by item in the court henceforth , on the prosecutors’ unreasonable investigation who charges him under the National Security Law, for the reason that he contacted the North Korean personnel, which had been permitted by the Ministry of Unification then, five years ago.

마지막으로, 이명박 정권은 치졸한 정치 보복극으로 잃는 것은 신뢰 뿐이고, 얻는 것은 조롱 뿐이며, 다가오는 것은 레임덕 뿐이라는 것을 명심해야 할 것이다.

Finally, the Lee Myung-Bak government should remind that it is trust that it would lose for the crude political retaliation play, that it is only the ridicule that it would get and that it is only its lame duck that would approach to it.


2010년 7월1일
July 1, 2010

한국진보연대
Korean Alliance of Progressive Movements (KAPM)

Text Fwd: [famoksaiyanfriends] Army Official: We Never Meant to Clean Up DU-Depleted Uranium

* Text sent from Martha Duenas on July 2, 2010

from DMZ Hawai'i blog:

Big Island Weekly News

Army official: We never meant to clean up DU

By Alan D. Mcnarie

Wednesday, June 30, 2010 11:08 AM HST

According to a high Army official, the Army never intended to remove depleted uranium ammunition remnants from Pohakuloa Training Area and Shofield Barracks, and it has no plans to do so for as long as the firing ranges at those facilities are still in use.

"The Army requested a license for possession, not decommissioning, of the legacy DU at the affected Army installations," wrote Deputy Assistant Secretary to the Army Addison D. "Tad" Davis IV to Congresswoman Mazie Hirono on May 26 of this year. Davis added, "Currently the Army has no plans for the removal of the legacy DU. The ranges containing DU are still in use, and most, if not all, of these ranges also contain unexploded ordnance, which is significantly more hazardous than any DU that might be present on these ranges. Should those ranges be scheduled for closure at some future date, the Army will address the DU present as part of the range closure...."

The "legacy DU" referred to in the letter is believed to be fragments of spotting rounds from cold-war-era Davy Crockett nuclear artillery. In 2008, the Army submitted an application to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission for a permit to "possess" the DU; its original permit had expired in 1964. The NRC's ruling on that application is still pending, though the NRC has criticized the Army's plan to monitor the DU in the area as ineffective. (See "NRC to Army: DU Monitoring Plan Won't Work" in the archives at http://www.bigislandweekly.com.) A sub-agency called the Federal and State Materials and Environmental Management Programs is entertaining a petition from Hawaiian activist Isaac Harp to discipline the army over the expired permit. Hirono had asked Davis what the army had done to address public concerns about "environmental, health and safety" hazards that the DU posed.

The Army has repeatedly contended that the DU does not present a significant hazard to the island's population. Davis's letter to Hirono continued to maintain the Army's position. He claimed that the soil concentration of DU at the Army ranges was estimated at 1-4 pCi/g (picocuries of DU per gram of soil), which averaged "much less than the NRC decommissioning levels of uranium in soil (14 pCi/g of Uranium 238, the major constituent of DU), and are not much above soil concentrations of naturally occurring uranium."

"The Army has collected numerous air and soil samples, none of which indicate that the DU at Hawaii's ranges has migrated off-range...," Davis contended.

Not so, says Dr. Lorrin Pang, a former Army doctor and frequent critic of the Army's handling of the DU issue.

"That's absolutely not true. Even their own tests at Waiki'i [on the Saddle Road near Pohakuloa] found it [DU] in dust at low levels. I think the correct scientific interpretation is, it was there," Pang told the Big Island Weekly.

Pang also challenged Davis's assertion that "Many independent scientific studies of depleted uranium in the environment show that DU presents no significant 'environmental, health and safety [hazard],' especially at the soil concentrations of the DU on Hawaii's ranges." Pang noted that the NRC itself had criticized the Army's monitoring protocols as inadequate; he maintained that the Army simply didn't know, yet, how much DU was located at Pohakuloa.

"You don't have a system in place to monitor and baseline, and then you're gonna tell me the risks?" he asked skeptically. "Tad Allen isn't a scientist. He's an MBA from Harvard. If he makes these statements, he'd better refer to scientists who will defend them...

First of all, if you say, we never intended to clean it up, how much is there? You don't even know."

The proper scientific approach, he maintained was, "First tell me, how much [DU] is there. Then you've got to tell, me, what is the risk? Then you've got to tell me the response: if you're going to clean it up or not."

And the army's own "friendly fire" studies on servicepeople exposed to DU were so badly flawed, he maintained, that the researchers hadn't even recorded tumors, so the health risks were also not known. Without knowing either the quantity of DU or the health risk, the proper course of action was impossible to determine.

He added that that appropriate course of action might turn out to be something other than cleaning up the DU.

"Maybe they don't have to clean it up," he said. "Maybe they just promise never to use it again. Maybe they keep the dust down."

Davis's letter also provoked a response from Cory Harden, who has been monitoring the DU controversy for the Sierra Club. Harden noted that when Davis wrote , "the Army has collected numerous soil and air samples, none of which indicate that the DU...has migrated off range," he didn't mention testimony by geologist and radiation expert Dr. Mike Reimer, who had reviewed the Army's proposed DU monitoring system and found that the holes in the filters on the Army's detection devices were "ten times too large."

She also questioned Davis' statement that the DU disposal problem would be addressed when the firing ranges were finally decommissioned. She noted that after the military took over Kaho'olawe for a bombing range, Pres. Dwight Eisenhower had promised to return the island in habitable condition - but when it was finally returned 50 years later, massive bombing had cracked the caprock, draining the island's freshwater supply, and most of the island's land still had not been entirely cleared of ordnance.

What the Army actually does with the DU, however, may depend not on what it intended or intends to do, but on what the NRC tells it to do. Few expect the NRC not to grant the Army a permit to possess the DU - after all, the stuff is already in the ground - but it may well impose conditions on the Army, including a more viable monitoring program and possibly a cleanup strategy.

Text Fwd: Ministry offers 7% rise in 2011 defense budget

Korea Times
Ministry offers 7% rise in 2011 defense budget
06-30-2010 22:16
By Jung Sung-ki
Staff reporter

The Ministry of National Defense has called for a 6.9 percent increase in defense spending next year, citing the need for bolstering its defense posture against North Korean provocation, ministry officials said Wednesday.

The ministry submitted the spending plan scaled at 31.6 trillion won ($25.9 billion) to the Ministry of Strategy and Finance.

In detail, the ministry asked for 21.65 trillion won, a 5.8 percent increase, for operational costs, including salaries for soldiers, and 9.95 trillion won, a 9.4 percent rise, for arms improvement plans

The request for increasing defense expenditures follows the deadly sinking of a South Korean warship in the West Sea in March caused by, according to a Seoul-led multinational investigation team, a North Korean torpedo attack. The sinking of the Cheonan claimed the lives of 46 sailors.

Since then, calls have been growing to spend more money to build and acquire weapons systems to deter North Korea's asymmetrical and irregular warfare tactics.

The ministry also wants to improve the welfare of soldiers.

"There is a need to improve our military capabilities against emerging threats in the region. In particular, we feel a sense of urgency in beefing up our systems to thwart a North Korean provocation or infiltration in the wake of the Cheonan sinking," a ministry official said on condition of anonymity.

Gen. Han Min-koo, a nominee for chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS), echoed the calls for increasing defense spending.

"Should I take over as the JCS chief, I'll ask the President and the defense minister to increase the defense budget by 7 percent or more," Han said at a National Assembly confirmation hearing.

Budget constraints have haunted the country's ambitious military modernization program, dubbed the "Defense Reform 2020."

When the reform plan was originally formulated in 2005, the budget for this year was projected to increase to about 33 trillion won ($28 billion). But the money decreased to 29.6 trillion won.

For the 15-year period from 2006 to 2020, the original plan had a combined budget of 621 trillion won, including 75 trillion won to acquire advanced weapons to offset a planned manpower reduction by 2020.

According to the 2009 review of the plan, the aggregate 15-year budget decreased to 599 trillion won.

Based upon the low budget increase in 2010, and before adjustments for the Cheonan incident, the 15-year total would be more like 540 trillion won, an 80-trillion-won shortfall from the original plan, according to defense experts.

gallantjung@koreatimes.co.krmailto:

Photo Fwd: Freedom of assembly restored

Hankyoreh
Posted on : Jul.2,2010 13:23 KST

'Members of civic organizations hold a nighttime demonstration to protest the Four Major Rivers Restoration Project at Cheonggye Square in Seoul, July 1.

Just after the lifting of the ban on nighttime outdoor assemblies through a ruling by the Constitutional Court went into effect on July 1, police stations nationwide were flooded with applications for outdoor assemblies after sunset, officials said.'

Text Fwd: Scientific debate around Cheonan findings heats up

'The propeller of torpedo designated by the joint civilian-military investigation team as the weapon used to destroy the Navy vessel Cheonan rests on display.' 　

Hankyoreh
Scientific debate around Cheonan findings heats up
:Two experts say the explosive aluminum oxide discovered was really Gibbsite, a clay substance
By Lee Yong-inn
Posted on : Jul.2,2010 12:31 KST

The “scientific debate” surrounding the results of the joint civilian-military investigation team has heated up, as refutations and counter points have emerged from several scientists who have raised issues with the findings. In particular, scientists have voiced the opinion that the results of analysis of explosive residue found on the ship, raised as one of the pieces of “decisive evidence” of a torpedo attack, is similar to a substance that appears in simple clay.

University of Virginia Physics Professor Lee Seung-heon and Dr. Yang Panseok, head of analysis at the University of Manitoba’s department of geological sciences, said in a report recently sent to Hankyoreh 21 that the energy spectroscopy graph announced on May 20 as an explosive substance was not droplets of aluminum oxide, an explosive substance, but Gibbsite, a clay substance that naturally occurs due to weathering. Gibbsite could come from sediment soil from the seas in front of Baengnyeong Island, and it is commonly extracted in its natural state and used as fire-retardant material in vessels like the Cheonan.

In analyzing an energy spectroscopy graph, it is possible to identify a substance though the ratio of its elements. The joint investigation team determined the substance was aluminum oxide, with an aluminum-oxygen ratio of 0.92 for the residue found on the Cheonan hull and 0.9 on the fragments of the torpedo. The two scientists, however, said the results of simulations at the U.S. National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) resulted in an aluminum-oxygen ratio of 0.23 for aluminum oxide, and that the result presented by the investigation team was closer to Gibbsite at 0.85.

In response to criticism that the substance had too much oxygen for aluminum, the investigation team said in a meeting with representatives of the press on June 29 that the sample of the substance absorbed into the hull was about 40 percent water, which includes oxygen.

Professor Lee, a joint researcher, said that energy spectroscopy tests are performed in a vacuum, so there could be no moisture in the test. He said the moisture the investigation team referred to was just the hydrogen and oxygen that exists in Gibbsite, mistakenly identified by the team.

A senior-level researcher with a civilian research facility that handles sample analysis said Thursday that a spectroscopy test measures the frequency of electrons as they collide and are emitted after a sample has been zapped with an electron gun. He explained that only if the sample is in a vacuum could electrons reach it. The researcher said the sample is dried beforehand, and even if it is not, all the moisture would leave during the process of creating a vacuum.

Please direct questions or comments to [englishhani@hani.co.kr]

______________________________________________________________

* Related article

Hankyoreh

Requested Security Council Cheonan measures weaken considerably

: Instead of sanctions against North Korea, the proposed statement now denounces “those responsible”

By Kwon Tae-ho

Posted on : Jul.2,2010 12:27 KST

Some Excerpts:

'Contrary to the Lee Myung-bak administration’s initial expectations, the U.N. Security Council measures on the Cheonan sinking currently being pursued by the administration are known to be at a rather muted level.'

'In the early stages, the Lee Myung-bak administration primarily used the phrase “a resolution for sanctions against North Korea” in referring to UNSC measures in response to the Cheonan sinking. Currently, however, it is having a difficult time inserting a passage in the president’s statement specifying that North Korea bears responsibility for the sinking of the Cheonan. The government official said that the draft adopted by the UNSC would be at the level of the statement from the G-8 summit held in Canada.'

'However, due to objections from Russia, the G-8 summit did not specify that “those responsible” referred to “North Korea.” The UNSC, however, includes China, which is not part of the G-8 summit. In terms of scope, the UNSC draft is expected to fall short of the G-8 summit statement.'

'Meanwhile, North Korea sent a letter to the UNSC on Tuesday stating the need for a joint North Korean-South Korean investigation to determine the facts of the Cheonan’s sinking. While this was not a significant departure from its previous request to send a review team, it does indicate a relative step forward. The U.S. expressed its opposition, saying that no further investigation of the Cheonan sinking was necessary.'

Text Fwd: S.Korean PRT site in Afghanistan comes under attack

* Image source: University Students, Nanum Munhwa (* meaning 'Sharing Culture')

'Today (July 1, 2010), South Korean soldiers are dispatched to Afghanistan
Withdraw the re-deployment to Afghanistan that predicts the national tragedy!'

On June 30, there was the press interview against the Lee Myung Bak government’s forceful drive for the dispatch to Afghanistan, by the five Parties such as the Democratic Party, Democratic Labor Party, New Progressive Party, Creative Korea Party, Citizens’ Participation Party and the Civilian Alliance Against the Redeployment of Troops to Afghanistan, composed of 69 organizations. Currently only Korean press release on it is available. See it HERE.
_____________________________________________________________


* Image source: same as the link: German Bundeswehr army soldiers of the ISAF Quick Reaction Force (QRF) open fire during a night drill in the Marmal mountains near Masar-i-Sharif, north of Kabul, Sept. 16, 2008.(REUTERS photo)'

Hankyoreh
S.Korean PRT site in Afghanistan comes under attack
:Analysts say the attack seems to be a warning message and arrived one day before S.Korea’s PRT was scheduled to launch their mission
Posted on : Jul.2,2010 12:35 KST

Unidentified attackers shot rockets at the construction site of the base of South Korea’s provincial reconstruction team (PRT) in Afghanistan, the Foreign Ministry announced Thursday. The ministry also confirmed that there were no casualties.

Wednesday night’s attack arrived a day before South Korea’s provincial reconstruction team (PRT) was to launch its mission to rebuild the war-torn nation, sounding an alarm bell for the security of the civilian aid workers in the nation where two South Korean religious activists were killed by Al-Qaeda in 2007. Analysts say the attack seemed to be a warning message to South Korea about their decision to redeploy troops to Afghanistan.

Two rockets were fired toward the construction site in Charikar, the capital of the northern Afghan province of Parwan, around 10:10 p.m. Security guards protecting the base fired back two rockets, ministry officials said, a revision of an earlier account that assailants fired a total of four rockets, with one of them landing on the base.

Officials said that one of the two rockets fired by attackers landed about 200-300 meters away from the base, but it was unclear whether the other landed on the base. Fifty-eight South Korean construction workers and some 60 local security guards were at the site at that time, but no casualties or property damage was reported, officials said. Construction of the base is now about 30 percent complete, they said.

The party responsible for launching the attack remains unknown. Foreign Ministery spokesman Kim Young-sun said the Taliban or insurgents in that region may have carried out the attack.

South Korea’s PRT planned to officially launch its mission Thursday with 49 civilian workers and eight troops to protect them. It will be expanded in stages later this year to about 100 reconstruction workers and 40 troops.

The South Korean team plans to help strengthen the Parwan provincial government’s administrative capabilities and offer medical services in addition to vocational and police training as part of efforts to get help the nation regain the ability to stand on its own.

A South Korean Army contingent will protect the civilian workers. An advanced team of about 90 members of the PRT has already been stationed there since mid-June. About 240 more PRT workers were scheduled to head to Afghanistan early this month and in late August.

South Korea had stationed troops in Afghanistan for five years before withdrawing them in late 2007. The pullout, though previously planned, came after the Taliban demanded their withdrawal during a hostage crisis in which insurgents killed two South Korean missionaries.

Source: The Hankyoreh and Yonhap News Agency

___________________________________________________________

* Related article (* Text informed by Rick Rozoff on July 3, 2010)

Joongang Daily

Attacks Greet 140 South Korean Troops Deployed To Afghan Air Base

July 3, 2010

Text Fwd: Assault on the Sea: A 50-Year U.S. Plan to Build a Military Port on Oura Bay, Okinawa

* Image source: same as the link

* Text sent by S. N in the Peace Philosophy Center on July 2, 2010. To see the videos and more images beside the writing, click the link.

'[T]he point is that the plan to build a new base in Okinawa is NOT about replacement of Futenma Air Station. The plan was always there, for fifty years, just waiting for an excuse.'

_________________________________________________________

Japan Focus
Assault on the Sea: A 50-Year U.S. Plan to Build a Military Port on Oura Bay, Okinawa
by Ryukyu Asahi Broadcasting (Video) and Norimatsu Satoko (Introduction and translation)

So often, Okinawan voices go unheard outside of Okinawa. So often, probing TV documentaries on such sensitive issues as the Battle of Okinawa or on Okinawa-Japan-U.S. relations are shown once and archived, never to return to public view. So often, even if they are broadcast outside of Okinawa, they are aired at odd times. This was the fate of this documentary on Oura Bay, which TV Asahi scheduled at 2:40 a.m., but it deserves the attention of more than a few night owls. The documentary, “Nerawareta Umi: Okinawa,Oura-wan - Maboroshi no gunko keikaku 50 nen” (The Targeted Sea - A 50-year Unrealized Plan for a Military Port in Oura Bay, Okinawa), was produced by QAB (Ryukyu Asahi Broadcasting) and broadcast in the first week of October 2009. This program reveals the little-known fact that the plan to build a large-scale U.S. military complex in Oura Bay, including a military port, was initiated as early as the mid-1960s. Oura Bay is located on the northeastern shore of Okinawa Island, adjacent to USMC Camp Schwab and Cape Henoko, where the U.S. and Japanese governments are planning to build the controversial “replacement facility” for the Futenma Air Station. While it is widely believed that this facility is being built as a substitute for the dangerous Marine airbase in a crowded residential area of Ginowan City, the evidence disclosed here confirms that the U.S. aims to take advantage of this opportunity to close an obsolete base and build (for the most part at Japanese expense) the brand-new military complex that it has sought to build since the 1960s.

Previous Japan Focus articles have examined the controversy over the base in detail. What this special report adds is its detailed and sensitive visual depiction of the subtle and mixed emotions of the local residents toward the base construction plan. Residents, including the uminchu (fishermen) who appear in this documentary, have been largely ignored by government planners. Over generations, those plans appeared in many different forms, ranging from coercive land expropriation, to the destruction of coral reefs in the name of “land surveys,” and rumors of hefty compensation for individual households. Henoko, which has hosted USMC Camp Schwab for the last 53 years, is now confronted with a plan for a new high-tech base – a “Futenma relocation” base. For the past six decades, the base issue has divided the remote fishing village, whose residents cherished the value of cooperation through cultural traditions like Kakuriki (Okinawan sumo wrestling) and the Henoko Tug-of-War Festival, events that have often welcomed the participation of USMC members.

This documentary was filmed before the historic regime change in Japan in September 2009, with the landslide victory of the left-of-centre Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ) over the long-ruling conservative Liberal Democratic Party (LDP). Viewers may notice the general apathy among residents over the base plan and their reluctant acceptance of their inability to stop it. They did not anticipate the dramatic turn of events in the offing after Prime Minister Hatoyama Yukio took office, having pledged to reverse the previous government’s commitment to the base construction plan. After his failure to follow through on that pledge led to Hatoyama’s resignation in early June 2010, new Prime Minister Kan Naoto disappointed Okinawans by endorsing the Henoko base plan within hours of his appointment. At the Battle of Okinawa Memorial on June 23, Kan reinforced Okinawans’ fear and anger by expressing his “apology” and “appreciation” to the islanders for bearing the additional burden of the new base.

The Okinawan struggle to stop the new base construction will continue. This documentary sheds new light on the historical context of the controversy over the new base plan in Henoko/Oura Bay.

Since the documentary is in Japanese, an English summary is provided below, but the beauty of Oura Bay, and the richness and liveliness of such cultural expressions as Okinawan-style sumo wrestling and the Henoko Tug-of-War can only be appreciated by watching the video. See below for YouTube links.

Norimatsu Satoko

MORE READING

Text Fwd: Obama wants NAFTA with South Korea?!?!

* The text is originally from Sarah_MFTC and was forwarded by Bruce Gagnon on June 30, 2010.

ACTION ALERT! Obama wants the South Korea Free Trade Agreement to pass after fall elections.

Dear fair trade allies,

Three years ago today, the Bush administration signed a free trade agreement with South Korea.

Today, it still has not been ratified by Congress, because the American people know it's a terrible idea.

Last weekend, President Obama announced he wants to bring it to Congress for a vote.

WE MUST ACT NOW. Please call BOTH Senators Collins and Snowe today and let them know that another NAFTA deal spells disaster.

COLLINS: (207) 945-0417
SNOWE: 1-800-432-1599

Leave a message for the Senators that they must OPPOSE the South Korea Free Trade Agreement, and that they should instead support FAIR trade by co-sponsoring The TRADE Act.


The Chamber of Commerce launched a $100 million lobbying "Campaign for Free Enterprise" to maintain the free trade NAFTA status quo. They are pushing to pass these pending FTAs. Are we going to let them buy our country's future?

Call Senators Collins and Snowe today and ask them to come out AGAINST the South Korea Free Trade Agreement. Maine has suffered too much under this trade model, and we know expanding it to South Korea won't benefit Korean workers or farmers either. This trade deal is for the multi-national corporations.

Read the news story:

White House to Push Free Trade Deal With South Korea

Maine's own Rep. Michaud responds:

Key Dem chides Obama over Korean trade agreement

More info:

http://citizenstrade.org/korea.php

THANK YOU for taking action for fair trade. We have to be loud and clear, now, that this is unacceptable.

Video Fwd_Best Female Rapper in Korea and racism in Korea

* Video thankfully informed by G. on June 30, 2010

Best Female Rapper in Korea (English Subbed) (Video URL)



'This is a story about a girl who's forced to live as a stranger in Korea, enduring racial prejudice. Tasha (korean name- yoon mi rae) is half African American and half Korean. as she grew up, she had a hard time searching for self identity.
Yeah, korea was a sort of narrow minded society colorwise. The situation is getting better though, i think it's still not better enough. feel sorry for her and ashamed for this :( Go Tasha!! U ROCKS!)!' (From the link)
__________________________________________________________

# With shameful feeling, I cannot but think of the ordeal of the migrant workers' in South Korea as well. Please see.

Hankyoreh
Government crackdown on migrant workers escalates prior to G20
: The government has continued to receive criticism for the violent tactics used and infringements on human rights
July 1, 2010
'An official of the Migrants’ Trade Union (MTU), center, speaks during a press conference held to launch “Cat’s Eye,” a group to monitor human rights infringements against migrant workers during crackdowns in South Korea, June 30.'

Excerpt:

"In September 2008, the Justice Ministry said it would reduce the number of illegal migrant workers by 10 percent from the 220 thousand recorded at the time by 2012. In fact, according to Korea Immigration Service statistics from the end of last year, the number of staff hired to facilitate crackdowns has continued to increase, from 20,455 in 2007 to 30,831 in 2008 and 31,506 in 2009. The Justice Ministry said it is currently conducting its first crackdown from June 7 to July 6, but it has yet to determine exactly how many individuals it has arrested."