I feel very bad and regretful (about the confrontation with policemen),' said the granny. '(South Korean) soldiers and policemen are like my sons. Do said she wondered at the time if they were policemen for South Koreans or for U.S. As riot police violently suppressed villagers. She explained a psychological and physical ordeal, which she and other grannies had undergone over the past year.

Before her marriage, she had lived in a village near Soseong-ri. The whole village was like a mourner's house,' said Do Keum-yeon, an 81-year-old villager who has lived in Soseong-ri since she got married six decades ago. 'I couldn't have wept more tears (when the delivery occurred). Residents called it a military operation-like delivery. On April 26 this year, less than two weeks before the presidential election, two THAAD mobile launchers and other elements were delivered in the middle of the night to the golf course. Business as usual, grannies stood sentry inside or outside the Soseong-ri village hall to block any THAAD element from being transported to the golf course.Īlong the kilometers-long road to enter the village, placards were lined up with slogans that read 'President Moon Jae-in must officially declare a THAAD retreat,' 'Remove THAAD, Oppose THAAD' and 'Peace is the best weapon.' Thursday's temperature reached almost 40 degrees Celsius. Since then, residents have never missed one day of a candlelit rally, rain or shine and in a sweltering heat or a biting cold.Ībout two months after the designation, the site was altered into a golf course in Soseong-ri, a tiny and peaceful village in the northernmost part of Seongju where no more than 170 villagers, mostly in their 70s and 80s, make a living with farming. On July 13, 2016, Seongju was designated as a site for the U.S.

Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) missile interception system. SEONGJU, South Korea, July 13 (Xinhua) - One year has passed since people in Seongju, a county in South Korea's southeast region, launched their protest rally against the deployment of the U.S.

Ordeal elements pro