South Korea Scraps Whalemeat Factory

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A paragliding pilot flies over Greenpeace and KFEM activists protesting against the proposed construction of a whale meat processing factory in Ulsan May 31, 2005.

We uncovered plans by the Ulsan City Council to build a whalemeat processing plant in Jangsaengpo, Ulsan, intending to start construction late this year. We immediately set up a protest camp, or "Whale Embassy," at the proposed site, working together with activists from the Korean Federation for Environment Movement (KFEM).

Korean officials quickly rolled out the unwelcome wagon for our activists, serving us with an eviction notice.  But we stood our ground and after some intense showdowns, the eviction notice was eventually rescinded.

According to reports in the South Korean paper, The Hankyoreh, the council has decided to scrap the plans largely because of our website!  More than 14,000 of you wrote to the mayor of Ulsan through our action center, appealing to him personally to cancel the whalemeat factory plans.  According to the newspaper article:

"Greenpeace called the facility a whale meat factory at its website, which caused the international community to view Korea as a pro-whaling nation. The city decided that going ahead with the plan would not be in the national interest. It also had trouble raising the fund. In the end, it decided to scrap the plan."

However, we are still awaiting written confirmation from the council that the factory will not be built.  According to the same newspaper report, a city official said, "It is unprecedented that the city produces an official document confirming its decision for an NGO [Non-Governmental Organization]. People may view such document as a sign that the city has changed its policy in the face of outside pressure. So putting the decision in writing is unthinkable." 

We may be waiting a long time...

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