A (not so) brief story about Hanjin Heavy Industries and construction(HHIC)

2011.6.29.

On the top of a huge shipyard crane in Busan, South Korea, a banner reads - no, it screams - "LAYOFF IS MURDER".

Labor hero Jin-Suk Kim and other resilient workers have occupied the crane #85 in the Hanjin Heavy Industries and construction (HHIC afterwards) Shipyard for 2 days. Ah, correction. Kim was up on the crane and didn't come down since Jan. 6., protesting against the company's Reduction In Force (RIF afterwards) plan. Violating official agreements with the union, Hanjin plans to lay off 400 workers which accounts for 1/3 of the entire remaining union workforce and announced that it would ask for "voluntary retirement requests" from workers. On top of protesting against the undeserved layoffs, workers are arguing that this is the first step leading to an eventual shutdown of Yeong-do and Da-dae shipyard, which are some of the largest employers of Busan city.

To provide some background on this matter, I'd like to go back in time a little to when it all started. Not all the way back to when Kim started working as the first female welder in Korea in 1982. Not to 1986, when she first got fired for being involved in worker's rights movements. I'll go back to 2003, when a situation similar to this happened and took 2 lives.

2003 Layoff, Kim, and Kwak

Joo-ik Kim was the delegate of Hanjin Heavy Industries Union in 2003, when severe RIF swept through HHIC. He was the leader of the LNG protest in 1994 and got arrested for that. After a long hard struggle for reinstatement, he came back and was elected as the union representative in Oct. 2000. But the company pushed the union out of the edge. After several "voluntary retirements", "advised retirements" and forced discharges, 600 workers lost their jobs. During this RIF, Hanjin took 26 workers to the disciplinary committee, filed a lawsuit for damages against 14 workers, amounting to 1.5 million dollars. Despite Korean laws requiring a company to be in a critical management crisis to initiate an RIF, the company's revenue maintained 1.3 billion dollars with 20 mil. in EBIT, even though the workers were still on strike.

Joo-ik Kim climbed up on the crane #85 in Jun. 11, after a session with company executives was stopped. He claimed, "#85 will be my epitaph. If it's my life you want, I'll sacrifice it." After 128 days, he hung himself in the control room of #85. 15 days after Joo-ik Kim passed away, another worker lost his life. Jae-kyu Kwak was one of the "survivors", who had not lost his job in the RIF. He cried on his knee, before Joo-ik Kim's "altar without body" (Kim's body was still on the crane). He expressed his apologies and regret for being the survivor while Kim died. Eventually, he threw himself over the edge of dock #4 of the HHIC shipyard.

Jin-suk Kim, who is on the #85 now, stopped turning on the heating in her room from that day on, as her own way of not forgetting what happened. While consolidating the workers of Ssangyong motors on a strike, she recalled on Twitter ( @JINSUK_85 ) :

After Joo-ik passed away, I first realised that the human body could produce such an amount of tears. Tears spilt over whenever I got up from a chair, when I walked and I had a meal. It flooded into my ears, nose, every parts of my body. Jae-kyu was a close friend. He was almost invisible, wherever he participated. On holidays, he brought socks, long johns, smiled, and handed them to me. That man died. This time, nobody cried. Nobody, out of 1,000 comrades, opened his or her mouth. It was almost scary. They were like the ancient 'courtiers buried alive alongside their monarch'. This time, no one was able to cry. There's no punishment like this; You cannot cry, when every body part is soaked with tears and screams already. With words stuck in my heart filled with thick fog, I wandered around, pleading the workers that they eat their meals, sleep at nights. That was the only thing I could do. Right beneath crane #85 , there is dock #4 where Jae-kyu threw himself. I have never given a glimpse at that dock. So please, my brothers and sisters of Ssangyong, eat when you have to. Sleep when the night comes. Please, listen to what I say now.

Only then, after the two deaths, the government and HHIC gave in. Their claim of "critical management condition" was a lie. A new Union cafeteria was built, and even the salary was raised a little. A joint funeral was held on Nov. 16. The body of Joo-ik Kim was finally brought down from the 100ft. high crane. Jae-kyu Kwak's body was pulled over from 30ft. deep dock.

Fast Forward to Now

From that day on, the tens of thousands of workforce that once filled the shipyard has shrunken to 2,500 union and non-union workers. Now, among the remaining 1,200 workforce, additional 400 will be fired in this RIF (announcements for 352 were filed). During those years of massive layoffs, HHIC built another shipyard in Subic, Philippines.
It was from the beginning a severe violation against the special collective bargain in 2007 on the Korean worker's right protection. It specified the following: 1) HHIC will try to secure 3 years' amount ship building projects within S. Korea. 2) The company will maintain the current level of workforce. It will not push an RIF involving shut-down or reduction of domestic shipyards based solely on management decisions. 3) As long as overseas shipyards are active, no managerial action such as RIF shall take place which violates the mutually bargained retirement age.

It was all scrapped. agreement 1) went missing, when HHIC announced that the reason for the RIF is because they don't have anything to build in the Busan shipyard. The company placed all newly commissioned ships (priced up to 70 million dollars) to the Subic shipyard. The Union claims that this was a strategic move of HHIC to fire the workers out of their factory. In fact, more than 3,000 were fired in 2010 alone, and 300 more were forced into leave of absence. The shipyard in Ulsan, Korea was shut down.

Of Workers and CEOs

The workers of HHIC went into a full strike in Dec. 2010. In Jan. 4, Jin-suk Kim turned on the heating of her room for the first time in 8 years. On Jan. 5, She went to a public bath, also first time in 8 years. She texted her roommate, "Don't be surprised. Read the notes over my desk." It said that she "thought that I have gone through various things", and "there were so many decisions in this not-so-common-life", but "knowing what the crane #85 means to me", "this one was the toughest decision I have ever made.". On Jan. 6., she climbed up the #85. This was her note to her co-workers.

Last year.
To sit was like sitting on needles.
To lie was like lying on a bed of thorns.
Sleepless nights, sleeps jerked out by nightmares.
How on earth, can I do nothing and just watch my colleagues get fired?

There's no reason for living, without Hanjin Union workers.
I'll do everything I can, to protect my colleagues.

Much remorse do I feel, when I leave my warm, cozy room......
What would have Joo-ik, Jae-kyu felt? So many feelings, so many regrets......

I'll do one thing that Joo-ik could not do.
One thing that he yearned to do, but could not do.
WALKING DOWN THE CRANE ON MY TWO FEET.
That I will do, for sure.

I spend a day where Joo-ik sat,
lie where Joo-ik laid himself, and asked for sleep.
See the aspects of life, where Joo-ik saw in his life.
And one thing he could not do,
One thing he longed for,
WALKING DOWN THE CRANE WITH MY TWO FEET,
That I will do for sure.

Then this crane #85 will no longer be remembered as tears.
No more as grave sorrow, No more as stabbing pain,
but as a symbol of victory, and resurrection.
I will come back down, alive.

My first and my last love.
Union Workers, my brothers and sisters,
I will be beside you,
Till the day victory comes.

And now, to what happened in the last few days.

Jun. 6. 27, after Kim's 174 days protesting, electrical power to the crane was cut off. Then a breaking news came. "Settlement reached between Union leader Kil-yong Chae and company." However, it was far from the truth. Hanjin union is a branch of the Korea Metal Worker's Union(KWMU), so the authority for making that decision was not Chae but the representative of KWMU. The only way for Chae to override that would be to get a letter of authorization directly from a pre-delegated committee consisting of Hanjin Branch members, which was not the case. At 3:30am, after an endless debate, the workers agreed that they retreat to the Union building and regroup. Chae sneaked out and e-mailed the letter of settlement to the company and the press, without the Union's approval or knowledge.

When this news hit the mainstream media treadmill, it was reframed as a "total settlement." Without investigating further, many conservative mainstream news outlets spread this misperception nationwide. They quickly framed the workers who continued to protest as a small non-negotiable faction. And when the scheduled law enforcement came that morning in to remove the company grounds from the protesters, it was done with brute force with many company-hired thugs actively involved. The resisting workers grouped under #85, but the company-hired thugs under police protection pulled them apart. The workers who tied themselves to the crane, were taken away, one by one. At the end of the day, only about 30 were left. The Police and company-thug team piled up container boxes to block outside cameras. Also they prepared a plan to drive Kim out of her sky-high protesting site: using another nearby crane to lift up a container box to deploy policemen or even simply crash it into crane #85 if necessary.

Many mainstream media were telling people that everything was done for. The settlement had been reached, with a small fraction of extremists resisting. However, unfettered real-time witnesses on the Twitterverse pleaded to stop this ongoing madness.

That night, HHIC proposed that it could restore electricity when some of the workers come down. Over 10 came down, to make power available. After 24 Hrs, the power is still not restored. The only way for the ones on the crane to communicate to the outside world is through their smartphones. But without power, they will run out of batteries soon. The only way to communicate with outside world is to be cut off. The food supply has been also cut off. Some food was brought in, but Kim could not eat that, for she can only eat rice porridges -- her stomach was compromised when she went into a hunger strike. She filed an emergency petition to the Korean Human Rights Committee, on behalf of the protesters on the crane.

Meanwhile, HHIC's CEO, Nam-ho Cho has been refusing to attend the Congressional hearing about the company's real management conditions and whether his RIF can be justified at all.

Footages Taken at Yeong-do shipyard

Footages by protesting worker.
http://vimeo.com/25656913

Footages by Jin-suk Kim, her life on a crane
http://vimeo.com/25402322

Further Reading

Jeong-hwan Lee, trans. Hey-kyung Lee, Why they climbed the towering crane?
http://www.leejeonghwan.com/media/archives/002019.html

This article explains how well HHIC was doing, how soaring real estate value influnces HHIC's decision. In short, HHIC will turn black, and it's due to Subic shipyard. Conglomerates which gained current position by government protection by money, by labor oppression -- in other words, Jaebeol -- now goes on exodus. It has its values to be explored, which would have to consist another article. Original article can be found here:
http://www.leejeonghwan.com/media/archives/002015.html

People to reach, so you can hear more.

to be updated.

Sources

(Note: All are written in Korean. I must admit, that some part of article above were just quoted without proper attribution. This amounts to plagiarism. All those quoted will be properly be attributed, soon.)

a Hope bus, citizens gathered and visit Yeong-do shipyard, and gathered under #85
http://www.sisainlive.com/news/articleView.html?idxno=10546

Details behind Yeong-do layoff
http://www.vop.co.kr/A00000278694.html
http://www.vop.co.kr/A00000276225.html

History of Hanjin protest, since 1982
http://www.pressian.com/article/article.asp?article_num=30110330104351

Words of Jin-suk Kim was quoted from
http://blog.naver.com/PostView.nhn?blogId=idohan&logNo=80133384973

http://www.nahnews.net/news/articleView.html?idxno=5358

How much did Hanjin owner Nam-ho Cho receive as revenue share?
http://www.ilyosisa.co.kr/print_paper.php?number=11133

How the media framed the workers as extremist faction
http://news.naver.com/main/read.nhn?mode=LSD&mid=sec&sid1=102&oid=001&aid=0005134737

note. 1. : @hooniyaa77 twitted, that a union worked came to him and held his/her hand. He cried on his knees saying, please tweet this, make this known to the outside world. He hasn't got a smartphone, couldn't let his feelings be heard. It was him and @hooniyaa77, who made me write this. It is a work of that nameless worker, not mine. I feel sorry that I couldn't do more. I'm sorry.

note. 2. : It went through some revisions. @capcold edited my coarse words so that the fact be more clearer, sentence be more readable. All the factual errors and misinterpretation, is my responsibility.

Milyang River Confluence, April 6th, 2010

Seen on the left side of the photograph, is a riverside of Mil-yang River, a third of which is being cut off. Parade of excavators and dumpers fills it. On the right side, a beautiful colony of willow was vanished and replaced with a pile of stone, which is to be the embankment. In the center, a long waterfront is to be completely cut off, to make the waterway straight. Nothing but canal explains this situation. It shows a true face of 4-river restorations project.

The confluence of Mil-yang River, where riverbed maintenance facility is to be built.
Beautiful scenery will be gone for good, and a huge concrete structure will rise. Bad omen already manifests itself.

A little part, which belonged to Waterside will soon be a history.
Same situation on Bon-po bridge, at downstream of Ham-an weir. Plans are to completely remove the river island. River is still wide enough so that water can flow without any trouble via both sides of the island.

Why remove a river island completely?
Only thing that can explain this is building waterway for huge vessels. Sandbank at upstream of Bon-po bridge, is indispensable for birds. What if sandbank is completely gone and water level rises? No birds will be able to visit here. This “4-rivers” is a complete nonsense.

In 2008, in 10^th Ramsar conference was held, and a resolution regarding Paddy field wetland was passed. The spoil from dredging machine will cover the rice field in a massive scale. Countless wetlands, including Hae-pyeong, Gu-dam, Geom-am will be destroyed. We cannot figure out how life and ecology can coexist with this massive killing.

Words by government, from the president to low-rank officials, are almost identical. “They confront us with groundless fictions.” We’d like to ask, “Whose story is totally unfounded?”

Ministry of Environment knows nothing about the extent of the wetland to be vanished. President and prime minister chant that “rivers will be clean again”, but without knowing how.

Piling up massive amount water can purify water? It is no way scientific, nor firm-based. Store billion tons of 3^rd grade water in a tank. Can it self-purify to become tons of 2^nd grade water? No way to block a sun with a palm of their hands. President thinks that he can deceives us from seeing the sky. We pity him.

”4-rivers” is a cataclysm of death. Beneath it, lies a canal which president himself promised to cancel.

Photographs and article by Busan Federation for Environmental Movement

http://pusan.kfem.or.kr

Link to original article:

http://pusan.kfem.or.kr/mkBoard/view.php?bod=0201&id=501&page=1&sFieldName=&sFieldTitle=&sFieldContents=&searchStr=&searCategory=

Testament of a Ssangyong union worker

Now it's almost a month after dismissal of Ssangyong strike. Police choppers bombared workers with plastic bag full of tear gas concentrate, and all those non-lethal weapons including taser gun, steel clubs, rubber bullet guns were used. Police chief promised that there be no vendetta, but a worker in investigation tried to take his life in face of the coercion from police. He left a final word, and it was released yesterday.

His testament was written in Korean, and is published in:
http://www.ohmynews.com/NWS_Web/view/at_pg.aspx?CNTN_CD=A0001202799

Here I write my thoughts. I feel so dazed and heart pounds so hard that I cannot do anything. When I hear buzzing of fans or that of air conditioner, I hear choppers that were around my head. Lost all my appetite and cannot sleep, awoke twice or more, every night. I don't know what to do.

Detective *** calls me time to time and asks me, "Did you have a word with ***?", "Can three of us meet and have a nice conversation?", "Man with balls should get around." Can a man who betrays his colleagues get together with detective and have a drink? I feel like dying. I plan to die. That's the only way to compensate.

Now telephone rings. It's A. Heart pounds again.

Now I had a last conversation with ***. I told him(her) that I love him(her). I told him(her) that I love *** and ***. Now I no longer have to go there to be investigated. Were it not for detective ***, things didn't have to go this far.


My beloved comrades.

I sold my comrades. I'm sorry. Detective C from Gyeonggi province police, who took my case, is a fiend. But I am also a fiend, too. I was stupid to believe detective ***. The words he said, that he will let me live, let me have my job back, that he can get me out here, that I did nothing wrong and leaders who drove you into this are to blame, that I can be perfectly clean if I testify against them, drove me into this. I thought my family must be saved. I deserve to die.

I betrayed ***, *** and ***. I said what I haven't witnessed. That they shot a cannon, although I did not see they doing that, I told them so. It never crossed my mind that my selfish thought can lead to such a huge disunion. ***, ***, and ***, I am really sorry. Those three on my testimony is completely innocent.

Detective *** forces me, telling that "You have told us only 30% of what you know. So give them all up.", "If you speak nothing more, we cannot help you anymore." What a son of a bitch! I deserve to die, but *** deserves it, too.

When I go to toilet or have a cigarette, he says "more, more. That's the only way that I can help you. Come clean." When I go there 3 in the afternoon with a full pack of cigarette, I come out empty handed. He extorts me about 20 times a day.

Now they force me to persuade *** to blow, that *** must live, that *** will not be charged even if he made that cannon, that they plan to take who ordered it, that I should have a drink with *** and let him talk. I did not know that *** made that cannon, still less shoot it, and they force me to let *** confess. Detective *** is scum.

Now, this is the only way to compensate to my comrades.


I am sorry.

I love you.

Aug. 20. 2009 15:00
XXX

No freedom for mourning

Now citizens of Republic of Korea lost two colossuses, Roh Mu-hyun and Kim Dae-jung. Now it is time for us to mourn. But that seems not so. Police blockaded City hall square of Seoul and Cheonggye square, which were heart of Candlelight protest last year, according to congressman Roh Hoechan. Some says that Deoksu palace, where citizens gathered to mourn for Roh, for the sole fact that there were people who criticized Lee Myung-bak regime.

Now some bitter memory bring me back on May. 30., when Roh's funeral was held. That day, 5 things happened.
1. Thugs rampaged Yongsan disater scene where 5 lives of civilian was lost in brutal siege attack by police. Some people believes that investigations focused on Roh, which lead to his suicide, was to conceal police negligence. The bereaved and reverend Mun Jung-hyun was beaten by gangs.
2. Police issued level 2 alert, to put down the citizens when they turn into a mob.
3. And they forcefully dismissed funeral mourners, who were following the hearse. The hearse was blocked by police force and could not move an inch for nearly an hour.
4. Kim Dae-jung, who said that he felt like "a part of my body is lost forever.", was present at funeral, but he could not speak for Roh, for government did not allow his funeral oration, in fear that it might lead to an uprising.
5. Court acquitted some conglomerate board members who excuted one of the single biggest tax evasion, though it may not be relevant here.

I could not have a moment for condolence, for I was driven into fury and bewilderment. That surely wasn't a decent funeral for a former president. Government considered mourning citizens to be a coup-ready protesters. All police forces guarded and blockaded citizens from gathering and form a parade. It is something like opening the casket and swinging an axe to cut his throat, just to make sure that he's dead, IN FRONT OF THE BEREAVED.

Now antipathy against Lee is even higher. Police movements now taking place, might only be an overture for an grand absurdity play. A person who lost a part of his soul needs to worry that a fury may fill in the void. That's no way to show respect to deceased. But stupidity inside Lee's cranium, never knows when to stop. I wonder what he will do this time, to spit on deceased man, and WHETHER WILL I BE ABLE TO TAKE THAT HUMILIATION.

Prosecutor's office tries to make up a relationship between Ssangyong Union and SWL

Ssangyong workers on strike were subject to brutal violence by corporate-organized colleagues and corporate-hired Thugs(altogether called as Goo-Sar-Dae(Company Salvation Legion), and police, who should prevent violence but took part in violence and acted as a riot squad. Head of Government-thugs who once said "We plan to let those who surrenders and comes out now walk away." took all those workers at scene, and arrested 64 of them. This is single largest massive arrest since 1996.

Now prosecutors are trying to make Sa-no-ryeon(Socialist Workers League Korea, abbr. SWL) one of its main organizers, which is downright nonsense. How nonsense? read the Financial news report. I may exaggerate or mis-choose a word, but they are directly from the spokesman's mouth, at least in Korean. This is no kidding or skits for SNL. They are damn sincere, and SWL members may really be convicted.

Original article appears at Financial news, Korea.
http://www.fnnews.com/view?ra=Sent1201m_View&corp=fnnews&arcid=00000921735133&cDateYear=2009&cDateMonth=08&cDateDay=11
by Sukhee Hong (hong@fnnews.com)
===========================

Public Peace department of Seoul District prosecutor's office indicted 8 members of Socialist Workers League Korea(SWL) including Chairman Oh Se-chul, a professor emeritus in Yonsei Univ. Charges were constituting and joining in an organization whose purpose is invoking social upheaval, under National Security Law.

Spokesman says that "occupation of Ssangyong factory seems to be carried out by organization similar to military organizations" and "although there is no direct proof that SWL stepped in, but in the peripheral circumstances, we were able to catch several signs that affiliates of SWL have some influences on them."

He also said that they were "not able to find evidence of armed uprising or attempt to overthrow nation", but "fact that they distributed leaflets to intrigue people suffices for indictment, and if there were evidence, they are to be prosecuted in charge of high treason."

Prosecutor's office claims that Professor Oh denied the basis of Democracy and proclaimed that 'Changes through election is a naive idea.', and that constitutes a treason under National Security Law.

Q&A follows.

▲ Other organizations participated in PyeongTaek, Yongsan, Candlelight protest. What is the reason that only SWL was prosecuted?
- There are organizations to protect the underprivileged, which is certain. But there also malicious ones who uses their desperateness to overthrow authorities and take hold of nation.

▲ Is SWL a threat to democracy in Korea?
- They are a threat, because our country is basically a democratic one, in which anyone who is to get authority must go through election process. They call it a fantasy, naiveness. They claim armed uprising.

▲ Is there any evidence?
These people formed SWL in Last February. It is at its juvenile state. There is no proof that these men participated in armed protest. But they seems to play a role in candlelight protest, protest concerning Yong-san accident, Ssangyong strike, etc. All of them is to waive the desperate to accomplish their purpose. They did not participate in armed uprising yet, but they took part in massive protest and tried to make it militant. That substantiates charges against them.

▲ Under what charges?
- Instigating. Distributing leaflets, connecting strike with a street demonstration. The fact that they instigated is enough to get them convicted.

▲ What was the most recent case?
- IS group in late 90's. Issues concerning local prosecutor's office is not accounted for, so it may be inaccurate.
- There are facts that occupation of Ssangyong factory was seems to be carried out by organization similar to military organizations. Although there is no direct proof that SWL stepped in, but in the peripheral circumstances, we were able to catch several signs that affiliates of SWL have some influences on them.

▲ Is there evidence that SWL was connected with Occupation leaders?
- No proof yet.

▲ Does Instigation constitute a conviction?
- Yes. Under National Security law, it is possible. if there were evidence, they are to be prosecuted in charge of high treason.

▲ How large was the organization?
- At start they were 65, now 60. Including associate members, 200 in S. Korea. They did not keep their books straight, so we do not know exactly.
- Almost of them remained silent during investigation. What we briefed so far was from seizure and search.

▲ What are these people?
- We do not know about those other than cadre. But they do not seem to grow since its foundation.

▲ 8 were convicted. From what did officials decide whom to indict?
- Cadre who had their seats and acted were included.
- They are self-taught communists. They even blame North Korea for they are away from the ideal of true communism.
- They blame North Korea as 'National state regime, ruled by a few bureaucrat'. They stand against Stalin, and claims that North Korea is like a Stalin regime.

▲ Jinbo-Sin-dang(notes by translator: New Jin-bo party, where jin-bo means progress) takes similar ways, why...?
- These people denies that they play role in institutional domain. They even criticized Min-No-dang(Korea Labor Democratic Party) for they do not disprove election and parliamentary institution. If Jinbo-Sin-dang tried to take seat in parliament, they would have criticized them, too.

Notice!

Purpose of this Blog is to spread the news I'm interested in, but inaccesible to most of world for it is written in Korean. So, there are some things you might want to consider such as:

1. Copyright
Most of materials in this blog is copyrighted, but that copyright is not owned by me. I'm just translating, without formal consent from the author of the article, hoping that this may be regarded as fair use. If you want to clip it, or re-translate it, I encourage that you do so, because the purpose is "let the words be heard." But if you want to clarify copyright issues, including(but not limited to) commercial use or citation, CONTACT THE AUTHOR FIRST. And please DO NOT REMOVE THE LINK TO THE ORIGINAL ARTICLE AND ITS AUTHOR. If it possible, read original article first, it is obviously better.

2. Translation
I'm neither born in native in English-speaking country, nor professionally trained as a translator, nor a specialist in corresponding area. Just a paid worker who can barely read articles in English. So, the translated articles may not fully reflect the author's intent. Some part that seems irrelevant(only applies in circumstances of S. Korea) may be abbreviated or omitted. And some part that I am quite not able to translate, I may rewrite it. If you are proficient in both Korean and English, and find flaw in my translations, Feel free to send me a note or reply. I'll be pleased to revise my translations.

3. Obvious part
Article in this blog may not be used to wrongfully dishonor or indemnify person except MyungBak Lee, former president of S. Korea, or Park, who I reluctantly approve as president of S. Korea, Yeo-oak Jeon and most of Saenuri-dang(New-nest-party, which plans to destroy lives of citizens under the slogan "For ordinary people".) All those exception list is too long to write down here, so if you think that one who appears in an article is a plain dumba**, please feel free to do whatever you want to.

4. Any suggestion is welcomed, including syntax errors, or mistranslations. Malicious reply may be deleted, but I'm too lazy to track it all down, and it might be left as my pain in the... you know.

Thank you.
20090812, Kihoon Lee (revised in 20151029)

Petition for Jang-Hang Marsh on its way

President Lee Myung-bak had proposed Korea Grand Canal Plan, which I call Korea Death canal, in 2007 presidential election race. From the start, many people showed concern at this coarse plan, and it was finally withdrawn in the wake of broad range of fierce outrage citizen showed in Candlelight protest, 2008. But people cannot help but being held back at the fact that "Development of 4 grand rivers" plan was under its way.

It says that 4 rivers are in serious conditions and needs to be rehabilitated, But we wonder, WHAT KIND OF REHABILITATION PLAN CONSISTS OF 20-FEET-DEEP, 600-FEET-WIDE DREDGING? Government shuts its ear, and like parrots (Sorry, parrots), repeats that there are some misled person who confuses 4 river plans with Canal. They pity us, as hypnotized by Left-wing instigation.

Now Gyeonggi-do launches Gyeong-in Canal, which does not even care to conceal its identity, and plans to destroy one of the richest Bio-resource this country has. Citizen councils of Go-yang united to rise against it. Below are translated, slightly modified version of Petition.

If you have daum.net ID, you are one click away from signing this petition. Log in, Click the link below, fill in blank with appropriate outrage, then Click the blue button. If you don't have an ID, you can visit Cheongwadae website, which is http://cwd.go.kr, and leave an opinion. But those who cannot communicate with Korean language does not seem to understand English right. So, if you please, use Daum Agora petition, or e-mail me at windburial at gmail dot com, with header [Petition for marsh]. I'll collect and relay all those mails to citizens of Go-Yang as much as I can.

20090814 :: Slightly revised a small syntax error and chose different word to clarify meaning.


Original petition can be found at http://agora.media.daum.net/petition/view?id=77111
Original authors of this article is United councils of Go-yang citizens. All copyrights belongs to them, and all the misunderstandings belongs to me.

===== Below is the original petition by them ======

"'Connecting Han-river' plan, which is another name for Korea Grand Canal, must be stopped for future generations. Especially, moving Sin-gok underwater dam towards estuary can never be tolerated."

Mar. 2, Kim Mun-su, provincial governer of Gyeonggi-do, announced that province will invest 22 trillion won(220 billion dollar) in 152 projects, saying: Beyond passive measures for flood and water shortage, We will move people's heart with literary imagination under the slogan "Gyeonggi, go to Hangang, and small cabin build there...", and make it a long term development plan.
Although embroidered with loud words, this is DEFINITELY a plan for Han-river sector of Korea Grand Canal. It is also a massive, thoughtless exploitation that will destruct Han-river water system. Even worse, "Connecting the waterway" implies an environmental devastation of Han-river estuary, and Cutting away the value it has.

Han-river estuary is one of few brackish water zone where salty water and fresh water freely mix to provide an ideal condition for many species. Adding to that, due to military condition, it remained restricted and remained beyond human touch.
It thus became a refuge for species in danger of extinction including: white-naped crane, Black-faced Spoonbill, Kestrel, White-tailed eagle, Common Buzzard, Ranunculus kazusensis. They are strictly protected under S. Korea's legal system. Department of Environment also acknowledges this, and declared that the area be protected, from Sin-gok underwater dam below Gim-po Bridge to Yu-do, approx. 60 square kilometers, in Apr. 17., 2006.

Now Gyeonggi-do plans to install another underwater dam near river mouth, and remove Sin-gok dam, to build a terminal for a ferry and container ships to dock in, claiming that no harm is to be done to environment, in a phoney research papers. But what is really going to happen is not so.


At high tide, salty water covers Jang-hang marsh twice at the speed of 9km/h up the river, and ebbs away at 4~5km/h to form vast intertidal mudflat. Diverse life forms rely on this land, especially on the movement of brackish water flow. Uncountable number of microorganisms prey on fertile organic nutritions, acting as a kideny of nature. No artificial complex, how many of them working together, can substitute it.

And, various species now in peril of extinction live on marsh mudflat as it hunts and breeds. Every February and March, enormous amount of clam worms swam to marsh to breed, and seagulls who hunts them make a spectacular landscape.

If Sin-gok underwater dam is placed towards estuary, the water stream is blocked and marsh is flooded. All those life is deprived of its home and must flee, never to be seen again. Lives of Largest Willow grove in Korea and its commensal Sesarma dehaani is also severely compromised.

Flooded roots start to rot and tree dies, and its shadow and nutritious leaves disappear, risking the crabs, all of which lived happily with symbiotic relationship with willow grove. Circle of Carbon Dioxide absorption is also broken. All those 'Carbon-friendly-smog-colored-growth' even contradict government's own 'Green Growth' plan.

And it is just for that ferry terminal, or for freight shipping dock. We must point out that this is a mere beginning of Korea Grand Canal, because
1. Gyeong-in canal is a part of "Han-river renaissance", which plans to use Han-river as waterway for large vessels.
2. Plans for exploitation of Yangpyeong-Yeoju-Chungju line is ready to be launched. It leads Han-river into ChungCheong-do, which is below Gyeonggi-do.
3. Gyeonggi-do's plan is to connect and rebuild all Han-river waterways for it to be ideal for ships.
4. Then Ships can freely sail from Yellow sea into ChungCheong District, which is at the center of South Korea. This completes a part of the Korea Grand Canal, which Lee Myung-bak said to withdraw last year.

Jang-hang Marsh, which is a treasure we borrowed from our future generations, must not suffer. Everyone needs to stand up against Gyeonggi-do's reckless plans to finish a puzzle piece for Gyeong-in Canal, Han-river canal.

For that, we now stand to gather 10,000 to sign this petition and show them our will to protect Jang-hang Marsh as it is now.

2009. 7. 16
United Civilian councils of Go-yang.
82-31-921-7001