Anti-U.S. Demonstrations Planned at U.S. Army Garrison Humphreys on 27 July 2023

2023-7-11, Tara O

Groups with the same objectives as North Korea plan to demonstrate at U.S. Army Garrison Humphreys, the U.S. military base in Pyeongtaek (Pyongtaek), South Korea on July 27, 2023, demanding a peace treaty between North Korea and the U.S. or the U.S. leave Korea.

Above: A press conference on 2023-5-4 announcing the anti-US demonstration plan to surround U.S. Army Garrison Humphreys with a human chain and a pink ribbon on 2023-7-27

The “Round Table Conference on Forming a Human Chain at Pyeongtaek on July 27” (7.27 평택인간띠잇기원탁회의), comprised of representatives from various far-left women’s groups, held a press conference on May 4, 2023 at the Press Center to announce a plan to form a human wall surrounding the entire U.S. military base in Pyeongtaek with a pink cloth of “peace” on July 27, 2023 at 4 p.m., according to the Tongil News site, a pro-North Korea entity.  Its theme is “July 27 Pyeongtaek; Let’s Go to Get Peace in Our Land!” and they plan to shout “Peace Treaty or OUT!”  The group plans to mobilize 10,000-23,000 people.

This July 27 will mark the 70^th anniversary of the signing of the armistice.  North Korea falsely claims it is a day of victory, and celebrates accordingly.

Action One Korea’s (AOK) permanent representative Jeong Yeon-jin (정연진) in South Korea plans to enlist the support of the organization Women Cross DMZ, which supports North Korea’s position and went to North Korea and crossed over the DMZ to South Korea in 2015 while calling for “peace.”  Established in 2013 in both Los Angeles and Seoul, the AOK has been lobbying the U.S. Congress to pass a peace treaty between the U.S. and North Korea, and its home page prominently displays a photo of Moon Jae-in and Kim Jong-un.

The human chain demonstration is planned to start at Pyeongtaek first, initiated by the radical leftist women’s groups, but they expect it to expand to include a broader collection of other groups with the same aim as North Korea.  The organizers plan to expand the demonstration to other cities with U.S. military bases or presence, including “Gunsan [Kunsan], Jinhae [Chinahe], Busan [Pusan], and Jeju [Cheju], and will continue demonstrating until peace on the Korean peninsula is independently cultivated,” the group stated.

Note that “peace” and “independence” are part of the Terminology Confusion Tactics playbook developed by North Korea’s regime and used by it and its supporters in South Korea.  By “peace,” they mean not defending South Korea and not resisting against North Korea, and by “independence,” they mean no U.S. military presence in Korea.  They want a “peace treaty” in order to pressure the U.S. forces to leave Korea.  Thus, the slogan “peace treaty or OUT” is tantamount to “OUT or OUT.”

The conference participants also stated “strong defense is dangerous,” which goes against the concept of maintaining a strong defense to deter North Korea from invading South Korea again.

The group also claimed that the National Endowment for Democracy (NED) in the U.S. gives money to Park Sang-hak to send leaflets to North Korea, but that is a falsehood–Park never received any money from the NED.

The participants also expressed dismay about information that is widely available already—that the commander of the UN Command, ROK-U.S. Combined Forces Command, and U.S. Forces Korea (USFK) is the same person.

They also had a poet read a long anti-U.S. poem, which expresses the U.S. military as an “occupation force,” and threatened the U.S.

This group as well as the other organizations that sent their representatives to the conference, are pursuing the same objectives as the massive underground espionage network under investigation for various subversive activities on the orders of Pyongyang’s Cultural Exchange Bureau, an anti-Republic of Korea agency under the North Korean-Korean Workers’ Party.   North Korea has ordered its extensive spy network in South Korea to organize and mobilize to “continue to wage various anti-U.S. struggles.”