November Delegation to South Korea

By Linda Milazzo
Created Nov 18 2006 - 12:55pm

The following is the official announcement of an important political and
trade policy delegation to South Korea being lead by Cindy Sheehan and Medea
Benjamin (provided by AScribe Newswire).

From AScribe Newswire:

Cindy Sheehan and Medea Benjamin Leading Delegation to South Korea; U.S.
Activists Join South Koreans to Protest U.S. Military Base Expansion and
U.S.-Korea Free Trade Agreement

NEW YORK, Nov. 16 (AScribe Newswire) -- American peace activists Cindy
Sheehan and Medea Benjamin are leading a delegation of U.S. peace and social
justice activists to South Korea to oppose the expansion of Camp Humphrey,
the US military base in Pyeongtaek, South Korea and to protest the proposed
Korea-U.S. Free Trade Agreement.

The delegation of 18, who will be in Korea from November 20 to November 24,
includes members of Working Families Party, Veterans for Peace, Service
Employees International Union, CodePink, Global Exchange, and Gold Star
Families for Peace. This will be the first trip to Korea for Sheehan, whose
son Casey was killed in Iraq, and Benjamin, founder of Global Exchange and
CodePink.

They will meet with elderly Korean farmers of Pyongtaek, whose farmland and
homes were violently seized by the Korean military to accommodate the
expansion of the U.S. military base. For over two years, Korean farmers have
exhausted every legal channel and resisted relocation, holding candlelight
vigils for 800 nights.

"The U.S. government spends $9 billion dollars a month on overseas military
operations," said Cindy Sheehan, "We are traveling to Korea to witness
first-hand how U.S. tax dollars are being spent to destroy Korean farm
lands, homes, schools and lives."

According to Kisuk Yom, head of the Korean-American coalition leading the
U.S. delegation, "There is no democracy for elderly villagers whose
farmlands were stolen. The South Korean public, too, has been silenced, yet
they are the ones who will suffer the consequences of a future military
conflict."

On Nov. 22, the delegation will join the nationwide mobilization against the
U.S.-Korea Free Trade Agreement. One million Koreans are expected to take to
the streets in Seoul. "The proposed FTA will dramatically expand the failed
model of NAFTA," says Christine Ahn, policy analyst with the Korea Policy
Institute. "We will let the Korean people know what NAFTA has meant for
working Americans: factories shutting down and farms falling into
foreclosure."

Korean Americans against War and Neoliberalism, (KAWAN), a coalition of
U.S.-based Korean organizations working to stop the passage of the FTA and
the expansion of the U.S. military base, is the sponsor and organizer of the
trip. "We hope this delegation will return to the U.S. to tell the American
people about the true human cost of the U.S. military expansion in Korea,"
said Hyukkyo Suh, Executive Director of National Association of Korean
Americans. "Korea is a democratic and sovereign nation, and the Korean
people want -- as they deserve -- to make decisions that will affect their
lives for years to come."

CONTACTS:
Young Choe, 347-885-9226
Sonny Le, 510-919-0790
Christine Ahn, 310-482-9333 or 011-82-10-5846-8020 (in Korea, Nov 20-24)

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"A little patience and we shall see the reign of witches pass over, their
spells dissolve, and the people recovering their true sight, restore their
government to its true principles. It is true that in the meantime we are
suffering deeply in spirit,
and incurring the horrors of a war and long oppressions of enormous public
debt. But if the game runs sometimes against us at home we must have
patience till luck turns, and then we shall have an opportunity of winning
back the principles we have lost, for this is a game where principles are at
stake."
-Thomas Jefferson