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Gyeonggi Provisional Police Agency Commissioner Oe Cheong-su on Thursday said police would reject a Defense Ministry request to provide security during the fencing in of the site for a new U.S. Forces Korea headquarters in Pyeongtaek. After plans for a ditch to keep residents and activists from farming the fields failed on April 7, the ministry said it would study setting up wire fences instead. "Under the Status of Forces Agreement, the police undertake security duty at protected military facilities like American bases. But there are no legal grounds for the police to do so in areas military facilities have yet to move to since they are property of the Defense Ministry," Oe reasoned. "If the ministry is afraid of damage to the fences, it had better hire security contractors.¡±
The remarks are absurd. It is a natural police duty to guard locations against danger of destruction or violent clashes. If police can¡¯t provide security for the area because it is owned by the Defense Ministry, how come police can guard any government offices, public agencies and foreign diplomatic missions? It would have been more honest if Oe had said, "We don't want to get involved because we can barely hope to get out in one piece."
The plot of 9,405 million sq.m around Daechu-ri is now held by the Defense Ministry. But it is an extraterritorial area which some residents opposed to their removal and anti-American activists claim as their own. Since the latter half of last year, when clashes intensified, Defense Ministry officials and police have been reluctant to do anything about them.
Against that background, the Defense Ministry has been dragging its feet, leaving even a land survey undone. Both the ministry and police behave like that because they are studying somebody's expression. So far, neither the president nor the ruling party have said anything definite about the question. The chief executive once said, "What's wrong with being anti-American?" His staff and the government are squabbling among themselves, suspecting even the president of betrayal. It is difficult to fathom their thoughts. Under the circumstances, it would naturally be unwise for the Defense Ministry and police to rush into action.
The move of the U.S. base is a project directly related to our national security that has been agreed on between South Korea and the U.S. and ratified by the National Assembly. It bespeaks the farcical state we are in that there should be any uncertainty about its progress.
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