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

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

[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.