Members of South Korea’s two umbrella trade unions rally over minimum wages in front of the government complex in Seoul on June 4, 2015. The unions are demanding that the government raise the per-hour minimum wage from 5,580 won (US$5.01) to 10,000 won. (Yonhap)
Members of civic groups stage a protest in front of the U.S. Embassy in Seoul on May 29, 2015, after U.S. Forces Korea said the previous day that a live anthrax sample that was accidentally sent to the U.S. Osan Air Base in the city of Pyeongtaek, south of Seoul, has been destroyed. (Yonhap)
Members of an anti-nuclear civic group shout slogans during a rally in front of the Nuclear Safety Commission, South Korea’s nuclear watchdog, in Seoul, on May 12, 2015, to demand that the commission close nuclear reactors. (Yonhap)
Members of civic groups tear a banner with a printed image of Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s face during a rally in front of the Japanese Embassy in Seoul on April 28, 2015, to demand Abe offer an unequivocal apology over Japan’s wartime sexual enslavement of Korean and other Asian women. (Yonhap)
Members of civic groups stage a rally in front of the defense ministry in Seoul on April 10, 2015, to voice their objection to the possible deployment of a Terminal High-Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) system in South Korea and the establishment of an integrated air and missile-defense system among the United States, South Korea and Japan to deter North Korea’s evolving security threats. (Yonhap)
The Korean authorities should have stopped these people at the gate of the airport and sent them home because it is illegal for foreigners to conduct political activity while visiting South Korea:
The Rev. Bill Bichsel, an 86-year-old Tacoma priest known for his acts of civil disobedience, has returned from a trip to South Korea to protest construction of a naval base there.
Just three months ago, Bichsel was seriously ill and in the hospital in Tacoma. But his health —while still frail due to a heart condition—improved to the point he was able to make the trip using a wheelchair.
He said his doctors didn’t try to stop him from traveling.
“They just shake their heads,” Bichsel said. “They know I’m going so they don’t make a big fuss.”
For nearly 40 years, the Jesuit priest known as “Bix” has protested against U.S. military programs and weapons. He’s been arrested dozens of times for trespassing during protests and jailed more than a half-dozen times.
He wasn’t arrested in South Korea, but he realized the 12-day trip could set his health back.
“I know I could go anytime,” Bichsel said.
He was weak upon returning Nov. 20, but has gotten stronger since then. And he was inspired by the trip.
Bichsel and nine other people —nearly all from the Puget Sound area—traveled to Jeju Island to commits acts of civil resistance against construction of a base by the South Korean Navy. The base has been under construction on the island off the southern tip of Korea for eight years. [Stars & Stripes]
You can read more at the link, but what gets me about the whole Cheju Naval Base issue is that the leftists complain about the base provoking China when the Chinese is busy making claims against Korean territory and the territory of other countries in the region and have constructed an aircraft carrier to help enforce those claims. If the Chinese were not making aggressive territorial claims this base would have never been built in the first place and the leftists have the nerve to condemn the ROK government for provoking China?
It appears that the leftist affiliated religious groups have been able to keep the extreme left wing thugs in check at least for last night as no violence was reported. The leftist groups claimed that half a million was going to turn out for their protests but judging by the pictures from the left leaning Voice of People website, they were probably able to get about 50,000-70,000:
View of beef protest at night looking towards City Hall.
The view of the protesters looking the opposite direction away from City Hall.
Yonhap News tends to confirm this with a report that says “tens of thousands” attended the protests. Even the Voice of People report put the number at 60,000 which is a far cry from the half a million claim from the protest organizers. Frankly I’m not impressed at all by the turn out.
I think this once again shows how the leftist movement in Korea has lost the support of the general Korean public. When they are able to turn out 250,000 like they did earlier in these protests that is when you know they are supported by the public but the turn out now shows it is just the usual leftist groups which have been augmented this week with their allies in the leftist religious groups.
The long lines of Korean citizens earlier in the week buying in mass quantities US beef is a sure indication that public opinion is quickly turning on these leftist groups:
The other thing to realize in regards to turn out for these protests is that these leftist groups bring out all their children in order to inflate their numbers as well as indoctrinate the next generation of leftist activists:
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.â€
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
Here is an interesting poll from Yonhap (Hat Tip: Nomad) that shows that the general Korean public is turning against the anti-US hate groups leading the violent protests and attacks on South Korean policemen and soldiers guarding the annexed land for the Camp Humphreys expansion:
More than eight out of 10 South Koreans surveyed oppose violent protests against the expansion of Camp Humphreys, a U.S. military base in Pyeongtaek, a government survey said Thursday. Most of those surveyed also said it was not right for anti-U.S. groups to intervene in the dispute between residents of Pyeongtaek, 70 kilometers south of Seoul, and the government. The survey was conducted on about 1,000 adults across the country by poll specialist TNS Korea at the request of the Office for Government Policy Coordination last Sunday. According to the poll, 17 percent of the respondents said the expansion plan must be blocked if necessary, even if the rallies become violent, while 81.4 percent said violence should not be used to resolve the matter.
About 66 percent said it was not right for civic organizations to meddle in the matter with the excuse of helping locals defend their livelihoods. Thirty percent said the intervention is needed to effectively frustrate the Humphreys expansion project. Most people viewed the intervention as politically motivated with 58.1 percent, saying it was intended to use regional opponents to instigate anti-American feeling in South Korea. About 35 percent said they believe the organizations have pure intentions for helping the rural residents. In addition, 74.5 percent said it is too soon to demand U.S. troops withdraw from the Korean Peninsula while 22.2 percent answered in favor of such demands by anti-U.S. activists, the poll said. More than 84 percent of those polled said the U.S. troops play an important role in ensuring security on the peninsula.
These results are very interesting and a good sign that the Camp Humphreys expansion will happen. These results are even encouraging enough that I wonder if the Korean President Roh Moo-hyun might actually make a comment on this issue any time soon. It is really despicable how he has left an issue of great national importance solely on the Defense Ministry to deal with while he hides and sucks up to Kim Jong Il.
A number that the anti-US hate groups are sure not to like, is that 74.5% of people surveyed believed that it is to soon to withdraw US troops from Korea. Remember Korean polls can be very dubious, but I still find this to be an encouraging sign.
This will do nothing to stop the anti-US hate groups activities however. If anything they will become even worse because they now don’t have to worry about trying to garner public support. They haven’t come out in full hatred mode yet because they have been trying to win the battle of public opinion. They have lost that battle but not the war over the expansion project. They will now do everything possible to delay the project in order to frustrate America enough to say forget it and pull troops out instead. So expect even more violent attacks on the police and soldiers. I also expect them to intimidate and threaten workers that begin constructing the base as well. During all of this also expect President Roh to keep his head in the sand and hide.
This is far from over.
At least one segment of Korean society has had enough of the violence in Pyeongtaek over the Camp Humphreys expansion:
Parents of soldiers injured in clashes with protesters opposing the relocation of U.S. military installations here roundly criticized the Defense Ministry for not protecting the unarmed troops constructing fences around the base site in Pyeongtaek, Gyeonggi province.
The violence broke out after anti-U.S. demonstrators broke through riot police lines late Friday afternoon to try to cut down the fences.
Thirty soldiers were injured, a ministry official said; five are still at a military hospital. (….)Soldiers’ parents turned their wrath on the demonstrators as well as the ministry. “Taking away their helmets and beating up people can only mean they want to kill people. I don’t know whether what they argue for is wrong or right, but it’s hard to understand their actions,” said Lee Gyeong-suk, 45, the mother of Private Lee Kang-woo, 21, who was hit on the head with a stone in the melee.
Police said a task force of 20 officers had been formed to search for and arrest three officials of the civic groups that organized the bulk of the demonstrations around the base area.
Maybe the riot police should get their pissed off ajuma mothers into battle gear to fight these people. I am willing to bet these mothers would beat these rioters up even worse than the riot police did on Friday.
Some how I doubt the Korean Human Rights Commission will come out and demand an investigation of the protesters’ actions like they routinely do of the riot police.
