Fourteen years and five months after construction began, the 33 kilometer Saemangeum sea wall was finally completed Friday. The tidal flats there that grew over millions of years will gradually die off now that they are confined within the wall. Ever since the Supreme Court decision last month environmental groups, local residents, and experts have demanded a passage way and compromise between development and preservation, but now the possibility for that is gone. The authorities will come to their senses when the water and tidal flats go bad like at Lake Sihwa, but innocent citizens will have paid too much by then.
Officials in the national government, the National Assembly, and North Jeolla province all talk about the project being "nature friendly" and "environmentally friendly," but that is ridiculous. The Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry knows quite well that eventually the land that will be formed within the sea wall will have to be re-zoned for a different purpose, but it still says that what is being put together is a large farming area. North Jeolla is pursuing the establishment of a large urban complex there, and is demanding the country pass a "Saemangeum Special Law," which it says would provide for "environmentally friendly development." Members of the National Assembly know what North Jeolla's real intentions are, but it is getting ready to finance that fake "environmentally friendly development."
Last month the Supreme Court sided with the national government on Saemangeum, on the condition the land is used exclusively as farmland. The government persistently claimed it will not use it for other purposes, and in such a situation you cannot use the law to debate the workings of policy. Now, before the ink of the court decision has dried, all the parties are revealing their true character. North Jeolla is drawing blueprints the world's largest golf course, massive leisure facilities, a casino, and yacht harbor. It is also enlisting Assembly members to fight with the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry, which finds it hard to justify giving up on the principle of having it be exclusively farmland. You get the feeling you are looking at a common clash over who gets to enjoy the spoils of victory.
They couldn't be doing this unless they thought of the people and the Supreme Court as fools. You sense we are about to see biggest fraud since Dan'gun established the Korean people.
The Hankyoreh, 22 April 2006.
[Translations by Seoul Selection]
[Editorial] The 'World's Biggest Sea Wall' Could Be A Fraud |
