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Protests Challenge Naval Base Construction on Jeju Island, South Korea: Hunger Strike Precipitates a National and International Movement

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  07 May 2025

Gwisook Gwon
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On July 22, the ROK national police chief came to Jeju Island. Two days later, around 100 police bearing riot shields were sent to Gangjeong to guard the entrances to Jungdeok, the intended naval base site and home of protesting villagers. In defiance of a July 15, 2011 government directive, protesters obstructed two entrances to the site, using a car blockade at one and locked arms at the other. Following verbal confrontation, the riot police left without resorting to physical violence.

Mayor Kang Dong-Kyun and Brother Song Kang-Ho have been released; however Ko Kwan Il, artist Sung-Hee Choi, and nine other activists remain imprisoned without bail, while awaiting trial. The 77 activists and civil service organizations were given one week from July 15 to leave the Jungdeok coast; however the directive has not been implemented pending judicial review by Seogwipo City.

Type
Research Article
Information
Asia-Pacific Journal , Volume 9 , Issue 28 , July 2011 , e2
Creative Commons
Creative Common License - CCCreative Common License - BYCreative Common License - NCCreative Common License - ND
This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-No Derivatives licence (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/), which permits non-commercial re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is unaltered and is properly cited. The written permission of Cambridge University Press must be obtained for commercial re-use or in order to create a derivative work.
Copyright
Copyright © The Authors 2011

References

Notes

* I am very grateful to Sung-youn Cho, Douglas Hansen, Heonik Kwon, and Mark Selden for constructive comments.

1 This film was made by Jane Jin Kaisen and Guston Sondin-Kung. Jane is an independent Danish filmmaker. Kim Min-Su (a young Gangjeong villager) filmed the footage of Yang's arrest. The film was posted on Vimeo on May 21, and on Youtube on May 24, 2011.

2 Cha, Kyoungeun, “Jeju and a Naval Arms Race in Asia”, Institute of Policy Studies, June 18, 2010; Uooksik Jung, “Oh! Peace”, Pressian, May 17, 2011.

3 See Cha, Kyoungeun, ibid.

4 Bruce Gagnon, co-coordinator and co-founder of ‘the Global Network against Weapons and Nuclear power in Space’, is a leading peace activist. He started a hunger strike for solidarity with Yang Yoon-mo on May 24. See space4peace.blogspot.com.

5 Johnston, Hank, 1995, “A Methodology for Frame Analysis”, in Hank Johnston and Bert Klandermans (eds.), Social Movements and Culture, Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, p. 218.

6 Taylor, Verta and Nancy Whittier, 1995, “Analytical Approaches to Social Movement Culture”, in Hank Johnston and Bert Klandermans (eds), ibid.

7 Jeju residents have pursued peace and human rights as their vision for the Island since suffering from ‘the Jeju 4.3 massacre’. About 30,000, over 10% of the population, died or missing during 1948-1953, and the trauma has remained until today. See Jeju Weekly, March-May, 2011.

8 The survey was designed to poll opinions of residents living in each administrative district with which the particular village was affiliated. As a result, opinions of the affected villages were largely ignored.

9 The population of Gangjeong village was about 1,900, and eligible voters were about 1,400 according to resident registration as of 2007. However, the expected total number of votes was about 1, 050 since about 350 voters were not in the area at the time (Oh My News, November 13, 2007).

10 Previous research also noted this transition of discourse. See Cho Sung-youn, 2008, “From an Island of Suffering to an Island of Peace”, Yoksabipyoung, no. 82.

11 The ritual of shaving the head is a popular act showing strong determination of protesters and a means to strengthen solidarity in Korean society.

12 See the internet café of the Gangjeong village. See the internet café of the Gangjeong village.

13 This blog is owned by Choi Sung-hee, a peace activist. She tried to block a construction truck by lying down just in front of a truck, and twice participated in a solidarity fast along with Yang after her arrest on May 20, 2011. She remains in jail at this writing.

14 Snow, David and Robert Benford, 1992, “Master Frames and Cycles of Protest”, in Aldon Morris and Carol McClurg Mueller (eds.), Frontiers in social Movement Theory, New Haven: Yale University Press.