Accusing the military authorities of trying to hold a ground-breaking ceremony for a naval base in Sogwipho City on Jeju Island, the statement said: When residents there protested against this action, at the dawn of Jan. 18 the military authorities hurled army and police forces into an operation to storm into the venue of protest and brutally suppress its participants.

The projected construction of the Jeju naval base is aimed at depriving the residents of their cradle, degrading the natural environment and escalating the military tension on the Korean Peninsula.

The military authorities are driving residents out of their land for the construction of the military base on Jeju Island just as they deprived the residents in Phyongthaek of their land under the pretext of implementing "a state policy", the statement deplored, demanding an immediate halt to the project.

It declared that the organization would support the residents who turned out in the actions to defend their cradle and struggle in solidarity with them.