Mr
Mun pointed out to me that the snow-covered caps of Jeju's Mt Hallasan,
an extinct volcano, are only visible for one month a year, so we are
very lucky that we can see it today. It is a gloriously clear, sunny
day, with the blue water blissfully calm around us - a relief to all of
us who struggled with the heaving waves yesterday. The crew is
scrubbing the decks and washing the "monkey island," above the bridge,
in the sunshine. I sat down with Mr Mun to find out some more about his
fascinating past.

Mr Mun told me that the key aspects of Korean culture revolve around
"well being". But it saddens him to see that for some Koreans "well
being" is associated with higher buildings, more express highways, and
lots of factories. "I think well being is about having a non-stressful,
ordinary life," he says. "Fresh air, and many species living together."
This, he says, is what Korean culture was originally based around.
"Originally we thought that mankind and nature were equal, that our
bodies and the earth are one, that is the true Korean mindset." But
somehow this got lost in Korea's history of invasion and colonisation,
and the corruption of post-WW2 military government. Mr Mun believes in
progress, but not to the detriment of a sense of harmony.

Because in the 60s and 70s the Korean people rebelled against the
governments' authority, Mr Mun says he believes the government needed a
"symbol" to control and inspire ordinary citizens. That symbol was
'economic development'. According to my trusty Lonely Planet guide to
Korea, even now the country's economic system "continues to be far more
developed and sophisticated than its political system." Mr Mun also says
that Korea's economic development is like a reflection of US culture.

Korea is still based on a class system. Mr Mun says that he believes
that his father's generation was an unbalanced society. "Because of
such conditions in my family, there was always a fight. I thought, I
cannot solve my personal problems, so what can I do for my country?" Mr
Mun was a student of dentistry in the 70s, but he says that because the
citizens were oppressed by the military, he also was secretly studying
other political systems and revolutions. "I only knew myself," he says,
"I wanted to study and have a new eye for society." He also read a lot
about Che Guevara. "Such a normal person!" he says.

In South Korea, there are still 45,000 US troops, and many regional
differences in law. Mr Mun is from Ulsan, one of the most
industrialised areas of South Korea. Ulsan is where the IWC will be
held in June this year, and is generally a pro-whaling area. It is an
area heavily involved in ship-building, oil refining, automobile
manufacturing (Hyundai's biggest Korean factory is there), fertilizer
production, and chemical production. Some of these chemicals are highly
toxic and in fact in the 1980s Mr Mun says many residents who were
employed in agricultural or fishery jobs were asked to relocate, by the
government, for a very small payment. This was because symptoms similar
to mercury and cadmium poisoning were appearing in local citizens, sadly
mainly in primary school children. Other chemicals produced in the area
are ingredients in teargas and insecticides.

"The 1980s were very different to now," says Mr Mun. "Korea was still a
military state, the people had no power." At this time the large
international chemical company, DuPont, tried to set up a factory in
Ulsan, which would have produced dangerous air-borne pollution. But
they hadn't reckoned on Mr Mun and his fellow dentists. In 1991, Mr Mun
and a like-minded Protestant priest banded together to stop DuPont's
toxic factory, and founded the Ulsan chapter of the People's Solidarity
Against Pollution. "We did this via demonstrations and public
statements," says Mr Mun. "All Ulsan dentists signed this petition!"
The company then sent all Ulsan dentists their magazine, trying to claim
that their products were safe.
DuPont's representative even visited the People's Solidarity Against
Pollution and tried to convince them that the company was
always environmentally friendly. Mr Mun's response? "You are a liar.
What of the evidence in India and Latin America?"

Mr Mun and his dentists were successful in stopping DuPont's factory.
Over the years, his anti-pollution organisation grew and united with
other regional groups to form KFEM, Korea's biggest environmental group,
and he says now that he thinks anti-pollution and anti-whaling are part
of the same thing - a belief in harmony with nature.

In the late 90s, Mr Mun was "psychologically tired". He left his dental
clinic in the hands of another dentist and went to China to study
Chinese and Asian books. There he studied the plight of minority groups
around the borders of China. When he returned to Korea, his father had
died after a long struggle with cancer. His family, for the last 300
years, had owned 100 hectares of beautiful natural forest. After the
death of his father, Mr Mun and his wife decided to make this forest an
ecological reserve. Professors have come to visit it and been amazed at
the biodiversity it contains. The local government is unwilling to help
Mr Mun in this, so volunteers are working as Park Rangers and tour guides.

"The whole country is thinking 'development', but this forest is my
statement," says Mr Mun. "I will never give up." In Ulsan, Mr Mun is
"somewhat famous". "Environmentalists in Korea know who I am and what I
think," he says. "This voyage on the Rainbow Warrior is my dessert for
these discussions."