Tag: protests

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:

The Asia Times has got it wrong beginning with the title: US Feels Sting of South Korean Priest

The US is not the ones feeling the sting of the South Korean priest, the Korean government most notably the Ministry of Defense and the 20 year old mandatory service draftees being assualted by the priests followers are. South Korea has more to lose than the US if the base consolidation plan fails. Failure of this plan would most likely mean the redeployment of at least the 2nd Infantry Division and possibly other elements of USFK. USFK has no intentions of staying in the Yongsan and 2ID footprints for much longer. The loss of USFK means the end to many USFK jobs that South Korean civilians hold along with the loss of international investment once USFK pulls out. Let’s face it, interenational investors feel much more secure in their investments when they know the US military is safeguarding it.

Here is where else the Asia Times is getting it all wrong:

“No US base,” they shout in Korean. “Save our land.”

It is a daily ritual staged in defiance of thousands of South Korean police against a plan to turn the region of rice paddies and orchards into one of America’s largest overseas bases.

The police control the countryside, blocking off traffic, but the farmers cling to this enclave of sturdy brick homes in a standoff that embarrasses the United States and South Korea – and reveals some of the weaknesses in a deteriorating alliance.

It is not the US being embarrassed here. It is the Korean government that is an embarassment. Any government that would allow young mandatory service draftees to be beaten and assaulted like the young men stationed outside Camp Humphreys regularly are is a joke. This is a perfect example of why mandatory service needs to end in Korea. If the government had to worry about reenlisting these guys, I can guarantee they wouldn’t treat them as meat to feed to the protesters to beat on.

Here is something else that really strikes a nerve with me:

The priest, Moon Jeong-hyun, 69, returned here less than a week after holding out for most of a day on the roof of the school building with nine other priests and two National Assembly members defying the riot police, who drove the activists from the building, some of them kicking and screaming.

A distinctive figure with a flowing beard, often seen holding a video camera as he records prayer meetings and confrontations, Moon and his cohorts were promised they would not be arrested before descending down a ladder from the roof on May 4.

The government let this guy go even though he broke the law. This guy is a criminal responsible for the assaults and injuries of many young police officers and soldiers. Here is another criminal that really shouldn’t surprise anyone that was also let go:

Some wonder if the South’s governing Uri Party is actually encouraging the standoff in which an assembly member from the party, Im Jung-in, is playing a leading role.

Im was up on the roof with the priests before they all came down on May 4 – and has appeared again at rallies in the village. He talks frequently on his mobile phone with party officials, and his presence in the village symbolizes support for the farmers and activists in the government.

This is just more evidence of what an embarrassment the current Korean government is. An assembly member from the ruling party is openly endorsing the assault and injury of the nation’s policemen and soldiers. What a disgrace and the Asia Times thinks the US should be embarrassed?

Oh, there is more:

“South and North Korea are reconciling with one another,” says another priest visiting the village. “We don’t need US forces in Korea at all.”

That’s a view that US officials fear may come to dominate the outlook of a South Korea government already seen as left of center as thousands of police face the unpleasant task of finally removing the diehards from their homes – and the troublesome priest from the village chapel.

I’m not sure if ass kissing and appeasement with nothing in return is really reconciliation but apparently the Korean government and the Asia Times thinks so. Also if this person is so bold to say the US is not needed in Korea than he needs to protest his local congressmen instead of attacking soldiers and police officers. Remember Korea has more to lose than US if the base consolidation plan fails.

South Korean students have begun their annual summer time protests outside Yongsan garrison.

Thousands of South Korean students rallying Sunday against the U.S. military’s five-decade presence clashed with police after trying to enter the American base, and at least 12 people were injured and more than 20 were arrested.

Demonstrators marched through Seoul before attempting to enter the main Yongsan U.S. military base in the city center. They called for the withdrawal of the 32,500 U.S. troops stationed in South Korea, a legacy of the 1950-53 Korean War.

What the article failed to report was that the protestors were from the Hanchongryun student group that is backed and financed by North Korea. The group used to be illegal under South Korea’s National Security Law but since President Roh Moo Hyun took office he has allowed the outlawed group free reign to conduct their criminal activities. In fact their leader Ms. Song Hyo Won last week traveled to North Korea fully approved by the South Korean government no doubt to get her marching orders from the Norks before this weekend’s protests.

Hanchonghyun Leader Song Hyo Won.

Here is an excerpt from an interview with the Hanchongryun spokesman that will give you a good indication of their ideology and thinking.

Dae Sik Yoo, the student body president of Kyung Hee University, is on the lam. Since police can arrest him anywhere but here—they’re not allowed on university grounds—Yoo never leaves campus for more than 12 hours. For a wanted man, he looks wholesome, with wire-rimmed glasses, baseball cap, and khaki pants. He could pass for a preppie American student. But when asked about the political opinions that got him into trouble, he sounds more like a North Korean Communist affiliate than a college student in a U.S.-allied country.

“Kim Jong Il is an outstanding leader,” says Yoo. “No other country can stand up to the U.S. Only North Korea can.”

Yoo landed on the wanted list for his role as spokesperson for the Hanchongryun, a left-wing student organization notorious for its pro-North Korean views. Hanchongryun spearheaded demonstrations and sit-ins for 11 years, pushing for reunification of the North and South—but on Korean terms and without any U.S. interference.

(…)

“Kim is just another leader and not a despot or a dictator,” he says. “If he really is a dictator, the North Koreans wouldn’t have tolerated that and overthrown him. They’re not that brainwashed. They must see something in the system that’s right.”

By saying the North Koreans are “not that brainwashed” he is admitting that at least some brainwashing is going on. What he doesn’t understand is that the North Korean people cannot see anything wrong in the system because if they did they would be sent to the gulag or shot. If the system is so great then why are defectors trying to jump the fences of every embassy in China. This is how Hanchongryun explains these facts:

North Korea’s violent crackdowns at home counted for little here. “The U.S. has been giving false propaganda about the North,” said one Catholic university student. “There is no proof that the North commits human rights violations. I think the U.S. is misbroadcasting information about North Korea killing its own people.”

That’s right folks the gulags and famine are all US propaganda though evidence of these gulags come from the governments of other countries plus from the mouths of North Korean defectors themselves. The American CIA must of brainwashed all of these people to speak badly of the Dear Leader. It only gets better:

He is careful to emphasize that he’s not a radical and prefers to stay out of student protests. Still, he feels little reason to be threatened by Kim Jong Il’s regime: “Maybe it is dangerous for North Korea to have nuclear arms. I think, though, when reunification happens, their nukes will be our nukes and give us a higher international standing.”

Their nukes will be your nukes when they land on Seoul. Plus if he is so eager to see Korea possess nuclear weapons, South Korea is more than capable right now of manufacturing nuclear weapons. The government chooses not to due to treaty obligations. Now what about human rights in North Korea? Hanchongryun could care little about that:

Activists who try to denounce Kim Jong Il for human rights violations complain that South Korean government officials have sabotaged their efforts. Human rights activist Norbert Vollertsen, a German, once spent 18 months in Pyongyang working for Doctors Without Borders and witnessed the devastating effects the famine and gulags have had on North Korean citizens. Now residing in South Korea, he complains that he is followed and harassed and says surveillance is so strict, he feels like he is in Pyongyang again.

“The youth are quite interested in human rights issues in Iraq, racism in America. They’re eager to do something and make changes. But when it comes to North Korea, they are so ignorant and uninformed of human rights violations,” Vollertsen says. “When I do college tours, it’s quite shocking because first of all they don’t want to believe my stories. When I showed them pictures of children starving, they thought the pictures were from Dachau or Auschwitz. They didn’t want to believe it was in North Korea. They kept challenging me and saying, ‘Are you sure they’re starving and dying? Are you sure you’re a doctor?’ “

I’m sure Hanchongryun members comfort each other by saying Vollertsen is a CIA agent or something to that effect because famine cannot possibly have happened in the Worker’s Paradise.

Experts and activists, like Vollertsen, claim North Korean agents steer groups such as Hanchongryun, newsrooms, even Roh’s administration. But Yoo denies that Hanchongryun has official ties to North Korea, and is quick to defend the country. “Everywhere in the world, there are prisons. North Korea is nothing special,” Yoo says, with a sigh. “But if there are human rights problems, then Hanchongryun will help them.”

I really don’t mind people protesting against the US military because it is their right to do so but they shouldn’t be allowed to beat the heck out the riot police like they do. The young mandatory service draftees that make up the riot police get the crap beaten out of them every time there is a major protest. I can’t believe how these people get away with assaulting police officers.

What bothers me the most about these protestors is that the media will not tell you who they are. You read the news and the reports tell you students protested against the US military. Why doesn’t the media say Hanchongnyun protestors instead of student protestors? Well, that would mean admitting to who you are and from what you have read above, who they are is nothing to be proud of.