Koreans protest US base expansion, trade agreement

US military and economic might in South Korea are being called into question this week as villagers launched a hunger strike to protest a US military base expansion that would force them from their lands and farmers' unions demonstrated in Seoul against a proposed free trade agreement. Korean authorities have arrested the head of a small village for protesting against the government's plan to expand a giant US military base, known as Camp Humphreys, in Pyongtaek, about 40 miles south of Seoul. According to residents, police arrested Kim Ji Tae when he arrived for scheduled negotiations over how to end a stand-off in two townships that would be affected by the proposed base expansion. In response, supporters have launched a hunger strike. "This is not a problem of compensation. This is about the rights of farmers to remain on their land," Father Moon Jhung Hyun told OneWorld. The priest, who says he will not eat while Kim remains in prison, heads up the Pan-Korean Solution Committee for the US Base Expansion in Pyongtaek. This is not the first time the farmers have been evicted to make room for a military base. During World War II, Father Moon said, "these villagers were expelled from their homeland for a Japanese base. Then, in 1952, the US troops wanted to make an extension of their base and they occupied their land and expelled them. So this is the third time." The expansion of Camp Humphreys is part of a redeployment of the estimated 35,000 US troops stationed in South Korea. Once the move is completed in 2011, the US military will have reduced the number of troops on the peninsula by a third with the soldiers stationed in fewer–but larger–bases. In a statement United States Forces Korea (USFK) maintains the move will greatly improve its "ability to effectively deter aggression and defend the peninsula in a strategically flexible way." As part of the redeployment, USFK also plans to build new facilities to improve quality of life for US soldiers stationed in Korea. According to the military newspaper Stars and Stripes, those amenities include a new fitness center at Camp Humphreys "complete with a gym, indoor pool, running track and four-story parking garage." In addition to an eight-lane, 25-yard indoor swimming pool, the center will feature a 626-foot indoor running track; separate rooms for cardio-fitness, circuit training, free weights and group exercise; basketball and racquetball courts; a martial arts training room; and climbing walls, the newspaper added. But Korean farmers chafe at the idea their land will be taken away so foreign soldiers can feel more comfortable. "They don't want to move," Father Moon said of the farmers, many of whom are elderly. "They refused their compensation. They don't want to leave their homeland. They don't want this experience for a third time." While villagers in South Korea go on hunger strike to protest the US base extension, another group of farmers has descended on Washington to protest a proposed Free Trade Agreement (FTA) between Washington and Seoul. The US and South Korean governments are conducting a round of negotiations in the capital this week. The protesting delegation is lead by the Korean trade union movement and the Korean Advanced Farmers Federation, who complain that free trade has meant plummeting rice prices in Korea leading to massive bankruptcies. "Even before the FTA the cost of rice cultivation is now higher than the price that farmers can get," said Lee Heung Se, vice chair of the Korean Advanced Farmers Federations. "Now we have high farming debt and many farmers leave the countryside and come to large cities. Small schools in the countryside continue to close and the farmers who move to the city for jobs are having difficulty adjusting to city life, finding housing and securing education for their children." "In the end when its time to pay off the debt many are so discouraged that hundreds are committing suicide each year," he added. The Korean delegation has the support of America's major labor federations Change to Win and the AFL-CIO. "This administration seems to think that 'free trade' means they get to freely trade workers' rights and protections for the benefit and profit of global corporations," the chair of Change to Win, Anna Burger, said in a statement. "We need fair trade, not trade that leads to fewer jobs, lower pay, worsened working conditions and environmental degradation." US labor groups compared a possible FTA with Korea with the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) between the US, Canada and Mexico. Labor groups blamed NAFTA for the loss of more than one million jobs and job opportunities in the US, and increasing downward pressure on both US and Mexican wages. They also pointed to the economic problems in Korea that have led to an increased speculative investment and "jobless growth" and expressed concern that the proposed FTA could accelerate and deepen these trends. For Korean unionist Lee Heung Se, there is a parallel between his group's opposition to the Free Trade Agreement and the Pyongtaek farmers' protests against a new military base. "The Pyongtaek farmers struggle against the US military base is a struggle against the US military domination in our country and the struggle against the free trade agreement is a struggle against US economic domination on Korean farmers," he said. "In this way, the two struggles are connected."