S.Korean Protesters Arrested at U.S. Bombing Range

Story Filed: Tuesday, June 20, 2000 7:53 AM EST

MAEHYANG-RI, South Korea (Reuters) - Eleven South Korean protesters were
arrested on Tuesday after they infiltrated a U.S. Air Force bombing range in
a campaign to close it down.

A total of 12 protesters, led by the Reverend Choi jong-soo, got through a
cordon of riot police and a barbed wire fence surrounding the Koon-ni
training range on an islet off the village of Maehyang-ri, 50 miles
southwest of Seoul.

Six were quickly arrested, another five hid on the range before a police
helicopter swooped down and picked them up and one other escaped, police
said.

Witnesses said two of the five protesters appeared on the range at around
4:23 p.m. and waved big Korean national flags.

In front of a nearby U.S. military camp, about 200 protesters, including
college students, also demonstrated, shouting: ``Yankee go home! Shut down
the firing range!''

U.S. aircraft resumed training exercises on Monday at the Koon-ni Range as
scores of protesters scuffled with riot police.

For the first time in a month, A-10 attack jets conducted bombing exercises
on Nongsom islet while F-16s strafed the beach.

The range had been closed since May 8, while U.S. and South Korean
authorities investigated claims by local residents that an emergency drop of
500-lb bombs injured several villagers and damaged about 170 homes.

The investigations concluded that the incident caused no injuries or damage
and there was no evidence of pilot error.

The range reopened briefly on June 2 but was closed again as a goodwill
gesture ahead of last week's historic summit between South and North Korean
leaders.

U.S. Air Force officials say Koon-ni is the only range in the country where
such training can be conducted.
The United States has about 37,000 troops spread across nearly 100 military
installations in South Korea in a military presence viewed as a deterrent
force to North Korean threats.

U.S.-led United Nations forces battled Chinese and Soviet-backed North Korea
to a stalemate in the 1950-53 Korea War. That conflict ended in an armed
truce that has left the two Koreas in a technical state of war.

RETORNAR A PAGINA ANTERIOR

RETURN TO PREVIOUS PAGE