Posted on 05/18/2003 4:04:23 AM PDT by TigerLikesRooster
South Korea's anti-US protesters block Roh's path
Sun May 18, 3:05 AM ET
SEOUL (AFP) - South Korean riot police scuffled with about 1,000 anti-US student protesters who blocked President Roh Moo-Hyun from attending a public event in the southern city of Gwangju, reports said.
Television showed the students preventing a motorcade carrying Roh from traveling along a road leading to a national cemetery, where a ceremony marking the anniversary of a pro-democracy civic uprising in 1980 was underway.
Some 2,000 riot police formed a human barricade at the main gate of the cemetery in a stand-off that left several protesters injured, Yonhap news agency said.
Roh was forced to detour several kilometers to enter the cemetery through its back gates, it said.
The demonstration, which came a day ater Roh returned from a week-long US trip, delayed the president's scheduled speech by 20 minutes.
The ceremony was organized by civic groups in Gwangju, where a bloody military crackdown on the 1980 uprising against military dictatorship left more than 250 people dead.
Many of the victims are buried in the cemetery, which was designated by former president Kim Dae-Jung (news - web sites) as a sacred place for South Korea (news - web sites)'s democratic movement.
The students from Hanchongryon, outlawed by the South Korean government as a pro-North Korea (news - web sites) organization, denounced what they called Roh's pro-US statements during his trip to meet his US counterpart George W. Bush, Yonhap said.
Roh took office in February with support from unions, liberal groups and radical students who wanted the former human rights lawyer to speak with his own voice in dealings with Washington.
Recent pro-US statements, however, have Roh's supporters questioning his loyalties.
Before his US trip, Roh urged Washington to engage in direct talks with Pyongyang, ruffling the feathers of US officials who seek to muster international pressure on North Korea to abandon its nuclear ambitions.
But Roh and Bush warned in a joint statement after their talks that they would "not tolerate" a nuclear North Korea, and stressed their unity on the fundamentals of the North Korea question.
"President Roh must apologize for his humiliating pro-US diplomacy and retract the joint statement," the students said in a statement.
In commentaries marking the Gwangju anniversary, North Korean newspapers threw support behind Hangchongryon.
The North's ruling Workers Party newspaper, Rodong Sinmun, urged South Koreans to rise up against what it called a US attempt to bring "a storm of nuclear war" to the Korean peninsula.
"As long as the US policy of aggression against the DPRK (North Korea) and its military occupation of South Korea are allowed, it is impossible for the Koreans to live in peace even a moment, remove the danger of war from the Korean peninsula and reunify the country," it said.
Will they also protest on June 25th, the 53rd anniversary of the event where the N. Korean military killed, I hear, more than two school girls?
No, to them, it is an unfortunate tragedy that we should not make a big deal out of. Lefties, they are same all over the world.
It is doubtful NK will attack, but not doubtful that he will blackmail. The Hyundai financial group has been funneling money to NK, and the SK state is providing "rice and fertilizer."
A bizarre circumstance. We need to get our troops moved quickly south, and reduce the forces. Roh came at a very good time for us--
It will be held on June 13, 2003. The rally in Seoul is at the Seoul City Plaza, where the huge pro-American rally was held on March 1, 2003.
You can go to their website and find all the details you want. A charming web site name they have, "antimigun", meaning anti-"american military" as you know well. They hope to bring out their own million crowd. We will see how many they can mobilize. I suspect that local militant teacher's union will probably encourage their pupils to attend their rally, allowing them to cut their classes. But the tide seems to be turning against blantant anti-Americanism. This time they are sailing against the wind.
Roh is not happy that these guys try to undo what he did in U.S. This time around, Roh might crack down on them.
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