Above Photo: From ZoomInKorea.org
Note: There will be a protest outside the White House this Friday at noon as South Korean President Moon meets with President Trump. Popular Resistance has joined with The Supporting Committee for Korean Prisoners of Conscience and other organizations to co-sponsor this event. The demands of the protests are:
- STOP THAAD
- Unification of Korea
- STOP nuclear war exercises
- Peace treaty now
- Abolition of national security law
- Release of prisoners of conscience
Popular Resistance endorses these demands and sees the election of President Moon as an opportunity to advance each of them. The Trump administration, after threatening military escalation with North Korea, seems to have reached the conclusion that escalation would be too costly and a war the US could not win. This meeting with President Moon, who has taken initial steps to build a positive relationship with North Korea, should be the beginning of a broader diplomatic effort to calm tensions and build a positive relationship with North Korea.
Tim Shorrock reports in the Nation:
“In a sign of what’s to come, President Moon last weekend welcomed a delegation of North Korean athletes to the World Taekwondo Championships in Muju, South Korea. He used the occasion to propose that North and South Korea form a unified team to compete in the 2018 Winter Olympic Games, which will take place in the South Korean city of Pyeongchang. “Sports are a powerful tool to demolish walls and separation,” Moon declared.
“Two weeks ago, Moon drew Trump’s ire when he ordered a delay in US deployment of the THAAD air-defense system.
“But the new president, who spoke to The Nation in an exclusive interview two days before his election, is likely to face stiff resistance to some of his ideas in Washington at a particularly volatile time in US-Korean relations.
“Two weeks ago, Moon drew Trump’s ire when he ordered his government to delay US deployment of the Terminal High Altitude Air Defense system, known as THAAD, until it conducted a full environmental review. THAAD has been the subject of fierce protests from residents in the rural town of Soseong-ri, where the first batteries were set up with the blessing of former president Park Geun-hye, who was impeached in March and later arrested for corruption and abuse of power. On June 24, several thousand demonstrators chanting “No THAAD, No Trump” gathered in downtown Seoul and later circled the US Embassy to demand THAAD’s immediate withdrawal.
“Moon drew the line on THAAD after learning in late May that the Pentagon had secretly brought in four more launchers for the system into the country, and that his own defense chief—a holdover from the Moon government—had failed to inform him of this. (When the system is finally deployed, it will include at least six rocket launchers, “with 48 rockets designed to intercept aerial threats flying over the peninsula,” TheKorea Herald has reported.)”
President Moon’s administration has made it clear that it does not need the approval of the United States in order to have diplomatic relations with North Korea. They will move forward with dialogue with North Korea while consulting with the United States.
Earlier this year President Trump threatened military escalation of tensions with North Korea, sent aircraft carriers to the region, called the Senate to the White House for a meeting about North Korea and spoke to the full House, but now tensions have subsided as there is no military solution. As long as the United States antagonizes North Korea through military exercises and sanctions, North Korea will continue building missiles. The White House has relied on China to assist in calming tensions with North Korea, but South Korea may be able to do more with its neighbor and sister country. The only reasonable path forward is diplomacy and peace negotiations with North Korea.
These issues are expected to be discussed when President Moon is in Washington, DC. Please join us outside the White House at noon to show public support on June 30. KZ
Protest rally in central Seoul demands withdrawal of THAAD
SEOUL, June 24 (Yonhap) — Thousands of South Koreans staged a protest rally in central Seoul on Saturday demanding the withdrawal of the deployment of an American high-tech anti-missile defense system as President Moon Jae-in and his U.S. counterpart Donald Trump are set to meet in Washington D.C. next week.
“The deployment of THAAD, which is unnecessary for the defense of the Korean Peninsula, should be pulled back,” the protesters said in a rally held in Seoul Plaza at the heart of Seoul. The rally’s organizer put the number of participants at 3,000.
The rally came ahead of the first Moon-Trump summit to be held from June 29-30, which is expected to feature the deployment of the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD).
After taking office last month, Moon ordered the deployment to be delayed until an environmental impact assessment is carried out at its deployment site.
“The South Korea-U.S. summit to come next week should be a venue where the review of the THAAD deployment should be assured,” the protests said. They also demanded the U.S. stop enforcing the deployment.
Following the rally, the protesters moved to the U.S. Embassy in Seoul to lay siege to the embassy building in central Seoul before leaving the embassy area to stage protest marches.
