Thursday, March 15, 2012

2012 KEEP-ROK Application is Now Available!

UPDATE: The deadline has been extended to March 23, 2012. Apply now!

Make sure you e-mail to your application to . 

Yes, it’s time for Nodutdol’s 2012 Korea Education and Exposure Program to Republic of Korea (SK)! 

This year, the aim of KEEP-ROK is to take those who struggle against militarism to those sites of struggle in south Korea, with a commitment to continue anti-militarism work at home.

If you know of anyone who would benefit from participating in KEEP, please encourage them to apply for the program.  The application due date is March 15, 2012.  Please go to: http://nodutdol.org/index.php/KEEP/ to download the application.  If you have any questions, please contact us at .

Download the application: here

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Tuesday, March 6, 2012

Save Gurumbi Rocks, Save Jeju Island!

(picture from http://www.headlinejeju.co.kr/news/articleView.html?idxno=144080)

This is very time-sensitive and urgent!

National Campaign to End the Korean War asks its members and allies to:

Call/ email to stop the Jeju Base Construction and the police action against Gangjeong villagers!

Right now, Sung-Hee Choi in Gangjeong reports that about 500 policemen from the mainland have come to Gangjeong village by ship, including 4 police squadron units and a unit of policewomen. About 200 policemen in 2 squadrons from the main land were already mobilized from before, so now the total number of the main land policemen invading the village to suppress protesters are at least 700. (* Plus with the maximum number of about 700 Jeju policemen, the total number of the policemen in the village could be about 1400~1500.)

A new petition to call to stop the base construction in Jeju
http://www.thepetitionsite.com/1/save-gangjeong-village/

Plus:

Call the Korean Embassy in your state and let them know that Jeju does not want a naval base! The militarization of Jeju Island runs contrary to its designation as the “Island of World Peace.”

1. If you live in the United States: Call the South Korean Embassy in Washington at 202-939-5600 to show your solidarity with the Gangjeong villagers on Jeju Island.

2. Write to the South Korean Defense Attaché at and demand a halt to construction of the naval base. Explain how a base that is directed at China is the beginning of a dangerous game that does not protect the future of South Korea - it undermines it.

3. Send a message to South Korean Ambassador to the U.S. Han Duk Soo letting him know how building a navy base on Jeju will undermine tourism, threaten the fragile island environment and contribute to the destabilization of an already stressed security climate.

4. Email Jeju Island Governor Woo Keun Min and tell him how you feel about the military base that is being built on the pristine “Island of World Peace” - Demand a Gangejong village referendum so the residents voices can be heard nine out of ten residents do not want this base.

5. Stay updated on the resistance by joining the ”Save Jeju Island” and the “No Naval Base on Jeju!” Facebook pages. Follow the most recent developments on Twitter at #savejejuisland and #gangjung - then re-post.

6. Spread the word about the inspiring resistance in Jeju! Contact the media about this story to raise their awareness about the struggle. Urge them to cover this important story of peace and environmental defense.

7. Sign the petition urging South Korean President Lee to stop construction of the military base! After signing please share the petition with your social network.

8. Send a message to the Korean Cultural Heritage Administration (CHA) and tell them that the relics discovered on the naval base site should result in an immediate halt to construction.
Contact Person: Ms Hyosang Jo, Staff, CHA International Affairs Division Address: 139 Seonsaro, Seo-gu Daejeon 302-701 Korea (RK) Tel: +82 (42) 481-4738 | Fax: +82 (42) 481-4738 | Email

9. Email or telephone Democratic members of the Korean National Assembly and tell them that they must stand publicly to demand that Gangjeong villagers are allowed to vote in a new referendum for or against the naval base. Click here for contact information

10. Email Amnesty International’s South East Asia chief and tell him that too many people have been imprisoned and injured in this nonviolent resistance against an illegal military base. Amnesty International’s investigation on human rights violation in Jeju is necessary and will help the situation.  Contact

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Monday, February 6, 2012

Send your submission for REAL KARAOKE PEOPLE!

Calling All Real Karaoke People: Invitation to Read and Sing!

Deadline: EXTENSION! Friday, February 17th, 2012 5 PM

Bringing together the best of two worlds—poetry and noraebang, Korean for karaoke—The Asian American
Writers’ Workshop, in collaboration with Nodutdol Korean Community Development, seek submissions for a
multidisciplinary performance event in February 2012. Part of the Workshop’s Neighborhood Word initiative,
which brings literary programming to the outer boroughs, the event will use singing and poetry to harmonize,
shake, split, and excavate the deeper musical notes of diasporic narratives centered on community, family, the
romantic, and immigration. Inspired by Ed Bok Lee’sReal Karaoke People (who can’t join us but will be there in
spirit!) this event will have readings by featured writers, followed by a line-up of works gathered through
this submissions process. Come to simply flaunt your mastery of a song from Boa’s Id; Peace B or submit a poem of
heart break followed by your tear jerker rendition of Sinead O’Conner’s Nothing Compares. Featured writers will
include Jennifer Kwon Dobbs and Grace Cho.

Submissions guidelines: This event centers around the ways that poetry and song can be used as venues
of/for community building, as karaoke has been a space that many have participated in with families, friends, and
strangers alike. Submit a creative piece that can be performed, read out loud in 5-7 minutes. Topics can include:
love, sex, nostalgia, identity, rebellion, citizenship and patriotism, diaspora, adoption, missed connections, and
more!

To note, your submissions does not have to incorporate singing and/or karaoke (unless you want!).
Send submissions, questions, and comments to Cristiana Baik () and Peggy Lee ( ).

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Saturday, November 26, 2011

Statement - No Naval Base on Jeju Island

NO NAVAL BASE ON JEJU ISLAND

Statement written by Christine Hong

As international media herald the recent selection of Jeju Island as one of the “New 7 Wonders of Nature,” Nodutdol for Korean Community Development and the Alliance of Scholars Concerned about Korea call attention to the ugly threat of militarism that gives the lie to this designation.  We join a growing worldwide movement in support of Jeju villagers and other South Korean democracy activists who have courageously resisted the building of a massive naval base in Gangjeong village.  We call on the South Korean government to halt the construction of this base now.  As November 18, 2011, the date for the scheduled dynamiting of the coastline and the trial of imprisoned activists, approaches, we lend our voices to their dissent and urgently call on others to come forward in principled support.

Due to be operational by 2014, the massive naval base, slated to host 20 warships, nuclear aircraft carriers, nuclear submarines, and two Aegis destroyers integrated within the US Missile Defense System, stands to destroy a UNESCO World Heritage site, a UNESCO biosphere reserve, and a government-recognized “absolute preservation area” characterized by rare rock formations, abundant and fertile farmlands, pristine fresh and sea waters, and endangered animal species.  Rich in biodiversity and natural beauty, Gangjeong is also home to Bronze Age artifacts, making this region of inestimable archaeological value, as well. 

The human costs are enormous.  At stake are the sea- and land-based livelihoods of women divers, fishermen, and farmers who have been displaced from their occupations and their homes, as well as local self-governance processes.  Although 94% of Gangjeong residents have voted against the construction of the naval base, the Seoul central government and the South Korean military have forcibly proceeded with construction, wielding police violence and trumped-up legal charges to quash resistance.  We call attention to the fact that since 2007, the people of Gangjeong have used every democratic means of protest, including squatting on government-seized farmlands (i.e., their lands) and placing their bodies below or on construction machinery, in order to halt the building of the base.  With growing global attention to the Jeju resistance, the South Korean government has intensified its crackdown, recently dispatching over 1,000 riot police from the mainland to suppress and detain protesters so as to clear the way for construction.  Three protestors—Kang Dong-gyun, mayor of Gangjeong, Kim Jong-hwan, local cook for the resistance movement, and Kim Dong-won, photographer and peace activist—remain incarcerated with no option for bail.  Their trial date is scheduled for November 18, 2011—the date when Gureombi, the rare coastal rock formation that joins land to sea, is due to be blasted to bits by dynamite.

We recall the past as troubling precedent for the present.  Although Jeju Island today is known as a spectacularly beautiful tourist destination, it was a historical site of resistance that was met by state-sponsored counterrevolutionary violence in 1948.  Protesting the holding of separate elections in the South that stood to cement U.S.-authored division of the Korean peninsula and the formation of two distinct regimes in the North and the South, the people of Jeju were branded “Communists” and the island deemed a “red island.” At least one-tenth of the island population was ruthlessly slaughtered by South Korean forces and fascist youth brigades in the name of “national defense.” Trained by U.S. occupation forces, which interrogated prisoners and flew reconnaissance missions to spot guerrillas, South Korean forces descended from the mainland and unleashed terror on the island.  Far from an isolated, distant event, the 1948 civilian massacres hover just below the surface of the Gangjeong struggle for democratic self-governance and peace.  In long overdue recognition of the brutal massacres it perpetrated under U.S. watch and with U.S. involvement in 1948, the South Korean government in 2005 designated Jeju an “Island of Peace.” As with the more recent “New 7 Wonders” distinction, this designation cannot but ring hollow.

Not merely a local struggle, the non-violent resistance of Gangjeong residents and activists against the naval base raises the question of a neo-Cold War U.S./South Korea/Japan alliance and a looming regional arms race with China.  The South Korean government’s claims that the base is necessary to protect it from North Korea, to ensure claims over maritime resources, and to police vital shipping lanes have little credibility.  As South Korea’s southernmost island, Jeju is not well situated to ward off an attack from Pyongyang.  Far from ensuring the security of the island and its inhabitants, a massive naval base in Gangjeong will ratchet up regional, intra-Asian tensions and turn Jeju into a sure target.  In response to the question of whose interests are served by this naval base, we point to the Mutual Defense Pact and Status of Forces Agreement between the U.S. and South Korea that grant the U.S. principal rights to use any South Korean port or airfield and the Strategic Flexibility Agreement that enables the U.S. to flow its military forces out from, into, and through South Korea without prior consultation.  A base in Gangjeong thus directly relates to the U.S. military presence in the Asia Pacific region and heightens the potential for war.

A massive naval base in Gangjeong will destabilize both Korean and regional security while serving U.S. interests in an area of the world that the U.S. fears losing to China.  Recent statements by Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta are instructive.  Arguing that the Asia Pacific region holds the key to America’s future, Clinton has stated that “[h]arnessing Asia’s growth and dynamism is central to American economic and strategic interests” and that these interests hinge on a “forward-deployed” U.S. posture within the region.  Similarly, indicating that the U.S. is “concerned about China,” Panetta has stated that despite “budget constraints that we are facing in the United States…[t]he most important thing we can do is to project our force into the Pacific—to have our carriers there, to have our fleet there.” U.S. “force projection” in the region, Panetta clarified, vitally depends on the 85,000 U.S. troops stationed in South Korea and Japan.  Shifting its strategic focus from the Atlantic to the Asia Pacific region where it currently concentrates 60% of its naval power, the U.S., “if anything,” Panetta made clear, intends to “strengthen our presence in the Pacific.” This reckless and arrogant policy positions regional partners as vehicles for U.S. power.  It thoroughly disregards the profound impact that the militarization of Asian-Pacific oceans has on the lives of ordinary people and makes laughable Clinton’s assertion that the U.S., as an “advocate for universal human rights,” leads by example.

We stand with the courageous people of Gangjeong who protest this obscene violation of their lives, their environment, and their democratic processes.  Joining our voices to theirs, we call on the South Korean government to stop the construction of the Jeju naval base and demand that the U.S. government respect the urgency of true peace and genuine security, as expressed by the people of Gangjeong.

Please click the link “continued” for what you can do. 

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Wednesday, October 12, 2011

November 19: Join us for KImchee Bowl 7!

MARK YOUR CALENDARS! You are invited to the 7th Annual Kimchee Bowl taking place on Saturday, November 19. Please join us for this memorable evening!

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Tuesday, October 11, 2011

URGENT ACTION ALERT!  National Call-in Day against 3 Free Trade Agreements (10/12 & 10/13/2011)

Dear community members, friends, and comrades:

President Obama has just introduced the Korea, Colombia, and Panama Free Trade Agreements to Congress for an approval vote, last Monday and these FTA agreements are to be voted by the Congress on October 12, 2011 Wednesday.  This is our very last chance to stop these agreements in the U.S.

All of these agreements are toxic.
• The Korea Free Trade Agreement would become the biggest trade pact of its type since NAFTA.  It would displace a net 159,000 good-paying U.S. jobs in manufacturing, high-tech and green-tech.
• The Colombia Free Trade Agreement would reward human rights violators in the deadliest place in the world to be a trade unionist.  In 2010, at least 51 trade unionists were assassinated in Colombia — more than in the rest of the world combined.  So far in 2011, another 22 have also been killed, despite Colombia’s so-called “Labor Action Plan.” Would Congress reward a country were 51 CEOs were gunned down in one year?
• The Panama Free Trade Agreement would make it harder to crack down on U.S. money launderers and tax dodgers in a notorious offshore tax haven, in addition to endangering the environment and natural ecology of Panama. 

We support trade between the U.S. and Korea - but it has to be a fair trade that supports jobs, people, affordable healthcare, food justice, environmental protections, and stable economies in both countries. Korea-US FTA will destroy farmers’ lives in both countries and make everyone more dependent on corporate, GMO food--that’s why the National Family Farm Coalition in the US opposes it, as well as the Korean Peasants League.

People in Korea are working hard to defeat the bill there. Here in the U.S. there is a national call-in to Congress. People everywhere are going to call, but the Congresspeople need to hear from Korean Americans on the Korea FTA especially. It is an uphill battle but there is a chance. Remember that CAFTA (the Central American Free Trade Agreement) only passed in Congress by one vote.

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