Defense Ministry to Fence Off Camp Humphreys Expansion Land

How come I don’t think this is going to work:

The Defense Ministry will put up a barbed wire fence around farming land in Pyeongtaek, Gyeonggi Province designated as the new site for U.S. Forces Korea headquarters before rice planting begins. The ministry is trying to prevent locals and activists from planting rice there because they hope to delay construction of the new USFK base. The fence will be some 20 km long and 1.80 m high and surround the entire farmland, a ministry source said Thursday. The source said the ministry will be able to finish the work in a day and is considering whether to hire private contractors or mobilize military engineering troops for the work.

So what is going to stop the hate groups from tearing down the fence if the Defense troops won’t even be armed?

The ministry says even if it mobilizes military forces to build the fence, they will not be allowed to carry batons and shields. ¿They will be unarmed and have construction equipment only, so they will not confront residents there directly,¿ it added.

The local riot police has already said that they are not going to help.

Gyeonggi Provisional Police Agency Commissioner Oe Cheong-su on Thursday said police would reject a Defense Ministry request to provide security during the fencing in of the site for a new U.S. Forces Korea headquarters in Pyeongtaek. After plans for a ditch to keep residents and activists from farming the fields failed on April 7, the ministry said it would study setting up wire fences instead. “Under the Status of Forces Agreement, the police undertake security duty at protected military facilities like American bases. But there are no legal grounds for the police to do so in areas military facilities have yet to move to since they are property of the Defense Ministry,” Oe reasoned. “If the ministry is afraid of damage to the fences, it had better hire security contractors.

So who is going to stop the anti-US hate groups from doing this to the Defense ministry soldiers tasked to put up the fence?:

Now where is the government you may ask in all of this?  Let’s see you have an agreed upon land acquisition deal with Korea’s major ally the US that has only brought the greatest stability, power, and wealth that the Korean nation has ever seen; being derailed by a bunch of serial anti-US hate groups that get pissed off over any USFK “provocation” much less this land deal.  If a USFK serviceman farts around them, they would probably claim environmental damage and demand compensation and an apology from the USFK commander.

Plus the Korean government has people openly breaking the law by occupying abandoned buildings including a government owned buildings such as the Daechu-ri Elementary School; and what are they doing?  Absolutely nothing so far.  Why aren’t these people in jail?  This is why::

Meanwhile, some 1,000 leaflets comparing protests against the base to the 1980 Gwangju Democratic Uprising have been distributed in Pyeongtaek. Under the title of ¿Pyeongtaek May Become a Second Gwangju,¿ the leaflets demand, ¿The defense minister should resign because he defines the people of Pyeongtaek as enemies.¿ It is unclear who distributed them.

Why should the government be concerned about the ghosts of Gwangju?  Korea is a thriving democracy and not a military dictatorship now, plus no troops are going to go into Pyeongtaek and shoot people which was the case in Gwangju.  These people just needed to be loaded up and taken to jail.  These hate groups are trying to leverage public sympathy by bringing up the Gwangju Massacre when it is in fact them that is attacking the policemen and then claiming that the police used brutality against them.  It is a well known hate group tactic to beat the police and then claim police brutality in Korea in order to gain public sympathy.

This Camp Humphreys issue just goes to show how weak the Roh Moo-hyun government is in Korea.  Is there any leadership on this issue?  The only one now showing any leadership is General Bell as he has recently been publicly speaking out against these people.  However, leadership on the South Korean side is in short supply.  This whole issue should be viewed as a national disgrace.   If I was a Korean citizen I would be ashamed to see fellow Koreans beating the hell out of these 20 year old mandatory service draftees who are just trying to complete their service to their country.  Korean politicians should be disgraced over the strategic consequences the entire country may face if USFK decides to pull out of Korea over this issue.  But no one cares because there are more important things to worry about like declaring war over Japanese research vessel surveying some worthless rocks.