Legislator Inspects Sejong Base on South Pole

Rep. Lee Byung-suk recommends expansion of Sejong Science Base to upgrade Korea’s research on earth warming in Antarctic region

By Rep. Lee Byung-suk
Chairman of the Land, Transport, and Maritime Affairs Committee
The National Assembly

"At 5:00 a.m. on Jan. 16, I was awakened by a phone call in Punta Arenas, Chile, the last gateway to Sejong Science Base, South Pole,” said Rep. Lee Byung-seok, chairman of the National Assembly Land, Transport and Maritime Affairs Committee, in his unusual travelogue.
The legislator said he and his entourage were to board the C-130 cargo plane provided by the Uruguayan Air Force at 6:30 that morning to fly to the science base.
“We had breakfast at 5:30 a.m. and as we looked outside through the window of the dining room of our hotel, we saw the horizon far away. All of the sudden, we saw a reddish color appearing in the middle of the horizon and expanding ― the sun began to rise.
The weather here in the southern hemisphere is summer, but felt like late autumn in Korea with strong winds blowing. The sun went down at around 10 p.m. and rose at around 5 a.m. We went outside, as we felt that we could not afford to miss the sunrise in a town near the South Pole.
We felt very pleasant breathing the cold, fresh air as we came out of the hotel. Our bosoms heaved with excitement at seeing the red sun rising over the horizon far away ― majestic and awesome in every sense of the word.
After we finished breakfast, we sat in a waiting room at the airport waiting for the plane to arrive, but there were no signs of the plane and people from the Antarctic Research Institute came to us with worried looks. “A heavy fog around the Sejong Science Base will prevent the plane from flying there today, most likely,” they said.
The announcement was like thunder to us and we thought that the weather had become a big bottleneck in our plan to visit the science base on Antarctica. As we looked outside the window of the waiting room, we saw the group of research staff from the Polar Research Institute return to the hotel from the airport. We also gave up our plan to fly to the base and joined them on the bus. The Polar Institute people guided us to a penguin zoo in Punta Arenas and we saw a lot of Magellan penguins living in underground pens.
The bus stopped after driving us along a dusty, unpaved road for about 20 minutes. We crossed over a wooden bridge and saw penguins in groups walking around. We heard that some 10,000 penguins lived there. They produce two eggs in 50-cm deep holes and feed the baby penguins for 80 days with fish they catch, we were told.
The protective ground is used for penguins from September to April, with fences around the area to prevent people from approaching. We could see very detailed consideration in the plans to protect the animal.
As we walked out of the penguin zoo, a staff member from the Polar Research Institute told me that the plane was ready to fly again and we headed to the airport, again excited about the fact that we would visit the science base after all.
We had chocolate bars for lunch at the airport. The C-130 was waiting for us on the runway as we arrived. We boarded the plane with the Uruguayans, loaded with cargo headed to the Uruguayan base in Antarctica. Our group of 30 mingled with the Uruguayans and we felt sorry we had to use a foreign plane to transport people and cargo to our base in the Pole.
The plane began two and half hours of flight and we saw a wonderful sight outside the window of the plane around King George Island where our base is located ― white snow on the ground and empty lots covered by thick fog ― a great scene indeed.
The plane landed at Frei Airport, named after a Chilean president and operated by the Chilean Navy. As we stepped out of the plane, gusty winds greeted us. Chile allowed its citizens to move into the area near the air base to claim that the land belongs to Chile. There were medical clinics, a post office, schools and other facilities for the residents.
We were greeted by Sejong Base Chief Kang Seong-ho and other members. We had hot espresso and felt our bodies melting as the hot coffee filled us. In cars, we moved to a Chinese base where we could see that there were two new welfare structures built along with a two-story research facility to modernize their base.
As we walked toward the beach, we saw a rubber Zodiac boat waiting for us. We were given thick lifesavers to wear and we had to walk like penguins because they were so thick and heavy.
We boarded the Zodiac and took off with a roar for a 40-minute boat ride to Sejong Base with gusty winds hitting our faces, making us feel very cold.
The boat arrived at a small wharf and there was Sejong Base right in front of us as we got off the boat. A large Taeguk, the Korean national flag, flapping in the wind greeted us as we walked toward the base and made us feel that the base is Korean territory.
Staff members on the base welcomed us with handshakes. We were moved meeting these people who work on this base in the severe cold, shoulder-to-shoulder with their counterparts from advanced countries, and felt very proud of them.
We also were very surprised to eat Korean-style food, such as the kimchi dish prepared especially by the chef at the base, which was truly tasty. How could we have such a gourmet Korean dish at such a faraway place as the South Pole? The Sejong Science Base went through a huge renovation since its launch in 1988. They built the sleeping quarters, a dining room and a resting quarter as well as a storage facility for heavy equipment during the renovation.
We felt very comfortable in the resting quarters. The base is able to save 100,000 kw of electricity per year with the installation of combined cycle heat and power generation facilities at the base. The renovation also included high atmosphere measurement and glacier measurement facilities. Also eye-catching was the oil leak prevention facility to cope with problems from leaking oil. One unfortunate thing about the facilities on the base was the lack of proper exercise equipment for the 18-man staff ― the staff number could swell to over 100 when researchers from Korea join them during the summer.
We found that the old equipment storage facility built when the base was built has been converted to a physical exercise facility. At the Chinese base were a number of athletic facilities including a badminton court and basketball court, among others. We were envious of the fact that the Chinese base has a two-story marine biological test lab, which was newly refurbished.
The next day, we hurriedly left the base at 8:00 in the morning after hearing that the weather conditions would be poor, although we felt that we could have stayed on the base longer and had a more extensive look around the environment of the base. We got into the Zodiac again and the sail was even rougher on the way back from the base. We encountered an iceberg some 30 meters thick on the way back and could see the black belt-like rings denoting the layers of the glacier that were made perhaps tens of thousands of years ago. We were worried that as the warming of the earth progresses, more icebergs would break off from the main glaciers and melt into the sea.
We returned to Punta Arenas on a light plane from the Frei base after an over four-hour flight and arrived at the hotel at 3 p.m. the same day. Our two-day trip to the South Pole felt like a dream.
The Sejong Base is located on an island near the Antarctic mainland, and therefore has limits to its research activities. In order to correct the situation, we have to consider building a new research base on the Antarctic mainland.
The Antarctic Research Institute said Cape Burks along the southwest of the pole is considered one of the best candidate locations, as the area has more glaciers than the southeast side and no winter bases are located there yet as its weather is rough.
The area, furthermore, needs research labs as the glaciers in the area are melting faster than anywhere else with its environment changing faster than on the southeast side. It is meaningful that Korea is in a position to set up the first lab in the area.
Our country has managed to develop its economy rapidly and become one of the 10 largest economies in the world through a half-century of laborious efforts.
With such a track record as a foundation, we can lead the research on the prevention of global warming by setting up the first research lab on the southeast side as a winter base open for all countries and undertake research on global warming.
The Araon, the first icebreaker developed and built in Korea, is now navigating toward the South Pole after departing from Incheon on Dec. 18. We will write a new history on Antarctic research and we should also find a means to transport people and cargoes on our own ships, rather than depending on others at this juncture . nw

A group of researchers and Rep. Lee Byung-suk, 4 R, pose for photo at Sejong Science Base on the South Pole.

Rep. Lee Byung-suk, chairman of the Land, Transport and Maritime Affairs Committee, is on Sejong Science Base, the South Pole. Rep. Lee and his entourage aboard the Zodiac, a small boat, which took them to Sejong Science Base located on King George Island just off the Antarctic mainland from Punta Arenas, Chile.