Pro-US Demonstrators Show Up In Force at Osan Protest

Anti-American protesters gathered this weekend at the Pyoengtaek Train Station to protest the US military’s base expansion at nearby Camp Humphreys:

About 4,500 demonstrators, according to police estimates, rallied outside the Pyeongtaek train station to protest the American plan to move forces to Camp Humphreys in Pyeongtaek. A group called The Pan-Korean National Task Force Against Expansion of U.S. Bases in Pyeongtaek organized the protest.

The Korean National Police and Camp Humphreys officials had braced for possible large-scale violence Sunday, but the task force stuck with its previously stated plan of holding a peaceful protest outside the train station and the Pyeongtaek city hall.

Anti-American protests in Korea are nothing new because it is always the same people protesting; the pro-North Koreans, leftists, progressives, anti-anything-American, the communists, etc. Whatever term you want to define them with it is still the same usual suspects who come into town and cause problems for the local citizens with anti-American antics. However, something different has happened once again to counter these protesters; the pro-American forces have mobilized to counter them:

In a show of support for the U.S. military Sunday, the Korean Veterans Association and Songtan Chamber of Commerce held a rally that drew a crowd police estimated at about 4,000 outside the main gate of Osan Air Base in Pyeongtaek’s Songtan section.

The veterans urged support for the U.S. military’s presence on the peninsula and its planned relocation of forces to Humphreys. They also denounced the anti-American activist movement in South Korea, which they said imperiled their country’s security.

4,000 pro-American protesters outside of the Osan gate is even more pro-American activists than what showed up at the September MacArthur Statue protest in Inchon. I think a case can be made that the pro-American activists are getting better organized and picking up speed to retaliate against the anti-American protesters. Some of the quotes from the activists are words I have heard before from Korean citizens:

“Most of Korean people are with you,” said Sung Ho-kyoung, 70, a resident of Anyang City who said he witnessed North Korean atrocities as a teenager during the Korean War of 1950-53.

“Let your people know that,” he told the reporter. “And don’t let your government … push to withdraw your troops from Korea. Let your people know that. Please!”

“We need the American troops … because we must keep the peace and freedom [on the] Korean Peninsula,” said Lee Seung-ro, 55, of Seoul.

K.C. Lee, president of the Songtan Chamber of Commerce, said during remarks from a speaker’s platform that the community welcomes the U.S. military’s move to Pyeongtaek.

“My dear American friends, we want you to be here,” Lee said in Korean and in English.

It may seem like a small thing, but it does feel good to hear that at least some people appreciate what we are doing in Korea.