a press conference for denouncing ROK-US strategic consultation

SPARK held an urgent press conference at the building of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade (MOFAT) at 3:00 pm on Jan. 20, and declared that the ROK-US agreement on "strategic flexibility" of the USFK, which was announced that morning, was inherently illegitimate. In addition, they asserted that Ban Gi-Mun, Minister of MOFAT, should be dismissed because he agreed to this aggressive alliance.

South Korea and the United States set the agendas on Jan. 19 for bolstering their relations as strategic allies, ranging from spreading democracy to preventing transnational pandemic diseases. South Korean Foreign Minister Ban Gi-mun and U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice also announced agreement on "strategic flexibility" of American troops stationed in South Korea, a policy allowing U.S. forces to swiftly move back and forth between host nations and areas of conflict, natural disaster, etc.

Yu Young-Jae, the director of the anti-USFK division of SPARK, indicated that "This ROK-US agreement on 'strategic flexibility' of the USFK gives the USFK complete freedom to intervene in Northeast Asian conflicts and launch  an aggressive war anywhere in the world. It is a disastrous  blunder to convert the ROK-US defensive alliance into an aggressive alliance."
He asserted in addition that "If we accept this agreement, the Korean peninsula will be reduced to a staging base for the USFK's invasion of other countries so that there will be a constant threat of war in Northeast Asia. Thus, we must cancel this agreement."

 Heo Young-koo, co-president of Spec Watch Korea (Speculation Funds Watch), asserted, "This agreement is part of the US' strategy of containing China, combining the US forces in Korea, Japan and the Philippines. Along with this preparation for war, the US commits economic aggression through the WTO and the ROK-US Free Trade Agreement to finance the war."

The participants concluded the conference by delivering a protest letter to MOFAT.