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Demonstrators chant “THAAD must go for peace to come” during a rally outside the community center in Soseong Village

“We denounce the Moon Jae-in administration’s refusal to recognize the candlelight spirit.”

“After emphasizing ‘legal procedure,’ the Moon administration decides on additional THAAD deployment. Is this for real?”

A number of hand-held signs criticizing the Moon Jae-in administration were on view at the 36th Wednesday demonstration against the THAAD missile defense system deployment at 2 pm on Aug. 2 in front of the Soseong village community center in Seongju, North Gyeongsang Province. Residents and Won-Buddhists have held demonstrations at the location every Wednesday since Nov. 30 of last year. The Aug. 2 demonstration was the first held since Moon announced on July 29 that he had ordered deployment of an additional four THAAD launchers.

The 150 or so demonstrators attending that day shouted phrases such as “drive out illegal THAAD” and “THAAD must go for peace to come.”

“We have no choice now but to fight with the Moon Jae-in administration,” said Soseong village chief Lee Seok-ju, 61.

“There will not be any more of the late-night [THAAD] ambush deliveries that we saw under the last [Park Geun-hye administration],” Lee added. “[The Moon administration] is saying it will only deliver [components] after it has talked to and communicated with residents and reached an agreement, but now that I see them clearly, they’re people who will deliver [components] in the middle of the night if the US says so.”

The Wednesday demonstration also saw an outpouring of anger over a Sisa IN newsmagazine report the day before titled “Inciting local media and disbanding hard-liners?” which alleged involvement by Park’s Blue House in attempting to neutralize the fight against THAAD.

“Between Aug. 2 and 7 of last year, the work notebook of former Blue House Senior Secretary to the President for Policy Coordination Ahn Jong-beom included notes reading, ‘Decision by Seongju residents → support needed. Senior citizens’ association head, Confucian scholars. Daegu Maeil [newspaper] → communication. Local media → funds, foreign language high school support. Voting to disband hard-liners on struggle committee,‘” the report said. Indeed, the struggle committee was disbanded last year through a decision by some Seongju residents as stated in Ahn’s notebook.

“I’m one of the ’hard-liners‘ mentioned in Ahn Jong-beom’s notebook,” said Park Su-gyu, the 54-year-old director of the public relations team for the Seongju Committee Fighting for Withdrawal of the THAAD Deployment.

“I suspect the operations began just after [then-Prime Minister] Hwang Kyo-ahn visited Seongju in summer of last year. I believe the [Park administration‘s] maneuvers to break down the struggle committee came out of Ahn Jong-beom’s notebook,” Park said.

“Soseong Village plans to put everything we have into stopping THAAD, but just in case our strength is not enough and more THAAD [components are] delivered, we will get to work right now on creating an organization to fight to the end until THAAD is gone,” he continued. “We’re ready for a long journey to change Seongju, change North Gyeongsang, and change the Republic of Korea.”

Two administrative officers from the office of the Blue House civil society secretary visited Soseong to observe the Wednesday demonstration. Both said they were there to “hear resident opinions and relay them to the civil society secretary’s office.” The officers spoke to residents at the Soseong village center for 30 minutes after the demonstration ended at around 3:20 pm. Residents were reportedly agitated in response to Moon’s orders for the deployment of four additional THAAD launchers.

By Kim Il-woo, Daegu correspondent in Seongju

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