No more violence

Calm has returned to a rural community in Pyeongtaek, where riot police clashed violently on Thursday with 1,000 farmers and anti-American activists protesting a plan to relocate U.S. military bases from Seoul and elsewhere to the township. But it is a fragile peace that could easily be shattered if the farmers and others stage another illegal protest, as they have vowed to do.

Scores of protesters and riot police were injured when demonstrators rejected an order to leave an abandoned school they had occupied and fiercely resisted attempts to evict them by the riot police armed with shields and batons. In addition, another 400 were arrested. But they have no one else but themselves to blame. They simply paid the price for interfering with the proper discharge of official duties.

The planned base relocation is a national project, not only sanctioned by the National Assembly but also based on public consensus. The project dates back to 1988 when the Korean government demanded that the United States move its main military base out of Seoul. It wanted to put an end to a foreign military presence in the center of the capital which began with the arrival of troops sent by China's Qing Dynasty in 1882 and later by Imperial Japan. The issue is something of a sore point for Koreans.

But it wasn't until 2003 that Korea and the United States finally agreed to move American forces out of Seoul. They also agreed to relocate other American forces from bases located near the Demilitarized Zone to a place south of the capital. The agreement was ratified by the National Assembly in 2004.

Of the 680 families on the farmland allocated for the new base, 69 are refusing to move out. They will have to be evicted if no compromise is made on compensation. Still, the government believes there is room for negotiation.

But a bigger problem is with the outsiders who have taken sides with the farmers and their families - student activists, militant unionists and members of antiwar groups opposed to the plan to move U.S. troops to the new base. Some of them claim the base will become an American outpost of attack against other countries while others assert it will become a base for a preemptive U.S. attack on North Korea.

But they are ignoring the need to maintain U.S. troops here to deter North Korean aggression and to deal with potential military emergencies in Northeast Asia.

True, inter-Korean relations have improved since the 2000 summit in Pyongyang. Still, Pyongyang's nuclear ambitions pose a threat to security on both the Korean Peninsula and the entire Northeast Asian region. An intensifying arms race between China and Japan is also a source of instability.

Against this backdrop, South Korea needs to strengthen its military alliance with the United States. Construction of a new base in Pyeongtaek, which will help enhance the strategic flexibility of U.S. troops in their regional role, must be understood in this context.

Obstruction to construction cannot be tolerated any longer, because, as the Korean defense minister pointed out, a delay will cause diplomatic friction and thus erode security ties with the United States, not to mention an increase in the costs. The Korean government will have to deal harshly with any attempt by anti-American activists to prevent land development in the region.

On the other hand, the government will have to continue negotiations regarding compensation with those families that are refusing to move out. They may have legitimate grievances about being dislodged, even though the government insists it has offered a proper level of compensation. It goes without saying that outsiders, such as anti-American activists, must not be allowed to interfere in the negotiations in any way.

2006.05.06