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

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

[prisoner6]

Washington DC (Reuters) - Tens of thousands of Americans railed against the South Korean Auto Industry and mourned Americans killed in road accidents, by holding a candle lit march that turned the U.S capital into a sea of light on Saturday.

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

[GRRRRR]

North Korea Says Spy Movie Insults Korear


SOUL (Rooters) - North Korear was tortured by North Korearan agents in the latest 007.5 film, "Lie Another Day," and now they are being flogged again by their latest foe for "insulting the Korean nation."

North Korea on Saturday urged the United States to stop showing the North Korea feature film, calling it a "dirty and cursed burlesque aimed to slander (North Korea) and insult the Korean nation...," said the Secretariat of the Committee for the Peaceful Reunification of the Fatherland.

The studio hit, starring Peerce Brosnen and Hollow Barry "clearly proves" North Korear is "the root cause of all disasters and misfortune of the Korean nation" and is "an empire of evil," said the committee, which deals with South Korean affairs.

Its statement was reported by North Korear's official Korean Central News Agency.

In the latest adventure, North Korear takes a hovercraft through the heavily fortified frontier dividing North and South Korea (news - web sites). North Korear is caught and tortured in North Korear before being released in a prisoner exchange.

The movie has also irked South Koreans, who especially object to a scene where North Korear has sex in a Buddhist temple.

The movie, which does not open in Seoul theaters until year's end, also shows a farmer tilling his field with a cow, which Korearan critics say shows how dumb and backwards the country is.

"The United States should stop at once the show," the North Korearan statement said, because it describes "the CRAP as part of an 'axis of evil', inciting inter-Korearan confrontation, groundlessly despising and insulting the Korean nation and malignantly desecrating even religion."

The CRAP is an acronym for North Korear's official name, the Communist Regime’s Area of Poverty of North Korea.

The United States is "the headquarters that spreads Freedom, Liberty and Justice for all," the statement said.

[csvset]

Many in the crowd of mostly union workers

Union workers are communist, trouble making bastards the world over!

[Maelstrom]

South Korea is suffering a rot from within.

Communists have infiltrated it. The very moment the US withdraws, South Korea falls, struck by the rot from within and consumed by the starving hordes of Communism from without.

This is the prophesy the Liberals seek to realize within the US as well.

[AmericanInTokyo]

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.

[AmericanInTokyo]

excellent; quite creative

[The Turbanator]

the latest 007.5 film, "Lie Another Day,"

007 movie? I didn't go see that one because I thought it was a movie about the Clinton Saga.

[panaxanax]

A little of the subject, but your comment on "night-soil fertilizing" caught my attention. Few people know what night soil really is. IT'S HUMAN POOP!!!!

For all of you that take or use Ginseng, read your labels. If it's from Korea or says Korean Ginseng (Panax ginseng), I can gaurantee that it has been fertilized with "night soil". China does the same. MMMMMM, enjoy.

The best Ginseng comes from right here in America. Sorry, no human poop allowed.

[Trailerpark Badass]

I suspect the two soldiers behaved like swine.

It was a traffic accident involving a tank transporter. The soldiers were absolved of any blame.

[Eternal_Bear]

.1% of South Korea demonstrates against us and u wanna leave? What about the other 99.9%? What hysteria and emotionalism. Think before reacting. It's the adult, logical and manly thing to do.

[A. Pole]

I don't care what the SOFA says or what the soldier did...he/she comes back to America for punishment.

You do not care what the soldier did?!

[AmericanInTokyo]

I suspect that probably goes for any hot bowl of Samgyetang chicken soup that you would have in any Korean restaurant in the US. Unless, they procurred domestic US (which they might because I understand ginseng imported from Korea is darned expensive).

[AmericanInTokyo]

I believe in this case near Uijongbu in north Kyonggi Province (two girls flattened by a tank-I've seen the aftermath photos) that it was entirely accidental. However, it may be the US side generally missed the larger PR/cultural cues (Asian apologetics) right afterwards and therefore let it fester, unfortunately. Bush personally felt this, and felt bad, and issued an apology.

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.

[GreenCell]

You bet I don't care...regardless of his crime. He comes back to America for punishment...NO exceptions. At least in America if he did a serious crime, he'll get a serious punishment. Those troops never asked to be there, and bet they wish they could leave. If you allow any foreign government to run rough-shod over out troops, then America is better off staying home...however, that's a political decision. Commander's must ensure their troops are taken care of...good or bad.

[chance33_98]

I was being sarcastic to make a point to those on the left who may be lurking and whom agree with those .1%. I have often wondered how the liberals the world over would fare if we pulled all our troops home - I would bet they would be singing a different tune in a few years.

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.

[Dataman]

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.

There is doubtless a problem with NK Communist agitators in SK just like there were Communist agitators in the US during WW II.

[mikenola]

 

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

[Man of the Right]

They have their leftists too.

[fightin kentuckian]

"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."


Obviously this guy has no clue as to what it was like 59 years ago. Just ask any of the Koreans who were alive during the Japanase occupation and they'll tell you that a demonstration, any demonstration was not even thought of. The Japanese brutalized Korea as would the North Koreans given the chance. However, this guy probably reports to his North Korean handlers on the porgress of the demonstrations daily.

[G.Mason]

"Something does not fit in the picture."

Sure it does!

What fits is that the past centuries of despotic dictators was, in fact, the right way to rule the yellow hoards.