Anger over THAAD in peaceful village

1,000 policemen are stationed on duty, blockading main roads to the golf course

SEONGJU, REPUBLIC OF KOREA - When they heard the news that Lotte had signed a contract with the Defense Ministry to exchange its golf course for military land, they fell into great panic. The bad feeling lasted for days, making the naive, old farmers wandering what to do.

Lotte International, a unit of Lotte Group, the country's fifth-largest family-controlled conglomerate, agreed on Feb 27 to a land swap deal for the US missile defense system - Terminal High Altitude Area Defense. It was formally signed with the military the following day.

"We wept in each other's arms. Grannies wept sorrowfully, shedding tears over just looking at each other. A couple of days had passed in panic," said Im Soon-bun, head of a women's society in Soseong-ri, a little peaceful village in Seongju county where the US missile shield was scheduled to be sited.

However, they did not sit idly. The villagers stopped weeping and plucked up courage to fight against THAAD. Im said on Saturday that she planned to participate in candlelit vigils, which were to be held in a nearby city, in an effort to make known the legitimacy of their fight and the seriousness of the issue.

Soseong-ri is just a secluded tranquil village but the THAAD deployment decision HAD turned the village into the frontline of a battlefield to protest the US anti-missile system.

Along the sole road to the village, it is filled with placards and signposts to express their strong opposition to THAAD, which they depict as offensive weapons. The village hall, in front of which the society chief was interviewed, is surrounded by anti-THAAD placards and the lines of white clothes on which their longing for peace is written.

Anxious, unnerved

The entrance road to the golf course, just 2 kilometers from the village hall, was blocked by a squad of policemen who were waving electronic batons to ban anyone from approaching the THAAD site. Police buses stood along the road, with pairs of policemen patrolling near the check point.

The ingenuous farmers, mostly in their 80s and 90s, always feel anxious and unnerved as they face an overbearing police power for the first time, said Yoon Young-eun, a duty director of the anti-THAAD protest in the village with just 150 people.

To prevent the old-age warriors, almost 1,000 policemen are stationed on duty, blockading the two main roads to the golf course, the director said.

A major fight against the THAAD deployment has already begun in downtown area of the Seongju county. The entire downtown is filled with anti-THAAD banners in every nook and corner. Every resident, who was interviewed, eagerly explained what they are fighting for.

The locals are fighting for peace in their hometown and their country as shown in one of the famous slogans that reads "THAAD Out, Peace In". They believe THAAD, which is incapable of defending the ROK from missile attacks from the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, will raise threats of war and economic risk.

THAAD has a very limited capability to intercept DPRK missiles as it is designed to shoot down incoming missiles at an altitude of 40-150 km. Most of DPRK missiles targeting South Korea travel at an altitude of less than 40 km.

THAAD's X-band radar can peer deep into territories of China and Russia, causing strong backlashes from the two countries.

"We have nothing to gain (from the THAAD deployment). It is only benefiting the US and Japan. We first want peace in our village, and eventually in the Korean Peninsula and Northeast Asia," said an owner of a coffee shop near the Seongju county office.

The bakery was decorated with blue and yellow ribbons, which symbolize the anti-THAAD protest and the victims of the Sewol ferry disaster.