Posted on 12/14/2002 4:59:56 AM PST by 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.
Many in the crowd of mostly union workers chanted slogans demanding a withdrawal of the Korean Auto Industry presence aimed at selling cheap and possibly unsafe cars, even as tensions rose with Seoul vowing earlier in the week to resume an increased auto export programme to the US.
The protesters, holding votive candles and singing songs, demanded that two Korean companies, Hyundai and Kia, undergo a trial for the rash of road accidents.
prisoner6
Union workers are communist, trouble making bastards the world over!
More pics. This one from last month in Tongduchon not far from the scene of the accident. These have been going on for almost five and a half months. I wonder if it says something that on the US side, there has been hardly any coverage of these getting larger and larger (literally little 'mindshare' back in the US that something unfortunate (and quite accidental) even happened over there in June) and then suddenly the US press reports pretty big anti-US demonstrations that appear to have come from out of nowhere, and these surprise and anger many Americans quite naturally.
I don't know if many are familiar with the details of the case, but a lot of snap judgements are now made. I myself think it is a combination of quite a number of factors: radical Korean students and professors, overracting S. Korean press, emotional protest as a fundamental way of life and cultural aspect of Korea, growing Korean 21st nationalism and patriotism, some legitimate points of view on the S. Korean side towards our military's off duty behavior in their sovereign country, and finally, the generally brain-dead status of S. Korean students who have little to no concept of previous American sacrifices and therefore there is not a level of appreciation toward American goodwill in the past (thanks again to the liberal Korean media and universities)...Not too different from the liberal agenda, I say, that what WE have to suffer in the US. On a personal level, I haven't felt threatened or insulted in Korea, as late as just last week, and the attitude toward Americans in general isnt particuarly a problem (of course, I speak Korean and could extract myself from most any incident, I am sure).
It is always an eery, surrealistic time gap for me to spend a few hours on the USArmy Yongsan post in Seoul, then take a taxi or subway to the ultra modern S. Korean COEX underground shopping area (the largest complex of movie theaters in the world, for example), then enter the 21st century with Korean students busy at ADSL-based public PC units sending e mail in the shopping mall, and it seems like the US is still living in the 1950s with their smoky NCO club, order around the Asian water boy attitude over in Yongsan. A real odd gap. This is not the Korea of your uncle's day. Something does not fit in the picture.
See how it can start to get out of hand with these gaps in information, friction, miscommunication, and emotion on both sides? Like I say, Pyongyang is loving every stinking minute of this.
007 movie? I didn't go see that one because I thought it was a movie about the Clinton Saga.
It was a traffic accident involving a tank transporter. The soldiers were absolved of any blame.
You do not care what the soldier did?!
In other cases in the ORK, there have been reckless incidents by some US military; and of course they have been found guilty as well in the past.
It would be much like me saying to the leftists here, well I guess we should get rid of the defense budget and de-arm the military. I don't really think we should do it, but hopefully it will give them pause to reflect on the outcome of their desired actions.
There is doubtless a problem with NK Communist agitators in SK just like there were Communist agitators in the US during WW II.
U.S. MILITARY KOREAN WAR STATISTICS
BATTLE DEAD* 33,686 (*Includes 4,735 findings of presumptive death under the Missing Persons Act)
Killed in Action
23,637
Died of Wounds
2,484
Died While Missing (MIA)
4,759
Died While Captured (POW)
2,806
Total:
33,686
NON-BATTLE DEATHS 2,830
TOTAL DEATHS IN THEATER: 36,516
DIED ELSEWHERE (Worldwide during Korean War) 17,730
WOUNDED (Number of personnel) 92,134
WOUNDED (Number of incidences*) 103,284 (*Includes individual personnel wounded multiple times)
UNACCOUNTED FOR (Bodies not identified/bodies not recovered) 8,176
Prisoner of War
2,045
Killed in Action
1,794
Missing in Action
4,245
Non-battle
92
Total:
8,176
PRISONERS OF WAR 7,245
POWs Returned to U.S. Control
4,418
POWs Who Died While Captured
2,806
POWs Who Refused Repatriation
21
Total:
7,245
NUMBER WHO SERVED WORLDWIDE 5,720,000
NUMBER WHO SERVED IN KOREAN THEATER 1,789,000
SERVICE STATISTICS
Total
ARMY
USAF
USMC
USN
Killed in Action
23, 637
19,754
198
3,321
364
Died of Wounds
2,484
1,904
16
536
28
Died While Missing (MIA)
4,759
3,317
960
385
97
Died While POW/Interned
2,806
2,753
24
26
3
TOTAL BATTLE DEAD
33,686
27,728
1,198
4,268
492
Prisoners of War
7,245
5,356
926
677
286
Sure it does!
What fits is that the past centuries of despotic dictators was, in fact, the right way to rule the yellow hoards.
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