8 student activists detained after trespassing on US air base in Pyeongtaek

Military choppers operate over Camp Humphreys, a sprawling U.S. military base in Pyeongtaek, Gyeonggi Province, Aug. 22, 2022. Newsis

PYEONGTAEK — Eight liberal student activists were apprehended Tuesday after infiltrating a U.S. military air base in Pyeongtaek, about 60 kilometers south of Seoul, police said.

The students, all members of the Korean Progressive University Student Union (KPUSU), breached the main gate of the K-55 Osan Air base at 10:15 a.m. Six of them rushed into the compound while chanting anti-U.S. slogans, including "Let us destroy the U.S. 7th Air Force," while the other two were stopped at the entrance, according to police.

The U.S. Forces Korea (USFK) detained the activists on-site before handing them over to Korean police.

The exact motive behind the intrusion was not immediately known, but the KPUSU later accused the USFK of hampering Korea's semiconductor cluster project in the southwestern city of Gwangju in a social media post urging authorities to release its members.

Seoul earlier selected a military airport in Gwangju as the site for the envisioned chip manufacturing cluster. The U.S. military has expressed concerns that the relocation of the airport may undermine its "important" military interest at the facility.

The student activist group also took issue with the recent leakage of white phosphorus at the U.S. Osan Air Base in Pyeongtaek.