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Over 15,000 troops and policemen on Thursday morning evicted some 1,000 remaining residents and anti-U.S. activists from Daechu-ri in Pyeongtaek, Geonggi Province, the site of a new U.S. Forces Korea headquarters. ¡°The base relocation project could no longer be delayed because it would not only cause diplomatic embarrassment but also a rise in the relocation cost and a greater burden for the national coffers," Defense Minister Yoon Kwang-ung said in a statement.
The Pyeongtaek affair is complicated. In terms of moving a military base alone, it is a defense issue, but it is also a diplomatic issue involving our relationship with the U.S, a public security issue dealing with illegal protests and a financial issue involving an increasing tax burden. Anti-American activists are trying to turn it into an ideological struggle, calling it a "second Gwangju Democratic Uprising" after bloodily suppressed protests in 1980.
The administration and ruling party should therefore make every effort to persuade the people that relocating the bases is inevitable and to minimize problems and costs. But government and ruling-party officials, who like to take credit whenever possible, were in hiding, leaving the affair entirely to the defense minister as if he alone were responsible.
To start at the top, the president is fond of speaking to the public, with his ¡°dialogue with the people," "statement to the people" or "letter to the people." Yet he hasn't said a word of concern about the affair. On the eve of Thursday¡¯s clashes he said, "We've been greatly indebted to the U.S., but we cannot afford to be obliged to the U.S. forever." That rather sounds like an invitation to the anti-American activists.
The ruling party chairman was tenacious enough to visit Dokdo on the fifth attempt after four failures due to rough seas, since there he was assured of applause. But he never came anywhere near Pyeongtaek in the present crisis. The ruling party held no meeting with the government on the Pyeongtaek affair, nor has it made any comment on it.
They probably calculate that there is no way they can profit from getting involved in the Pyeongtaek standoff, and that doing so would earn them the contempt of their support base. This shows that three-and-a-half years in power have yet to teach them that government and ruling party must occasionally incur criticism if they work for the good of the country.
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