MacArthur Statue Protest Leader Arrested as North Korean Spy

Is there anyone out there suprised by the arrest of one of the leaders of the MacArthur protests as a North Korean spy? From the Chosun:

An activist who is on parole after serving time for spying for North Korea has been arrested for espionage again. Kang Soon-jeong, the former vice chairman of the South Korean chapter of the Pan-Korean Alliance for Reunification, an outlawed pro-Pyongyang group, was arrested on Tuesday for providing “national secrets” to Pyongyang, police said. Kang was also co-chairman of a civic group that led efforts to topple the statue of U.S. general Dougas MacArthur in Incheon last year.

Let’s remember the MacArthur protests of 2005 for a minute. The biggest protest happened on September 11, 2005 and was deliberately planned to occur on the same date of the worst terrorist attack in American history in order to rub it into Americans’ faces.

How can we ever forget images like this:

Or my personal favorite:

Something else to remember was that it wasn’t just the North Korean stooges calling for the removal of the MacArthur statue, but also the Korea Times newspaper:

As President Roh made it clear that it is the government’s position to keep the statue, U.S. lawmakers had better wait and see. Nor is this an issue for partisan wrangling domestically. Related officials can consider relocating it to a war memorial from the present public park someday. We have never heard of a statue of Dwight Eisenhower in Normandy to commemorate D-Day.

So keep that in mind the next time you read the Korea Times, that they advocated removing the MacArthur statue because a bunch of North Korean sponsored stooges demanded it. Plus their claims that Eisenhower’s statue is not on display at Normandy were proven to be utterly false as well. Ike’s statue stands proudly at Normandy just like MacArthur’s statue should continue to stand proudly at Inchon.

However, not everyone has forgotten about what MacArthur means to South Korea:

These ROK veterans at the time called the anti-MacArthur protesters North Korean spies and they were right.

The US Congress even got involved in the MacArthur controversy by sending this letter to the Blue House condemning the protests:

Members of the U.S. House Committee on International Relations on Thursday protested at calls in Korea to topple a statue of U.S. general Douglas MacArthur in Incheon. Their protest came in a letter to President Roh Moo-hyun signed by committee chairman Henry Hyde and others.

The letter said but for the 1950 Incheon landing led by MacArthur, the Korea of today would not exist. If attempts to damage the statue continued, it would be better to hand it over to the Americans, the signatories said.

(…)

Needless to say Mr. President the Congress of the United States and the American people would never subscribe to such a description of a hero who led the allied forces which liberated the Republic of Korea twice, first from the yoke of Japanese colonialism 60 years ago this summer and secondly through the brilliant execution of the Inchon landing 55 years ago this month. Our critical bilateral alliance was forged in the crucible of Inchon. The common sacrifices, goals, and achievements which sprang out of Inchon form, in our opinion, the continuing basis for our alliance. We presume that the government of the Republic of Korea shares this view of the critical importance fo the Inchon Landing and the leadership of General Douglas MacArthur.

(…)

In the chamber of the US House of Representatives, directly behind the speaker’s podium hang two portraits. On one side is that of a foreign friend, a soldier who came from a far to assist in the common cause of American independence. That portrait is of the Marquis de Lafayette. For more than 200 years his memory has been implanted deep in the hearts of the American people. We would hope that General MacArthur is so remembered in the hearts of the South Korean people.

Not to be out done the British ambassador to Korea had plenty to say as well:

“I have been saddened to read that a group of protestors attacked and called for the removal of the statue of the U.S. general MacArthur in Incheon. The statue was erected to commemorate the Incheon Landing, which he led, and which was one of the most decisive interventions of the Korean War. British naval vessels were among those involved. By attacking his statue and his memory, these protestors are also denigrating ALL those foreign soldiers under the UN command, who came to fight alongside South Korea in that war. There were men and women from more than 20 nations involved, including my own. Tens of thousands of them gave their lives so that South Korea should remain free and independent. Without the fierce allied fighting that followed there was a real chance that South Korea, by then pinned down to Busan, would have been overrun.

“None of us can change our country’s history. What happened, happened, and we should respect the right for people to demonstrate peacefully, but these protestors risk alienating more than just American friends. I am glad there have been some firmly-worded editorials, and that a number of leading figures, including Foreign Minister Ban Ki-moon, have spoken up. They need to, and strongly, if good friends of Korea and war veterans from many countries are not to feel insulted.”

With North Korean agents leading protests to tear down the MacArthur statue and create a wedge in the US-ROK alliance what does the ruling Uri Party chairman do? Blame the conservative groups protecting the statue of course:

Ruling Uri Party chairman Moon Hee-sang said Sunday the dispute over a statue of U.S. general Douglas MacArthur in Incheon was “a clash between civic organizations,” but some media outlets and conservative forces blew it out of proportion for reasons of their own. They “sow distrust and friction between Korea and the United States on the pretext of being concerned about the Korea-U.S. alliance,” he said.

With this arrest of a North Korean spy it is also important to remember those in the Korean government and media that were complicit in this obvious North Korean sponsored attempt to create a wedge in the US-ROK alliance. The only thing I find surprising about the spy arrest is why it took so long to uncover it?

HT: One Free Korea