hankyoreh

Dec. 28. (by Choi Sang-won

By Choi Sang-won, South Gyeongsang correspondent in Miryang

“The conservative media keeps talking about how most Miryang residents reached an agreement with KEPCO [the Korea Electric Power Corporation] to accept compensation and allow the electricity transmission towers to go up. When I actually came to Miryang, I was stunned at how different things were from the media reports. How could they report it like that where there are so many senior citizens out there fighting in the cold?”

These were the words of a 22-year-old university student named Cho who was paying a visit on Dec. 28 to a public memorial erected in Miryang’s Sammun neighborhood to honor Yu Han-suk, a 71-year-old resident who committed suicide in protest of the construction of the high-voltage towers in the South Gyeongsang Province city.

Cho added that she planned to go on Facebook and other social media to “share the truth about Miryang.”

The battle over the towers now looks likely to stretch past the end of the year and into 2014. Dec. 30 marked 91 days since KEPCO resumed construction.

According to figures from the Committee Against the 765kV Transmission Towers in Miryang, a total of 88 people have been injured in clashes with police since the resumption of construction on Oct. 1. Yu’s death came on Dec. 6, while another resident, a 51-year-old woman surnamed Kwon, attempted suicide a week later on Dec. 13, but was fortunately rescued. The South Gyeongsang Provincial Police Agency has said that a total of 50 residents have been injured to date, and 31 police officers have sustained injuries in clashes with protestors.

The committee said 48 people had been questioned by police, including 37 residents and 11 members of civic groups. Police said they had questioned 36 residents, 13 “outsiders,” and two employees of companies building the towers, for a total of 51 people.

In total, more than 80 people have been hurt or killed since the tower construction resumed, with around 50 people having been questioned by police. Yet the determination of residents to stop the towers from going up shows no signs of waning.

Residents have set up protest sites in four Miryang townships where towers are scheduled to be built: Bubuk, Sangdong, Sanoe, and Danjang. In the case of Bubuk, residents of the villages of Wiyang and Pyeongbat have set theirs up to block construction at the site of the No. 127 tower, which is to go up at #50 Wiyang Mountain Road.

KEPCO said on Dec. 30 that construction was finished on five towers, with work under way on 22 of the 52 towers that are set to go up in the four townships. Most of the sites are inaccessible to residents.

“The residents are saying we don’t need any compensation, so why are they trying to force it on us?” said Lee Nam-u, a 70-year-old Pyeongbat resident. “We aren’t some colonial slaves who can be sold off for money.”

Lee‘s wife, a 66-year-old with the surname Han, is currently being hospitalized after collapsing during a Dec. 26 scuffle with police.

Seo Jong-beom, a 55-year-old Wiyang resident, observed, “KEPCO says the electromagnetic waves from a 765kV power line aren’t enough to hurt people, so why are trying to pay off the residents?”

“We’re going to do whatever it takes to stop these towers from being built,” Seo added.

Residents from different villages have been taking turns watching over the memorial for Yu, who took his life to protest the construction. A steady stream of visitors has been pouring in from all over the country.

“Merchants from Miryang Market is saying that they plan to issue an administrative order to have the memorial taken down if we don’t do it ourselves,” said Yu’s 45-year-old oldest son, who is maintaining the memorial. “The city of Miryang needs to let us put a memorial up in front of City Hall and admit its responsibility for the towers’ construction and my father’s death.”

Please direct questions or comments to [english@hani.co.kr]