South Korea violently evicted villagers to expand a U.S. base in 2006-2007.

Evidence

In 2006, in South Korea, the U.S. military wanted to expand Camp Humphreys, which already occupied two square miles, as part of the consolidation of U.S forces south of Seoul. At the behest of the military, the South Korean government used eminent domain to seize 2,851 acres of farmers’ land from Daechuri village and other areas near the city of Pyongtaek. When the farmers resisted, the government sent police and soldiers to enforce the evictions. Riot police went into Daechuri with bulldozers and backhoes, beating protesters, destroying a local school, and tearing up farmers’ rice fields and irrigation systems. When many still refused to leave, the government surrounded the village with police, soldiers, and barbed wire. In April 2007, the last villagers finally were forced to go. “I can’t stop shedding tears,” one older resident said. “My heart is totally broken.” — David Vine, Base Nation_ How U.S. Military Bases…, 215

Categorization

• SEED: The farmland-torn-up-for-a-base detail could anchor an essay or article on how the U.S.’s ‘footprint’ spreads through allied governments’ coercion rather than the U.S.’s own hands.