A Little Concerned

Korea Scouter

What's the word from near the 38th? We see on TV about the demonstrations from S Koreans against the US. Is this a little making a loud noise or is it the major view of the South Korean people? What's your take and are you guys in any danger? I was just concerned about you and all the US military and citizens there.

Doug

ASM7:

Thanks for your concern...we're okay! The protest activity ebbs and flows. Most Americans consider demonstrations and protests to be serious social unrest, but over here they're more or less a normal means to petition for change. During my first tour here, in 1987, there was a real grass-roots effort to get a democratically-elected government, and everybody seemed to be protesting...you couldn't go to Seoul, anywhere, without smelling tear gas. This isn't that widespread, but then, we weren't the target of the protests then, either.

The whole theme, this time, stems from the accidental roadside death of those two schoolgirls. Tragic, but an accident nonetheless. The protestors are upset that the two soldiers were acquitted at their courts-martial, and are demanding changes to our Status of Forces Agreement to shift jurisdiction to a Korean civil court when on-duty accidents like this happen. What they don't, or won't understand is that if the tank had been driven by Korean soldiers instead of American, they too would be under military jurisdiction, not civil. And, in every country where Korea has similar agreements, they too reserve jurisdiction over their troops for on-duty incidents.

There's a rather vocal minority here that blame us for everything from the division of the 2 Koreas to the price of rice. In my experience, it'll settle down after a while, then another incident like a fuel leak or something will be the next protest catalyst.

For what it's worth, I just got back from taking the troop to Cheju Island, about 60 miles off the coast, for winter break. All the way down, while we were there, and all the way back, no incidents of anti-Americanism -- and we were up to our eyeballs in Koreans for a week straight.

I'm not sure what you're seeing on the news there, but it's probably sensationalized...or maybe I'm de-sensitized!

KS

KS

Just a couple of things I picked up on were that the S Koreans feel that they are strong enough now with their military that they don't need American military involvement anymore and can defend themselves without our aid. The other point is that they feel the two Koreas should be reunited.

I watched a show the other night about a family from N Korea who had crossed over the border from N Korea to China and were living in secret there. They had to give up their four children to an orphanage so they could have food, clothing and education. Obviously the conditions in N Korea are very bad.

Doug

I don't know if they could stand alone or not, but I do know there's some angst over the fact that we were ever needed here in the first place -- that whole dependency/"big brother, little brother" thing.

Everybody wants reunification, but like Germany did it, not like Saddam Hussein tried to do with Kuwait in '90. Moreover, the Koreans have never understood why their country, a non-aggressor, was divided like Germany after WWII, and some blame us for it even though the 38th parallel was intended as a surrender coordination line for the Japanese, not an international boundary.

There are tens of thousands of north Koreans in hiding in China, using an arrangement similar to our Underground Railroad in the 19th century to get slaves to freedom. They're trying to get these refugees into friendly embassies so they can emigrate to the South. The Chinese have been making this more difficult all the time, raising walls and fences around embassies and consulates, increasing guards, and cracking down on the "stations" the refugees are staying in. Missionaries who play a key role in organizing and sustaining the underground are being rooted out and expelled by Chinese authorities.

We see the documentaries regularly here. Millions have starved to death up there in the last ten years; it's a humanitarian crisis that doesn't get a lot of press because north Korea is the most closed society in the world.

I pray every day it gets resolved without Scud missiles and multiple-launch rocket systems.

KS

Amen to that.

Doug