Seongju residents call on government to “stop insulting” them with claims about alternate THAAD site

Posted on : 2016-08-06 13:49 KST Modified on : 2019-10-19 20:29 KST
Residents of agricultural community still seeking resignation of Defense Minister and scrapping of THAAD deployment plan
Residents of Seongju County
Residents of Seongju County

On Aug. 5, the Seongju Action Committee for Repealing the Decision to Deploy THAAD asked the South Korean government to stop insulting Seongju residents with the idea of deploying the THAAD antimissile system elsewhere in the county and called for the resignation of Defense Minister Han Min-koo.

The committee, which is composed of Seongju County residents, is co-chaired by Baek Cheol-hyeon, Jeong Yeong-gil, Kim An-su and Lee Jae-bok.

The committee strongly criticized remarks made the previous day by South Korean President Park Geun-hye that she might consider deploying THAAD in a different part of Seongju County. “This is just an improvised move aimed at getting out of a difficult situation. Park is presenting an impossible plan as if it were a real alternative in order to sow division among the people of Seongju,” the committee said.

The committee made the remarks in an official position paper that it released on Friday under the title, “Our Position About the Idea of Choosing a Different Site to Deploy THAAD.”

“Over the past 20 days or so, the only thing that the people of Seongju have been demanding is for the decision to deploy THAAD to be retracted,” the committee said.

“We have been put under the yoke and smeared by the disgrace of being selected as the site to deploy THAAD because we are a small county with a population of 45,000 people. How could we pass this filthy and dangerous monster on to a place with a smaller population?”

“Rather than whether to deploy THAAD in Seongju or in some other area, the government and the Defense Ministry ought to go back to the drawing board and reconsider whether the Republic of Korea really needs THAAD.”

“On July 13, the Defense Ministry announced that Seongsan Mountain in Seongju County, North Gyeongsang Province, was the optimal site for deploying THAAD. Now it is saying that it will look for a different area. This means that the government is contradicting its own claim that Seongsan was the ideal site for deploying THAAD. Defense Minister Han Min-koo needs to step down at once for having inflicting pain on many South Koreans and for plunging the government into chaos by rushing through a decision that is critical to the survival of the state.”

“We do not forget that protecting our hometown of Seongju from THAAD now at this moment is the historical mission and the honorable duty with which we have been charged. We ask the people of South Korea to support and protect us.”

The Daegu and North Gyeongsang Action Committee Opposed to the THAAD Deployment, co-chaired by Kim Chan-su and composed of about 40 civic, labor and religious groups from the Daegu and North Gyeongsang Province areas (near Seongju), also issued a statement on Friday.

“We denounce the rushed and irresponsible behavior of the Blue House, which has made ludicrous proposals while ignoring the demands of the people. The Blue House has also distorted the appeals of the people of Seongju County, who have called for the decision to deploy THAAD to be retracted and insist that there is no appropriate place for THAAD to be deployed, either in Seongju or anywhere else in the Republic of Korea,” the statement said.

On Aug. 15, which is Liberation Day in South Korea, the Seongju Action Committee is planning to hold the second nationwide rally in opposition to the THAAD deployment. The rally will be held in the Woods Outside the Castle, in Seongju Township.

Another plan that is being discussed is for 815 residents of Seongju to shave their heads together in protest of the government’s THAAD deployment.

By Kim Il-woo, Daegu correspondent in Seongju

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