“A fight we cannot avoid, even if we may lose” can it protect ‘the sandpipers and the hackberry tree’ - 경향신문

This article was translated by an AI tool. Feedback Here.

사진 크게보기 At Sura Mudflat in Okseo-myeon, Gunsan, North Jeolla, the planned site of the Saemangeum new airport, a flock of small sandpipers performs a group flight. Senior Staff Reporter Kang Yoon-Joong

“A battle that is hard to win from the start, a struggle we cannot avoid even if we may lose”can it protect the sandpipers and the hackberry tree? In Gunsan, North Jeolla, the cry ‘Mudflats, not an airport; peace, not war’ is growing louder.

사진 크게보기 Back-billed sandpipers and others are flying over the Sura Mudflat.

On August 27 and September 4, we visited ‘Sura Mudflat’ in Okseo-myeon, Gunsan, North Jeolla, the planned construction site for the Saemangeum new airport, twice. It is the last remaining mudflat in Gunsan. Seawater sloshed in through the sluice gates of the seawall, and salt marshes spread out around it. Shorebirds, spoonbills, and storksspecies at risk of extinctionalighted and pecked at the ground. On the tidal flats, halophytes, including glasswort, formed clusters. The gentle sounds of the many lives sustained by the mudflat were sharply sliced by the roar of fighter-jet engines passing overhead. Beyond the mudflat lay the US military base. As evening fell, dozens of cormorants flocked together and headed toward Oknyobong, their roost. A military helicopter skimmed past above the flocks of birds.

사진 크게보기 Spoonbills are foraging on the mudflat.

사진 크게보기 An endangered Class I stork beats its wings over the Sura Mudflat.

Strawberry (activist name), a peace activist and member of the group ‘Peace Wind’, formed in 2003 in opposition to the troop dispatch to Iraq, said, “They say they will reclaim the mudflat to build a runway, but the risk of bird strikes here is up to 600 times that of Muan Airport,” adding, “They say that if the mudflat is filled in, migratory birds will move elsewhere, but birds migrate along learned routes, and there are reports that as the Saemangeum mudflats, a stopover site, disappeared, the global population of sandpipers plummeted by 80%.” She also pointed out, “Pushing ahead with a project that is highly risky and has poor economic feasibility hides the issue of expanding the US military base behind the facade of regional development.”

사진 크게보기 Spoonbills, egrets, and others are foraging on the Sura Mudflat.

사진 크게보기 Toward evening, flocks of cormorants fly over the Sura Mudflat toward Oknyobong, their roost. In the background, a US Air Force base is visible.

사진 크게보기 A military helicopter flies above a flock of cormorants.

In September last year, life-and-peace activists and citizens, including Fr. Mun Jeong-hyeon, known as the ‘Priest on the Road’, wore hats shaped like birds such as great knots and spoonbills and walked 260 km to the Seoul Administrative Court to demand the “Cancellation of the Saemangeum New Airport Master Plan.” In the first trial of the lawsuit filed by the Saemangeum New Airport Cancellation Joint Action aginst the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport to cancel the master plan for the new airport, the court ruled for the plaintiffs. In its ruling, the bench emphasized the risk of bird strikes and the value of the rich ecosystem. It was hailed as an unusual ruling in a state project lawsuit that sided with life rather than development. The Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport appealed.

Beyond Sura Mudflat, ‘Haje Village’ was reached after a long drive along the extensive wall of the US Air Force base. In the deserted village, overgrown weeds covered the old alleyways. At the end of the village stood a 600-year-old hackberry tree. On this day, together with union members from the Hyundai Motor Jeonju Plant who visited Haje Village as part of a training program, we listened to activist Strawberry share the story of the village community.

사진 크게보기 The 600-year-old hackberry stands in Haje Village, Okseo-myeon, Gunsan. A monthly ‘Paengpaeng Culture Festival’ is held in front of the tree.

사진 크게보기 Household items lie scattered atop the overgrown grass on the home sites of Haje Village, from which all residents have departed.

사진 크게보기 Activist Strawberry shares stories of the village and the hackberry with union members from the Hyundai Motor Jeonju Plant.

During the Japanese colonial period, the nearby Sangje Village disappeared when the Japanese Army Flight School moved in, and Jungje Village vanished when US forces were stationed there. Later, when the US military built an ammunition depot and demanded base expansion on the grounds of securing a safety distance, the government decided in 2001 to forcibly relocate residents. In 2006, with the Saemangeum sea dike blocking seawater circulation, villagers could no longer fish, and all left. The hackberry witnessed it all. Activists and citizens opposing the transfer of the village site to the US military stepped up to protect the tree. Since October 2020, they have held the monthly ‘Paengpaeng Culture Festival’to sing, dance, and pray. In 2024, the tree was designated a Natural Monument. Novelist Hwang Sok-yong wrote a novel featuring this tree as the main character, titled <Grandma>.

사진 크게보기 The hackberry designated as a Natural Monument looks down over the US Air Force base.

About 5 km from the hackberry, in front of Okgu Reservoir in Oeseongsan Village, a nest of solidarity to prevent destruction of the mudflat ecosystem and expansion of military bases is being built: the Okbong Ecological Peace Center, ‘New Person’. Using funds raised at Peace Wind’s 20th-anniversary event in 2023 as seed money, they purchased a vacant house and began construction this March. Activist Gu Jung-seo, sweating on the construction site all day, said that the center’s name reflects a dream of a world where birds and people live together, and a place where visitors return carrying questions as new people, adding that it will be a space for those who explore Sura and Haje to communicate, learn, and rest, and a base for people fighting for ecology and peace.

사진 크게보기 Fr. Mun Jeong-hyeon, the ‘Priest on the Road’, looks around the interior of the Okbong Ecological Peace Center, where construction is in full swing.

사진 크게보기 ‘Gangjeong Friends’, who carry out life-and-peace activism in Gangjeong Village, Jeju, pose before beginning ‘solidarity labor’ at the Okbong Ecological Peace Center construction site.

The Okbong Ecological Peace Center will open on November 21.