S.Koreans in candlelit protest over U.S. military pact

Reuters News (Seoul, Korea) ^ | 14 December 2002 | Bill Tarrant

[AmericanInTokyo]

*(Crowd View, US Embassy Protection, Wide Angle Aerial View in front of Seoul City Hall an hour ago, General scenes)

By Bill Tarrant (UPDATE)

SEOUL (Reuters) - Tens of thousands of South Koreans railed against the U.S. military and mourned two girls killed by American soldiers in a road accident by holding a candle lit march that turned central Seoul into a sea of light on Saturday.

Many in the crowd of mostly young people chanted slogans demanding a withdrawal of the U.S. military presence aimed at deterring aggression from North Korea, even as tensions rose with Pyongyang vowing earlier in the week to resume a nuclear programme.

The protesters, holding votive candles and singing songs, demanded that two U.S. soldiers undergo a new trial for the June road accident. A U.S. military tribunal acquitted the pair of homicide charges after their armoured vehicle crushed two teenagers during a training exercise.

Local media estimated the crowd in the main avenue leading to the presidential Blue House at up to 100,000, with 10,500 riot police deployed to keep them from marching to the U.S. embassy.

The demonstration was peaceful, almost festive against the backdrop of buildings festooned with Christmas holiday decorations, with only a few minor scuffles reported.

"We announced this is the day of restoring our sovereignty," the Rev. Mun Jung-hyeon, a veteran protest leader, told Reuters Television. "We have been oppressed by U.S. troops for a long time, 58 years."

That is how long the United States has maintained a military presence in South Korea following the 1950-53 Korean War, which ended in an armed truce that has kept the two Korea's in a technical state of war ever since.

Saturday's demonstration was the biggest of almost 50 such protests since the accident and highlights the ambivalence many young South Koreans have about the 37,000 U.S. troops spread across nearly 100 installations in their country.

The troops are meant to deter North Korean aggression against the South. North Korea has some 10,000 artillery pieces and much of its 1.1 million strong army arrayed along the sealed border with the South less than an hour's drive from Seoul.

But the U.S. military presence is also highly visible in this densely populated nation of 48 million people and protests about training exercises disrupting civilian life have mounted in recent years.

The demonstrators want changes in the Status of Forces Agreement, governing the rights and conduct of U.S. forces in Korea, which currently requires U.S. soldiers charged with crimes while on duty to be tried in U.S. military tribunals.

The protests seek wider South Korean jurisdiction over U.S. servicemen.

NORTH KOREA NUCLEAR PROGRAMME

Saturday's rallies took place just ahead of Thursday's presidential election and at a time when North Korea's missile and nuclear capabilities have been thrust into the spotlight.

North Korea said on Thursday it was reactivating a nuclear power plant that is believed to be at the centre of a suspected, clandestine nuclear weapons programme.

That disclosure came after a North Korean cargo ship, containing 15 Scud missiles, was intercepted by Spain in the Arabian Sea on its way to Yemen. The ship, which was handed over to U.S. forces, was allowed to continue on its course.

Some protesters, their ranks swelled by university students on semester break, carried placards calling on the United States to sign a non-aggression pact with North Korea. Pyongyang is demanding such a pact in exchange for holding talks with Washington over its nuclear programme.

Others carried grisly photos of the schoolgirls' bodies sprawled on a roadside and demanded President George W. Bush "apologise directly to the Korean people" for the accident.

In a telephone conversation with South Korean President Kim Dae-jung on Friday to discuss the latest North Korean developments, Bush conveyed his "deep, personal sadness and regret" over the deaths.

The apology did not completely assuage the anger South Koreans have felt about the accident. "I don't believe it is a serious and sincere apology, for his words were not followed by action," said Rev. Mun.

[AmericanInTokyo]

I guess, "apology not accepted". Sounds like the Democrats back home.

This was no small affair in Seoul, South Korea, the capital of our ally, tonight (Asia Time).

[chance33_98]

Well, I guess we should just leave south Korea. If they ask us back after N. Korea heads in though the answer will be NO.

[twntaipan]

So...pull out the US troops--send them to the borders.

And remind the ingrates in Seoul that had it not been for US blood spilt on their soil they would be eating roots like their North Korean cousins.

[AmericaUnited]

Gee, I guess they need to see what it's like to have the North Korean Army rape and kill tens of thousands of their young girls.

[GreenCell]

This is total BS...I read today that our military leaders over there are turning over a soldier to the ROK's because of the SOFA agreement. These military leaders should be brought back to the U.S. and court martialed. I don't care what the SOFA says or what the soldier did...he/she comes back to America for punishment. I would never allow a soldier under me to serve time in a foreign jail. I'd take him/her out with force first. As far as the ROK's complaining about the Americans...that's fine...they can have that KIMCHI infested, dog eating, night-soil fertilizing country.

[Mike K]

"We announced this is the day of restoring our sovereignty," the Rev. Mun Jung-hyeon, a veteran protest leader, told Reuters Television. "We have been oppressed by U.S. troops for a long time, 58 years."

I want to see a picture of this guy. This sounds suspiciously like Jesse Jackson. He lost his franchise here and he can't resist the limelight.

[Vigilanteman]

The views of the demonstrators do not necessarily reflect theviews of the Koreans of my generation who are genuinely grateful they haven't become like their cousins in the north. Those with such memories are gracious, grateful and shake their heads in disbelief at those who have picked up their anti-American views largely from the same places our left has-- the university campuses.

[steveegg]

I'm almost tempted to say, "Let the North Koreans nuke Seoul before liquidating Kim Jong-Il".

[joesnuffy]

You mean they would be eating their cousins like their N Korean cousins

[joesnuffy]

The international communists have learned from their American cousins...infiltrate the institutions of "higher learning"....
China will happily ace S Korea out of the Asian community

[Skwidd]

Screw 'em. Let them defend themselves.

[wewillnotfail]

the article says up to 100,000. Why did you inflate the number by 50%?

[CROSSHIGHWAYMAN]

Koreans, whether north or south, always act like a beehive stirred-up.

IMO......South Korea is not worth the cost and America should remove all military presense from the penninsula.

If we were to announce our intention to vacate, some would cheer, but the majority of South Koreans would shudder at being left to the mercy of the voracious militant North.

Let Japan and China sort out the problem.

We have bigger fish to "fry" in the middle east!!

[AmericanInTokyo]

lol!

[AmericanInTokyo]

The Korean language press on the web (I read Korean) gave in an instance 150,000. It similiar to demonstration where police figures are generally lower than the organizer's numbers or press. Other articles had 100,000 before it had peaked. Accordingly, I gave the range based on the composite of the stories I read just now.

[csvset]

Aren't mass protests a way of life in Korea?

[Moose4]

"We have been oppressed by U.S. troops for a long time, 58 years."

The hell with them then. Pull every single damn US soldier, sailor, airman, and Marine (except Embassy guards) out of South Korea. Let them stand on their own DMZ and watch Kim il Wackjob's boys dig tunnels underneath it to infiltrate their country.

Does this imbecile not realize that if it wasn't for us, he wouldn't even exist? His parents would've probably starved or been raped, tortured, and killed before he was even born, courtesy of the worker's paradise of the DPRK.

These guys make the French look grateful!

}:-)4

[Man of the Right]

Our government hasn't visited our Korean policy for a generation. We can't remove our troops now, but why is the 8th Army, 7th Air Force and 2nd Infantry Division in Korea a half-century after the truce? South Korea has the ability to defend itself from North Korea if it wishes. I suspect the two soldiers behaved like swine. There is a good chance the South Koreans have a legitimate grievance against extra-territoriality. However, that raises the larger question: fielding the smallest armed forces since the 1930s, with global military commitments, during a time of war, why are we there?

[AmericanInTokyo]

Good observation in the gap between the thinking on the part of older Koreans (40s, 50s, 60s, 70s, 80s), and younger Koreans (teens, 20s, 30s) on this. The new generation has been raised on opulence and relative peace entirely, and the govt/media has not done a terribly proactive job of illuminating historic truths such as how both of our countries shed a lot of blood over there to keep it from going under the Korean Workers Party.

You can lecture the young people in the streets of Seoul (such as I did there a week ago), but I swear it DOES NOT RESONATE and it goes right past them. Pretty sad that this is the future. It is a shame a few US military guys just in from the 'hood or the trailer park, sent far away at 20, go out and ruin the goodwill for many others. The Korean press of course helps inflate things, too. They are licking their chops in Pyongyang over this, and KCNA devotes a lot of time to covering the demonstrations. Some of the student leaders and labour leaders are outright 'chuche' ideology socialist re-unifiers. They would be the first to be shot if the DPRK extended its reach down to Cheju island, for they would never be trusted for having sold out the Republic of Korea.

[mr.pink]

Yup....they love to protest, and love to rumble against the cops.

They are a tough people to figure out. Most are very anti-American by nature, seeing us as undisciplined, lazy and self-indulgent.