[Int’l workshop for Peace&Disarmament] Two Cases of Peace Movement in South Korea : Conscious Objection Movement and Peace & Disarmament Fair(Yeo-ok)

It is commonly thought that the development of peace movements in South Korea was relatively slow due to the strong militarism ingrained in Korean society, yet the situation has gradually been changing, and nowadays there are a variety of peace movements taking place in South Korea. In this presentation, I would like to introduce two particular cases of Korean peace movements: Conscientious Objection movement and 2010 Peace & Disarmament Fair, the latter of which was prepared by a number of peace organizations.

Conscientious Objection movement

For the past several decades, conscientious objectors against military service have been going to prison, yet it was only after 2000 that the issue became known to the public. That the cumulative number of conscientious objectors who served prison sentences exceeded ten thousands at the time profoundly shocked the Korean society. It has been considered as an issue for Jehovah’s Witnesses only, however, conscientious objection became a matter of social ‘movement’ with the public declaration of the first non-Jehovah’s Witness conscientious objector, the pacifist and buddhist Oh Tae-yang in December 2001. In early 2002, “Korea Solidarity for Conscientious Objection” (KSCO) was formed by 36 civil and social organizations and began to raise public awareness about conscientious objection through various forms of activities such as discussion forums, lectures, public hearings, campaigns, and written articles.

The criticisms and scoldings against the conscientious objection movement were tremendous at first. The idea of national security was so absolute in the anti-communist Republic of Korea that where more armament was considered socially ‘good’, while any kind of counter-argument was severely oppressed. In South Korean society, which went through a series of militarist regimes where the 100% enlistment rate was set as a social objective and the conscription-based military system was sanctified, it was not even possible to bring up discussions on possible changes in the military system. Under these circumstances, it was difficult to expect not only any reflections on the military as a state-monopolized violence but also different points of view based on democracy and tolerance. A movement of changes, however, was slowly created by the tremendous amount of time and pain that conscientious objectors endured, along with the efforts made by both recent conscientious objectors who publicly announced their objection and their supporters.
 
Afterwards, the duration of the usual prison term sentenced to conscientious objectors was cut down from three years to one and a half years. In 2002, a case of conscientious objection was appealed to the Constitutional Court for review for the first time, and in 2004, a conscientious objector received a verdict of not guilty for the first time.
 
In late 2004, assemblymen Im Joing-In and Roh Hoe-Chan each submitted a Military Service Act Amendment Bill to the South Korean National Assembly. In late 2005, National Human Rights Commission of Korea, for the first time among Korean national institutes, announced a recommendation to introduce alternative service. In addition, the international community, upon recognizing the situation for Korean conscientious objectors, began to apply pressure to the Korean government; for example, UN Human Rights Committee repeatedly ruled that the Korean government should consider alternate service for Korean conscientious objectors.
 
Thanks to these social changes, it appeared that the imprisonment of conscientious which had continued for more than 50 years after liberation might end in the very near future. In September 2007, the Ministry of National Defense (MND) announced plans to allow conscientious objectors to perform alternative civilian service. According to their plan, conscientious objectors should have had options to perform alternative service instead of going to jail since 2009. But once the conservative Lee Myung-Bak government took office, MND suddenly changed its position. Having made little efforts to prepare for alternative service with an excuse of ‘national consensus,’ MND publicly announced to ‘nullify’ the introduction of alternative service for conscientious objectors in December 24, 2008. The reason for the decision was an opinion survey which occupied a very small part of the research commissioned by Military Manpower Administration where there were more responses against alternative service. While the more-than-500-page-long research paper concludes that alternative service must be introduced, MND arbitrarily chose to use only part of survey data. The hard-fought changes by the civilian society were so easily overturned by the regime change.
 
Yet it was not only the CO movement participants who thought that the situation was unjust, as the militaristic and nationalistic Korean society has slowly been changing over the course of time and as CO movement has continued.
 
In the summer of 2008, National Human Rights Commission of Korea officially expressed concern and sent a statement to MND, urging it to quickly introduce alternative service for conscientious objectors. This issue has been continuously raised in the judicial branch as well. There have been a series of requests with the Constitutional Court for a determination of constitutionality of the Homeland Army Reserve Act. In the current situation where legislative solutions are very unlikely, the Constitutional Court’s possible decision for conscientious objectors remains one of the possibilities. In 2010, UN Human Rights Committee pressed the Korean government once again by having its second ruling on individual CO cases. WRI, an anti-war organization which undertakes CO activities internationally, spread the news about Korea’s situation throughout the world. Korea boasts being the current UN Secretary General’s home country and shouts phrases such as ‘National Status’ and ‘Global Standards,’ while continuously ignoring criticisms from the international community and sending conscientious objectors to prison.
 
While social movements on conscientious objectors focused on alternative service, conscientious objection raises an issue that goes beyond alternative service. First of all, conscientious objection socially reminds what the military and soldiers mean in Korean society. The military is the place where people get ready to go to the battleground and fight anytime. This system’s objective is to go to war and win the war. To win, you have to kill somebody who is supposed to be ‘our enemy.’ In the end, the military is where killing is practiced. Even if you might argue that the military is a necessary evil and that war is a reality, it is clear that ultimately any war or military should not exist. Yet these uncomfortable truths about the essence of the military have been neglected, hidden, beautified, and sanctified. Any discussions about the military was a taboo because of “Korea’s unique security situation.” It was conscientious objection movements that fundamentally questioned this situation. Conscientious objectors, who refuse murder training, automatically reveal that the military is a device for war and organization for murders. The meaning of “becoming a soldier,” which conscientious objectors realized, was that we can be a victimizer and that the unacceptable violence may originate from ourselves. Therefore, their resolve and practice against becoming a solider were primitive and strong methods against war. “Reflections on violence” caused by conscientious objection is now expanding into the movement to monitor Korea’s military weapon industry. If you face the reality that the weapons sold by Korea are being used in the regions of conflicts to suppress ethnic minorities, you will be able to realize what the money collected from the weapon exports means.
 
 
Peace & Disarmament Fair
 
South Korea is one of the world’s largest arms importer and exporter. For the past 5 years, Korea has been the world’s third largest arts importer, and the defense industry export sales continues to rise every year, as it recorded 1.17 billion dollars in 2009 and is expected to exceed 1.5 billion dollars.
 
Under the export-driven national policy to overcome economic crises and secure US dollars, the Korean government considers arms production and exports to be a major growth industry, so the scales of the arms industry and business are expected to increase even further. But arms should not be simple products of economic exchange. Arms are made to hurt or kill people. While the government and corporations advertise made-in-Korea weapons, there has never been any social discussion or consensus as to whether we need to spend a huge amount of taxes to develop those weapons or any knowledge on where those arms are sold and actually used.
 
The Defense Industry Fair previously held in October began to expand as the Aerospace-centered ‘Seoul Air Show’ and the ground weapon-focused ‘Defense Asia’ united into the biannual ‘Seoul International Aerospace & Defense Exhibition’ (ADEX). This year, 60th Korean War anniversary memorial events have been held throughout the country all year along. In particular, the Armed Forces Day event was held in a bigger scale as it united with ‘9.28 Seoul Capture’ memorial events, and ’10 Best Weapons’ were displayed at the Gwanghwamun Plaza and Seoul City Hall Plaza.
 
While it is easy to think vaguely that powerful weapons may protect peace, the reason that weapons are produced and exported is because of profits. And when we look into the situation more closely, we realize that the situation is even more complicated than the simple ‘making profits by selling weapons,’ because situations requiring weapons are necessary to sell weapons. Those exported weapons become the cause of conflicts themselves, and in the end have no choice but to function as the medium of armed conflicts. This point has not been raised since a long time ago over the world, but not in Korea. Yet the volume of arms business increases every year, and the number of people killed by this overflowing amount of weaponry is growing. The powerful arms we produce threaten someone else’s peace and life. And some other people who feel threatened feel the need for even stronger weapons. A vicious cycle of the arms races still continues to date.
 
Disarmament interests and activities have long existed within the Korean peace movements, yet it took a considerable amount of time to set disarmament as the common goal of peace movements in general. At the 2009 Peace Activist Convention, activists who had interests in war profiteering held a related workshop, and there the need for a joint response towards arms issues was discussed. Peace activists who had since considered the form of such a response decided to organize an alternative exhibition and began to prepare since late March in 2010. The 2010 Peace and Disarmament Fair Preparatory Committee was officially established in June after a series of preparatory meetings and internal workshops. The committee so far consists of 14 organizations: Amnesty International Korea, Nanum Munwha, Nautilus ARI, the Weapon Zero Team, the Buddhist practice group, the Korean Sharing Movement, World Without War, Jeju Solidarity for Participation and Environment, People’s Solidarity for Participatory Democracy, Pyongtaek Peace Centre, Peace Network, Peace Ground, Peace Museum, Hansin University Peace and Public Centre. Between the 2nd and 3rd of October, coinciding with the South Korean Armed Forces Day, the Peace and Disarmament Fair Preparatory Committee organized 「2010 Peace & Disarmament Fair: Let’s Talk Peace, Now」. In this fair, citizens shared their concern about military conflicts and arms expansion over the world, as well as civilian alternatives and imaginations towards peaceful co-existence.

In the <Exhibition Area> of 2010 Peace & Disarmament Fair, 7 Korean weapons and 7 related issues were selected which cause military tensions and war expenditure competition, and a total of 60 panels were shown to point out the impact of the South Korean arms trade and its possible solutions. In addition, there were Peace <Lecture Area> on the street, <Video Area> where short videos and related films about international peace movements were shown, and <Experience Area>, where peace sensibilities were stimulated by drawing, making, and reading. At the evening <Concert Area> was a cultural festival with films from the human rights film festival, conversations with 2nd generation nuclear bomb victims, and peace songs so that people could think of peace in multiple dimensions.

The detailed program was as follows:

Content
Exhibition Area
▷ Wicked Weapon, Bad Weapon, Expensive Weapon Exhibition
– Nuclear Weapon / No Nuclear Weapon Yes Nuclear-Free   Zone
– Cluster Bombs / Death Rain
– Weapons Ordinance/ No More Irresponsible Weapon Deal
– Next-Generation Tank K2 / Unnecessary High-Performance   Tank
– Korean Style Helicopter / Dinosaur eating away the   largest ever budget
– Aegis / The oceanic marine’s anti-peace dream
– Next-generation Fighter Plane / National Budget Wasting Fighter   Project
▷ Exhibition of Civilian Suggestions for Peace and Disarmament in Korean Peninsula
– Realizable Dream, Disarmament / Military Budget Cut
– “We oppose overseas dispatch of armed   forces” / No War, No Overseas Dispatch
– Doubts after doubts / Find Out Cheonan Ship Truth
– 21st Century “Contradiction” War / No for MD Introduction
– Share for Peace / Expand Support for North Korea
– Don’t Covet the Island of Peace / Against Jeju Marine   Base
– Several Trillion Won for Base Cleaning / Report US Army Base’s   Environmental Pollution
Video Area
– Activities of Overseas Organizations opposing against   the production and exchange of weapons since a long time ago
– A war that has not ended, cluster bombs (MBC W)
– 4th Human Rights Film Festival Film <Spotlights on a massacre :   Landmines>(France/40 min)
Lecture Area
Monitor Dangerous Weapons / Lee Si-Woo (Sat., 1PM)
Citizens’ Peace-making : Against Security-Militarism /   Lee Dae-Hoon (Sat., 5PM)
Middle East Bloody Conflict Story / Kim Jae-Myung   (Sun., 1PM)
Ask Cheonan Ship / Lee Tae-Ho (Sun., 5PM)
Experience Area
Mosquito Net Library (Exhibition and reading of books that were chosen   as ‘2010   Children’s peace book’), Drawing Peace Tiles (Drawing   about their idea of peace), Make a wooden pole wishing for peace
Concert Area
Film Screening with Visiting Human Rights Film Festival   ‘Firefly’ (Sat., 6PM)
<Nuclear Bomb>(USA, Japan/Carey Schonegevel/57min) +Conversations   with 2nd-generation Nuclear Bomb Victims
<Boisterous Cultural Festival>(Sun., 6PM)
Star : Peace Ground(Joyakgol, Byulemjaripyo, Mungoo), Bomroya, Yasal   (SOUND SMITH Vicak), Yamagata Tweakster, etc

While 2010 Peace & Disarmament Fair was held outdoors under rainy and windy conditions, a lot of people wishing for peace nonetheless got together and shared their thoughts about peace and disarmament. It was pointed out that, due to each organization’s busy schedules and limited resources, there were not enough preparations on how to interact with citizens, and we plan to make efforts to improve the condition. We plan to produce policy kits for policy suggestions, along with an exhibition in the National Assembly, and directly give them to congressmen. In addition, we plan to hold street and regional exhibitions to meet more citizens. 2010 Peace and Disarmament Fair is over, yet it is still not over in the sense that it is a meaningful beginning.

Security issues are not something that should be left up to the so-called professionals; everyone should be able to talk about their idea of peace. Instead of fantasizing about powerful weapons as defenders for peace, we must be able to think that the existence of weapons itself destructs peace. Instead of having the anti-peace defense industry as the nation’s future, peace movements should make efforts for discussions on much more valuable social investments.  ☼

◯ Yeo-ok YANG / Korea
Yeo-ok YANG is a peace activist, working in a group called ‘World Without War’ and ‘Weapon Zero Team’. Not only supporting Conscientious Objectors in jail or under trial/investigation, she participate in various peace movement. 2009 International Conscientious Objectors’ day in Korea Preparatory Committee hosted by WRI(War Resisters’ International) and KSCO(Korea Solidarity for Conscientious Objection), 2010 Peace and Disarmament Fair Preparatory Committee.