by Chicago Indymedia

"The wind from above assumes its old forms of arrogance and haughtiness. The police and the Federal Army close ranks around money and corruption. The wind from below once again travels the ravines and valleys; it is beginning to blow strongly. There will be a storm..." -Subcomandante Marcos of the EZLN

On August 3rd, the Korea Times reported that the National Police Agency 
will be mobilizing more than 400,000 police around the G-20 Summit in 
Seoul, November 11th & 12th, 2010. Multinational CEO's and leaders 
of the worlds twenty richest nations will meet during the G-20 on three 
islands, which have a price-tag of around 83 million(USD) to 
build...That's right, build. According to the Seoul Metropolitan 
Government, a total of three manmade “floating islands” are being built 
on the Han River between the Banpo and Dongjak bridges, and will be 
secured by anchors. 

Duriban is a restaurant that sold bossam and kalguksu in Seoul, Mapo-Gu, DongGyo-Dong district. On December 24, 2009, forced eviction was carried out in the surrounding area, but the Duriban restaurant has continued a sit-in struggle for more than 220 days now. The Regional Development Plan (지구단위계획) has carried out “development” by forcefully evicting tenants without providing any compensation for the losses. Duriban has continued the sit-in struggle with the hope of sustaining the restaurant without being run over by the redevelopment plan.

* The Duriban building (aka "Little Yongsan") is an occupied house in Seoul's Hongdae district(**).

A part of the building used to be a Korean food restaurant run by a couple, but then the gov't announced the notorious "redevelopment plan" and the "construction mafia" (supported by the municipality/district office) bought the designated area and the land price went up by 10 folds and the poor tenants like the restaurant woman and her husband had to leave the building with nothing because the new owner of the land sent gansters and thugs to kick out them, like tens of thousands other poor people in Seoul.

After sevral days - it was an early morning of Dec 26, 2009 - the couple decided to occupy the whole building and started a sit-in struggle.

We join those concerned over the regression of democracy in South Korea that has now taken the form of an attack on Mediact, South Korea’s first public media center that has since its founding represented South Korea internationally as a leader in communication rights and democracy, media literacy, intellectual property rights, and public interest media. 

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