|
Comment on this article |
Email this Article
|
|
Hidden with code "Policy Violation" |
|
Announcement :: Media |
|
The Anti-US Sentiment in Korea - Then and Now |
Current rating: 0 |
by Kim Che AKA DAN "When There's So Many Other Places to Spam, Why Do I Waste Time Where I'm Banned?"Disinfo
(No verified email address) |
15 Jun 2004
|
From the 1980 Kwangju Uprising to the Two-Slain-Girls Protest of Today
http://www.kimsoft.com/2002/anti-US.htm |
On December 7th, a crowd of 50,000 young candle-holding students and citizens marched against the United States in front of the US Embassy in Seoul. These youthful protesters of today remind those Koreans in the 30-40s of the anti-US protest ten years ago. A 40-ish citizen said: "About 15 years I was in college and could not have imagined that so many people could get together and come so close to the US Embassy."
"America backs dictatorships but not democracy" - after the Kwangju Uprising, the US image changed
The anti-US movement in Korea began in earnest after the Kwangju Uprising in 1980. An opinion poll taken by Chosun Ilbo in 1981 showed that 92% of the college and high school students polled said that America was a good neighbor of Korea. This percentage dropped to 86.4% in 1982 and to 78.2% in 1983. And today, only a small percentage of young Koreans think that the United States is a good neighbor of Korea.
Photo: South Korean special forces backed by tanks occupied Kwangju and killed its citizens indiscriminately while the US navy carriers stood nearby in May 1980.
.In May 1980, the citizens of Kwangju took over their city from the harsh rule of military dictators. Special forces moved in and the citizens, bottled in their last bastion, the City Hall, heard the 'good' news that two US carriers had arrived at Pusan. They mistakenly believed that the Americans came to stop the carnage, to defend the innocent against the killers. They thought the Americans came to defend democracy. But no Americans came to help. The Kwangju citizens were naive to believe that the United States was the defender of democracy.
It was learned later that the US military did indeed come, but to help suppress the pro-democracy uprising in Kwnagju. They came to help the dictators and their butchers not the freedom fighters. After learning of this treachery, the freedom fighters became ardent anti-US activists. On December 9, 1980, a group of the activists punched a hole through the roof of the US Cultural Center in Kwangju, poured down gasoline and set it on fire. This fire was reported by the press as an accidental fire caused by faulty electric wiring. The fact that it was an anti-US act was hushed up.
The anti-US movement in Kwangju spread to other cities: the US Cultural Center in Pusan was set on fire; the US Cultural Center in Seoul was invaded and occupied by anti-US activists. This was followed by attacks on US installations in major cities. The anti-US movement began when the pro-democracy activists realized that the United States was behind Korea's military dictators. Thus, pro-democracy activists became anti-US activists. Fighting dictators required fighting the United States that backed the dictators.
On March 18, 1982, the US Cultural Center in Pusan went up in smoke after a loud explosion. Handbills asking the US to get out of Korea and stop dominating Korea as a slave nation were scattered in the neighborhood. The Korean press blamed North Korean agents for the fire and put up a reward money of 20 million won on the head of the 'enemy agents.' Moon Bu Sik, a divinity student and 16 of his associates were arrested and Moon was executed.
In the same year, anti-US students ht the streets protesting Pres. Reagan's visit to Seoul. Hwang Jung Ha, a Seoul University student, was killed by the police. Reagan supported Gen. Jun Doo Hwan's military dictatorship and those opposed to Jun were irate that Reagan was coming to Korea to pat Jun on the shoulder for a job well-done.
At about this time, the Korean markets were flung wide open for American agricultural products. The Korean farmers opposed the American products flooding Korea. In April 1985, a group of 100 farmers broke into the American Embassy and demanded payments for lost farm revenues. Earlier in November 1984, a group of students took over the US Chamber of Commerce building in Seoul. They demanded removal of American capitals from Korea.
"The US is the root cause of contradictions in Korea" - 'Anti-US = Left leaning aid to Communism': Not anymore
In the mid 1980s, anti-US activists were generally considered to be a 'small minority of extremists.' However, pro-US sentiment among the Korean people began to turn sour sharply. A 1987 poll conducted by Korea Times showed that 81% of those polled believed that Korea was dependent on foreign economies and 90% believed that the United States was more interested in promoting its self interest than promoting democracy in Korea.
From 1986 on, national liberation and pro-democracy became the prime themes of student activism in Korea. South Korea was essentially an American colony and the United States was held responsible for the ills in South Korea. Previously, anti-US sentiment was labeled pro-Communist sentiment. To the Korean police, anti-US equaled pro-Communism and vice versa. For this reason, student activists went a great length to deny that they were anti-US.
Photo: Anti-US martyrs of the 1980s. From left, Hwang Jung Hah, Kim Seh Jin, Lee Jae Ho, and Jo Sung Man.
Student activists opposed war, nuclear weapons, military conscription, military training in schools, and the Team Spirit US-Korea joint military exercises. In April 1986, Lee Hae Ho and Kim Seh Jin committed suicide in public protesting Koreans becoming cannon fodders of American wars. On May 15, 1988, Jo Sung Man committed hara-kiri at the Myongdong Cathedral in protest of the US occupation of South Korea. Jo proclaimed that the US troops must be driven out of Korea in order to unite the nation.
The 'Save Korea Special Unit' was formed in 1986 and began to attack US installations in Korea. On February 20, the Unit planted bombs in the US Cultural Center in Kwangju. On May 20, the Unit threw a bomb at the US Embassy in Seoul. On May 23, the Unit threw a fire-bomb at the US Cultural Center in Kwangju. On November 17, the Unit threw a fire-bomb at the Han-nam-dong US military base. There were many other attacks by the Unit.
The anti-US activism during this period was not limited to students. After his election in 1987, Gen. Roh Tae Woo opened Korean markets to American farm products, movies and banking services. Korean farmers, workers, bankers and movie industry workers protested Roh's move and demanded that US troops get out of Korea.
Public debates on US crimes, mass anti-US movement, and today's anti-US movement
The student anti-US activism lost much of its steam in the 1990s. The collapse of the Soviet Union and the subsequent end of the Cold War, the ascent of 'civilian' governments in Korea, North-South reconciliation agreements, and so on had resulted in rapid changes in South Korea. The student activism based on anti-dictatorship and social justice lost its raison d'etre. It lost followers and became a mute movement.
However, the student activists found a new common cause in the early 1990s: crimes committed US soldiers stationed in Korea. The brutal murder of Yun Kum Yi by an American serviceman in 1992 rekindled the dormant anti-US sentiment. Yun left her farming family to seek her fortune in Seoul. She worked at a factory for awhile but was seduced into the world of prostitution. Her brutalized naked body was found in her room.
Photo: Yun Kum Yi was savagely murdered by an American soldier. Her murder rekindled anti-US activism in Korea.
She was 26 at the time. Her killer, Kenneth Marcel, an American soldier, beat her with a Cola bottle when she refused his sexual advances. She was knocked down unconscious. The killer then inserted an umbrella into her anus, and pushed a Cola bottle and a wine bottle into her vagina. The killer then poured washer detergent all over her body.
The anti-US movement spread rapidly in the 2000s. A Korean female employee of an night club in Yitaewon was murdered by an American soldier. The soldier 'escaped' just before his trial was to begin. In May, several Koreans were injured when Americans dropped bombs on Maehyang-ri. In July, it was discovered that the US military had been dumping poisonous embalming fluids into the Han River, the main source of potable water for Seoul.
The fact of the matter is that the US military had committed numerous crimes against the Korean people prior to the 2000s but they were hushed up and seldom reported. What had changed was the Korean people's sentiment toward the US military. The Americans were no longer saviors or protectors but unwelcome intruders. In light of the changing public mood, the US and Seoul governments revised SOFA in August in order to stem the rising tide of anti-US sentiment.
Most remarkably, the anti-US movement of 2002 is not organized or instigated by any civic or student groups. But the movement is made of spontaneous, voluntary individual citizen actions. Individual citizens come forth to join protest marches. "Regaining self-determination" is the war cry now, and the anti-US war cry of the 1980s has matured into a more positive Korea-centered theme - "Kick out America and achieve independence.".
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Related Webs:
'Rumsfeld - Lee Jun' Secret Contingency Plan: Would that be Gen. MacArthur's Plan Everready? Anti-US sentiments in Korea date back to the 19th Century when an American expeditionary force attacked and occupied Kangwha-do fortress of the Yi Dynasty, killing 350 of its poorly armed defenders.
US military personnel commit more than 600 crimes a year in Korea: None of the crimes committed by US personnel 'while on duty' has been prosecuted in Korean courts and only 20 'off-duty' crimes have been tried in a Korean court since 1991. The problem has more to do with the Korean lawmen who are afraid to try Americans than with SOFA.
Web resources and the latest news on the two Korean kids slain by the US military
100,000 Demand End to the 50-year US Domination of South Korea A crowd estimated to be more than 60,000 by the police staged a peaceful anti-US march in South Korea. The marchers demanded a retrial of the Americans responsible for the deaths of two Korean girls, a more sincere, meaningful apology from George Bush, and an end to the 50-year US domination of South Korea. |
This work is in the public domain |
