Forgetting the West Sea Naval Battle

Today is the fifth anniversary of the 2002 West Sea Naval Battle which means for the ruling Korean government and their leftist allies it is, Hide Your Head in the Sand Day. For those of you not familiar with the West Sea Naval Battle let me recap it for you.

On June 29, 2002, one day before the closing ceremony of the World Cup the North Koreans tried to draw attention from all the glory South Korea had been receiving from their amazing World Cup performance that year by prevoking a naval battle in the West Sea. The North Koreans planned for and executed a premeditated ambush of a South Korean patrol boat. In the ensueing clash six sailors were killed and 18 more were wounded.

This tragedy of the murdered sailors was bad enough for those left behind, but to make matters worse for the victims and their families, the South Korean government did everything possible to keep the grieving families quiet because they did not want to upset the Sunshine Policy with North Korea. So while politicians in the Korean government encouraged anti-Americanism in the aftermath of the US Army armored vehicle accident that killed two Korean school girls earlier in June 2002, the Korean government in turn did nothing to address the premeditated murder of six ROK sailors by the North Koreans.

The government even told the families to be quiet about the incident and sent no flag officers to attend a memorial ceremony or even offer any condolescences. USFK however did send representatives to the ceremony and USFK Commander General LaPorte offered the families his condolescences.

One wife of a deceased sailor was so fed up with Korea, that she left Korea for good and went to the United States. This is what she said before boarding the plane:

“If the indifference and inhospitality shown to those soldiers who were killed or wounded protecting the nation continue, what soldier will lay down his life in the battlefield?”

Here’s a quote from one of the fathers of one of the murdered sailors that really struck a cord with me:

The father said, “My son is buried in the National Cemetery. But I’m going to take my son’s remains to my family burial site in my hometown.” Having watched the situation develop, he thought his son who was killed by North Korean soldiers was considered nothing more than a criminal.

Some parents said that they are more scared of people who consider the U.S. a bigger enemy than North Korean leader Kim Jong-il, who killed their son. We lose courage to defend the country, when we hear that a wife whose husband fell in the battle is preparing to leave this country. Reading a condolence letter from the USFK commander to mark the second anniversary, the wife said, “The Americans remember my husband and his brothers-in-arms better than Koreans… Frankly, I hate Korea.”

“Frankly, I hate Korea”, no those are not the words of a disgruntled expat or GI saying that, that is a Korean woman who had enough of the actions of the Korean government and left the country.  She is not alone in her criticism of the Korean government over what happened in 2002.

The Chosun Ilbo newspaper last year published a series of interviews from some of the sailors injured in the 2002 attack and here are excerpts of what they had to say:

Another naval gunner, Kim Taek-jung, 25, has given up his dream of becoming a civil engineer and is preparing for the civil service exam instead. “Because civil engineering requires active work at the site, I’ve made a realistic decision to become a public servant, I still have four or five pieces of shrapnel in my body,” Kim said. “One night I remembered the faces of my six dead comrades, but I couldn’t recall the name of one of them, so I sobbed all night.”

Although they suffer from sleepless nights and nightmares, those without external injuries are not entitled to benefits as “persons of merit.” Ko Kyug-rak, 25, also a naval gunner, said, “For over a year after the incident I was unable to sleep more than three hours a night.” Aboard the patrol boat that turned into a sea of flame, Ko saw his peers burned and their heads blown away and lost some of his hearing. But when he went to a military hospital to claim benefit, Ko was given cool treatment. “A doctor ignored the psychological problems and only asked me to show any external wounds,” he said. “If benefits for persons of merit are granted for this level of injuries, the doctor said, it would have an adverse effect on the state budget.”

Another wounded veteran, Kim Myun-joo, 26, has applied for meritorious benefit twice, but in vain. “I’m just sad because I feel like that post-traumatic stress disorder and efforts to safeguard the country are being neglected,” he said

Of the six victims this paper interviewed, three have office jobs and three are students, all trying hard to make a future for themselves despite the difficulties. What they want from the country is just one thing: that it remembers that many young people were killed or wounded while safeguarding the country on June 29, 2002. “I just wish they remembered the battle once a year, even if they don’t pay much attention. Nothing else,” said Lee Jae-yong, 25.

President Roh has never attended a memorial ceremony for the murdered sailors and I seriously doubt he will attend this one either.  Really only the ROK Navy to their credit and USFK memorialize the event every year. The South Korean ruling party politicians hide their heads in the sand every June 29th because this incident is perfect example of the failure of the Sunshine Policy. The South Korean government gives massive amounts of aid to North Korea and what do they do? They murder Korean sailors.  You give them more massive aid and what do they do? They fire a tactical ballistic missiles which further raised tensions in the region.  You give them even more massive aid and what do they do? They build and test nuclear weapons.

The Korean government has learned nothing five years after the West Sea Naval Battle because they have increased the aid shipments this year to North Korea to a record of over one billion dollars while simultaneously refusing to fully fund the US-ROK alliance.  Is it any wonder why North Korea is always so billigerent when they know they can continue to get away with it?

The Korean government is either in total denial about the nature of the North Korean regime or they just simply don’t care.  The first responsibility of any government should always be to protect their citizens.  The West Sea Naval Battle is just one example that the Korean government could care less what the North Koreans do to South Korean citizens.  Hundreds of South Korean citizens have been abducted by North Korean commandoes and agents over the years from South Korea.  A South Korean wife of one of the abductees had to mount her own personal operation to free her husband from enslavement in North Korea while the South Korean government did nothing.  Even sadder are the hundreds of South Korean POWs which still remain in North Korea against their will. If the South Korean government could care less about the welfare of servicemembers serving their country now, is it any surprise they could care less about the welfare of South Korean POWs kept in North Korea in violation of the armistice agreement signed decades ago.

Certainly the Korean government has learned nothing and if the same type of incident were to happen again the reaction of the Korean government will likely be the same, which is pretend nothing happened.  Unfortunately for the sailors and their families involved in the 2002 West Sea Naval Battle, something did happen and the memory of their sacrifices should be recognized by their government and the public in general.

USFK Commander General Burwin Bell built a memorial on Yongsan Garrison in memory of ROK Army soldier, SGT Yoon Jang-ho who was killed by a suicide bomber in Afghanistan.  Maybe General Bell should also build a memorial to the sailors of the West Sea Naval Battle as well.