The policemen should have used tear gas and rubber bullets. Basic crowd control 101. Without proper crowd control tactics, many got beaten and injured by these commies. Things will be different in the next demonstration, if any.

One of the links mentioned that the “notorious 1001 Unit from Seoul” was sent to Pyeongtaek. Are they conscripts? Is their reputation for toughness a long standing one, or is it only due to their behavior in Incheon back in April 2001, when they beat the living shit out of Daewoo unionists holding a sit in?

Near Yongsan, for example, on land never occupied by USFK (not recently anyway), there was a huge on-going movement to save the homes or be adequately compensated to buy a new home in the development (with media coverage, too). On a road I often drive there has been a year-long protest against a crematory. And when the government decided to knock down apartments as part of the Ch’??nggyech’??n revitalization project, there were highly publicized protests by the people who didn’t want to leave their homes.

These are just the ones I’ve seen. They pop up quite often and they do get play in the press.

I agree, Kimbob — assuming that if USFK doesn’t redeploy to Pyeongtaek, the next stop would be Stateside, someone is going to have to bite the bullet here. That is, if the Korean gov’t would like a countinued U.S. ground presence in the country. I just don’t blame the Pyeongtaek residents who are going to have their land bought from them for bitching, futile as it may be. Yes, someone has to sacrifice, but at the same time, I don’t expect any particular community to volunteer for the job.

A Uri Party lawmaker and opponent of the Zaytun troop deployment in Iraq tells us that: “Threats of terrorism will disappear if the Zaytun troops return home.”

The ROK government and Korean society has been good at dragging out plans until they die — or have to be renegociated all over again — which means die too. One tool in accomplishing this has been using anti-US protests and general anxiety to put pressure on the US government to give in.

But, since 2000 and especially post-9/11, the US has shown signs that using the old hot buttons to pressure USFK might actually help push the changes faster and further. —- It might give the US an excuse to increase the downsizing from already set 1/3rd amount.

The case has always been that the local farmers and NGOs were going to mobilize to block the reconstruction plans, and the NGOs do want USFK out sooner rather than later.

What I’m looking for is how the Korean press and government and then average Korean is going to react to the protests….

and with USFK’s attitude having changed so much, I really have no idea how greater Korean society is going to handle this……..???

Same with mental institutions, old folks homes, and nuclear waste facilities. Nobody wants those around the neighborhood too. But somebody has to make a sacrifice here. Korea is an awful small place even without all these not in my back yard oppositions.