Biography
Kim Young-Jae is a Korean Jeju Naval Base resister. Blocking a truck on the road leading into the naval base construction site.
Since 2007, the South Korean government has been constructing a major naval base on Gangjeong village, Jeju Island — a UNESCO biosphere reserve and South Korea's southernmost island. The base, designed to host U.S. and South Korean Aegis destroyers and a port-of-call for U.S. nuclear-powered aircraft carriers, is widely understood as a forward-deployment site for the U.S. military's posture against China. Local Gangjeong residents and Korean peace activists have maintained continuous nonviolent resistance at the construction gates since 2010; hundreds have been arrested and dozens have served Korean prison sentences for trespass, obstruction, and civil disobedience.
The September 2013 Gangjeong newsletter reports actual release September 16, 2013 after 158 days in prison. This is a reported completed 2013 stay, distinct from the separately recorded 2014 episode. An exact admission date is not calculated backward from the duration. Gangjeong Village Story, September 2013, original PDF page 2. Source: https://savejejunow.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/Gangjeong-Village-Story_Sept-2013.pdf#page=2
Calculated incarceration date for the stay ending September 16, 2013: April 12, 2013. Using inclusive calendar-day counting for the reported 158-day stay, subtracting 157 days gives this date, consistent with the recorded arrest and detention chronology. The inclusive counting method is inferred from that chronology. This is a calculated date, not a separately documented admission date.
Calculated incarceration date
Calculated incarceration date for the stay ending September 16, 2013: April 12, 2013. Using inclusive calendar-day counting for the reported 158-day stay, subtracting 157 days gives this date, consistent with the recorded arrest and detention chronology. The inclusive counting method is inferred from that chronology. This is a calculated date, not a separately documented admission date.
Missing separate detention episode review October 13, 2026: The original village report identifies April12,2013 arrest and April14 detention/warrant. Original September2013 Gangjeong Village Story page2, rendered and visually inspected, explicitly establishes actual September16 release after158 days while prosecution continued. This previously missing episode is added separately from the existing April-June2014 imprisonment. The exact initial physical admission and sentencing day remain blank rather than being calculated or equated with an arrest warrant. The existing photograph and2014 dates remain unchanged.
In a letter written from Jeju Prison on April 25, 2013, Kim Young-Jae described being confined in a small single room and reflected on his opposition to the naval-base construction and its place in Korea’s democracy, peace and unification movements. His own account establishes that he was already imprisoned in 2013, while the exact day he first entered the prison remains unconfirmed. He expected a trial the following day concerning a caisson-dock action at Hwasoon the previous September 6; that expectation is not a report that the trial occurred or established its outcome. Contemporary prison letter.
