Korean Protesters Demand $10 Billion in Compensation for Rodriguez Range Misfires

The protesters actually get themselves together a good size crowd of about a thousand people to protest for this huge sum of compensation money:

A citizens group living near the Rodriguez Range live-fire complex in South Korea is calling for 11 trillion won ($10.2 billion) as compensation for training-related incidents during the past six decades, organizers said Monday following a recent protest.

The call by the private Youngpyeong Seungjin Firing Range Task Force for payment from the national government to Pocheon, an area of about 160,000 residents living between Seoul and the Demilitarized Zone, came after the group demonstrated Friday against range accidents. The city of Pocheon has not endorsed the request.

On March 29, a nonexplosive 105mm training round fired by a Stryker armored vehicle exited the sprawling range and damaged a nearby homeowner’s roof.

Senior 8th Army officials drove to the village and compensated the homeowner that day, while South Korea soldiers fixed the damaged roof.

Citizens group officials said they counted more than 1,000 people attending a protest Friday, which had been planned prior to the errant round incident, though the figure could not be independently confirmed. Local police told Stars and Stripes they did not count the crowd but had been told to expect about 500 people.  [Stars & Stripes]

You can read the rest at the link, but there is no way I envision that much money going to the city of Pocheon.  Live fire training has to be conducted somewhere just like their has to be an airport constructed somewhere.  What matters is if all the proper safety precautions are being taken to minimize accidents like what happened with the misfired Stryker training round.