The 75th Anti-US Joint Monthly Rally

This rally on Dec. 13 was the occasion to strengthen the participants' determination: "Let's stand firm in the front line  in the struggle against the land grab for US base expansion at Pyongtaek."

In an opening address, Father Mun Jeong-Hyon reminded the participants of the significance of monthly rallies by recalling  the past anti-US joint rallies and appealed to the demonstrators, “In the past, our monthly rally publicized the Nogeunri and Maehyangri struggles. That was the beginning. As the second grand peace march at Pyongtaek concluded successfully, at this rally, we should start preparing for the protests on Jan. 14 and Feb. 12 next year.  We didn't think that we would win at the time of the Maehyangri struggle. We won because we were willing to  protest to the death. Let us protest in the Pyongtaek struggle knowing that our victory is assured. Young people should come to Pyongtaek with their tents and block the Defense Ministry's land seizure. Older people should come and occupy the abandoned houses and protest together.” Some farmers have already sold their property and moved away.

Oh Hye-ran, a director of anti-USFK division of SPARK, strongly criticized the prior consultation system which was  known to have been discussed at the ROK-US Security Policy Initiative (SPI) meeting Dec. 6 to 7. The operational range of the USFK has been limited to Korean soil in accordance with the ROK-US Mutual Defense Treaty. However, the USFK are changing their status from stationery forces to expeditionary forces in order to be able to intervene in Asian-Pacific regional conflicts like the  China-Taiwan conflict. Therefore, SPARK and peace activists are asserting that the Korean government should oppose this US policy to keep peace on the Korean peninsula, but Seoul only suggests to Washington that the US should consult with the ROK before the USFK moves off Korean soil. She denounced the prior consultation system: "It is a license for the USFK's war of aggression. The Korean government is using the Pyongtaek farmers' land to pay tribute to the US. In the same way, the prior consultation system is being used to yield to the US our sovereign right to control the USFK's operational range."

Jeon Man-gyu, the president of the Residents' Committee Against the Maehyangri Bombing Range, reported a plan to establish a memorial museum of the Maehyangri struggle, and encouraged the participants, "Just as we won at Maehyangri, let us struggle to win at Pyongtaek."

Jo Gwang-su, the coordinator of the Committee Against the Jik-do Bombing Range, reported, "There are several signs  that instead of Maehyangri they will use the island of Jikdo as an alternative bombing range, but the Defense Ministry consistently insist that they don't know anything. We demand that the Defense Ministry give us a written promise  that they will never let the USFK use Jikdo as a bombing range." It is known that the USFK demand a marine bombing range for training with precision guided munitions and they have already deployed the smart bombs on the Gun-san Air Base (on Korea's southwest coast) near Jik-do.