Korea

November 27, 2011 -- The South Korean government is building a naval base on Jeju Island, officially named the “Island of World Peace”. The base will be one of the largest in the world. The island is located just under 300 miles from the Chinese mainland.
It will be home to both United States and South Korean warships. It will include 20 large destroyers, two aircraft carriers, two nuclear submarines, the Aegis ballistic missile defense system and 6000 soldiers.

Australia Asia Worker Links -- On May 24 more than 2,500 police entered the Yoosung Enterprise factory which hundreds of unionized workers had been occupying for the past week. The plant manufactures parts for Hyundai and other major car makers in Korea. About 500 unionists were detained. Police obtained arrest warrants for two union leaders and a search warrant for union offices from the Daejeon District Court. More information here.

By Roddy Quines, Green Left Weekly, Seoul
April 10, 2011 -- Three former members of the left-wing student group Capitalism Research Society (CRC) were taken into police custody on March 21.
Among those arrested was the group’s former president Choi Ho-hyeon. They were charged under the National Security Act, a draconian anti-communist law that was enacted in 1948 during the height of bloody right-wing suppressions of popular grassroots democratic movements.

By Roddy Quines, Seoul
March 27, 2011 -- Migrant Trade Union (MTU) president Michel Catuira is facing visa cancelation and possible deportation from South Korea.
On February 10, the Korean Immigration Service issued a number of measures against Catuira. These included the cancellation of his visa and a departure order to leave the country by March 7. It also threatened him with forcible deportation to his home country of the Philippines.

Update from Australia Asia Worker Links
The Korean Confederation of Trade Unions (KCTU) has called for international participation in a People’s Week of Collective Action protesting the G20 Seoul Summit. The Lee Myeong-bak administration is using the upcoming Summit as an excuse to strengthen repression against South Korean workers and labour unions, ordinary people and social movements in South Korea. At the same time, claiming they are "establishing public order to support the successful opening of the G20 Summit" the Immigration Service and other government agencies have been conducting a massive crackdown on undocumented migrants, during which migrants are brutally arrested, imprisoned and then deported.
For more information visit the KCTU site.

Seoul, August 6, 2008: According to an AFP report, South Korean police used water cannon and arrested 167 people to break up protests in the evening and overnight against the visit of US President George W. Bush on Wednesday August 6.
A total of 155 people were arrested overnight, a spokesman for the National Police Agency told AFP.
Twelve others were held earlier for staging an anti-war rally at a military airport near Seoul, where Air Force One landed Tuesday evening.

On July 24, the Lee Myung-bak (LMB) government issued arrest warrants against the leadership of the KCTU trade union center. This is only one of many attacks against the newly resurrected people’s power in South Korea, sparked by the uproar over the US beef import.
The urgent appeal for action we are reproducing below has been published by the Coalition Against Mad Cow Disease, a coalition of more than 1,700 organizations involved in the candle light movement. All responses and inquries should be sent to: defendantimadcow@gmail.com

Chris Kerr, Seoul: The newly elected neo-conservative regime of President Lee Myungbak has been humbled by the spontaneous emergence of a mass movement, which was sparked by female middle school and high school students, but which has seen the largest and longest sustained demonstrations since the fall of the military dictatorship. The mass protests are primarily against the imposed resumption of the importation of US beef but have, in the course of their development, tapped into latent anger of the Korean population against the implementation of the government’s neo-liberal agenda.
In April this year, Korean President Lee, before meeting George Bush in his Texas ranch, agreed to lift all existing bans on US beef which were imposed in 2003 after a case of mad cow was detected, especially beef over 30 months old which is considered to be more susceptible to mad cow disease.
The move was unpopular due to the perceived scientific risks that it posed to the Korean population and because the Korean market already had found a suitable alternative in consuming its own beef along with the importation of Australian beef.

Weeks of massive street protests in South Korea against the resumption of US beef imports have forced US President George W. Bush to cancel a trip to the country next month.

CJ Park, Socialist Worker (Britain)
Seoul, 14 June 2008 - Up to a million people gathered across South Korea on Tuesday of this week to commemorate the 21st anniversary of the 1987 June Struggle. The June Struggle was a milestone in the history of democracy in South Korea. It ended the military dictatorship and brought many democratic reforms.