SOUTH KOREA: ANTI-WAR PROTESTERS CLASHED WITH RIOT POLICE AFTER THE COUNTRY'S PRESIDENT GAVE A SPEECH TO THE NATIONAL ASSEMBLY URGING TO BACK THE DISPATCH OF NON-COMBAT TROOPS TO THE U.S.-LED WAR ON IRAQ
Record ID:
208493
SOUTH KOREA: ANTI-WAR PROTESTERS CLASHED WITH RIOT POLICE AFTER THE COUNTRY'S PRESIDENT GAVE A SPEECH TO THE NATIONAL ASSEMBLY URGING TO BACK THE DISPATCH OF NON-COMBAT TROOPS TO THE U.S.-LED WAR ON IRAQ
- Title: SOUTH KOREA: ANTI-WAR PROTESTERS CLASHED WITH RIOT POLICE AFTER THE COUNTRY'S PRESIDENT GAVE A SPEECH TO THE NATIONAL ASSEMBLY URGING TO BACK THE DISPATCH OF NON-COMBAT TROOPS TO THE U.S.-LED WAR ON IRAQ
- Date: 2nd April 2003
- Summary: (U2) SEOUL, SOUTH KOREA (APRIL 2, 2003) (REUTERS) 1. LV OF PROTESTERS 0.04 2. SV OF PROTESTERS CLASHING WITH RIOT POLICE NEAR NATIONAL ASSEMBLY (3 SHOTS) 0.31 3. SV INJURED MAN (2 SHOTS) 0.46 4. SV PROTESTERS CLASHING WITH RIOT POLICE (6 SHOTS) 1.40 5. LV OF DEMONSTRATION (2 SHOTS) 1.51 6. SV PROTESTERS NEAR POLICE VANS, ONE CLIMBING A VAN (2 SHOTS) 2.03 7. SLV RIOT POLICE 2.08 8. LV/SV OF SOUTH KOREAN PRESIDENT ROH MOO-HYUN ARRIVING (2 SHOTS) 2.24 9. LV MEMBERS OF NATIONAL ASSEMBLY 2.31 10. LV/MCU (Korean) SOUTH KOREAN PRESIDENT ROH MOO-HYUN SAYING: "Rather than to be chained to a justification, to help the United States during difficult times and strengthen U.S.-South Korean ties by respecting the long-time friendship and alliance is a way to solve the North Korean nuclear issue peacefully." 2.56 11. SV LAWMAKERS AND GUESTS (2 SHOTS) 3.05 12. MCU (Korean) PRESIDENT ROH SAYING: "As long as we don't want it, there will be no war on the Korean Peninsula. If there is no agreement with us, the U.S. will never deal with the North Korean nuclear issue in their way. This promise will be kept." 3.22 13. LV OF ROH SPEAKING 3.29 14. MCU (Korean) ROH SAYING: "It would be imprudent to make a decision that threatens the survival of our people by saying no to the United States' request in order to have an equal relationship in the future." 3.40 15. TV/SV OF ROH LEAVING (3 SHOTS) 3.55 Initials Script is copyright Reuters Limited. All rights reserved
- Embargoed: 17th April 2003 13:00
- Keywords:
- Location: SEOUL, SOUTH KOREA
- Country: South Korea
- Reuters ID: LVAEHV0LCZD3S4LQ0TEKJCI15HWE
- Story Text: Thousands of South Korean anti-war protesters have
clashed with riot police after the country's president gave a
speech to the National Assembly in a last-ditch effort to gain
support for sending non-combat troops to the U.S.-led war in
Iraq.
Taking a big political gamble just weeks into the job,
President Roh Moo-hyun (pronounced NOH MOO-HYON) gave a speech
on Wednesday (April 2) urging parliament to back the dispatch
of non-combat troops to the U.S.-led war in Iraq.
"Rather than to be chained to a justification, to help the
United States during difficult times and strengthen U.S.-South
Korean ties by respecting the long-time friendship and
alliance is a way to solve the North Korean nuclear issue
peacefully," he said.
Roh's intention to send about 700 medical and engineering
personnel to Iraq has sparked widespread protests in South
Korea, but Roh said cementing close ties with Washington was
key to securing peace on the divided Korean peninsula.
Roh's speech came before national assembly members' vote
on whether to send the troops, and local media reported the
lawmakers were likely to start voting in the late afternoon.
Roh told lawmakers that without South Korea's agreement,
U.S. would never attack North Korea in the response to
Pyongyang's nuclear development.
"As long as we don't want it, there will be no war on the
Korean Peninsula. If there is no agreement with us, the U.S.
will never deal with the North Korean nuclear issue in that
way. This promise will be kept," said Roh.
South Korea is one of the United States' closest allies,
but many of Roh's supporters, particularly young voters, chafe
at the presence of 37,000 U.S. troops in the country.
The president himself, who took office on February 25, won
election pledging a more mature and equal partnership with
Washington.
In the speech to the single-chamber National Assembly, Roh
acknowledged the case made by his opponents that the war
against Iraq lacked moral justification. Global politics, he
said, were being driven by the "forces of reality".
But Roh said South Korea could not ignore that its
national interest lay in maintaining close ties with the
United States because of the role it played in deterring
communist North Korea. The estranged neighbours are still
technically at war after the 1950-53 Korean War ended without
a peace treaty.
"It would be imprudent to make a decision that threatens
the survival of our people by saying no to the United States'
request in order to have an equal relationship in the future,"
he said.
Roh left the National Assembly to applause, but about two
thousand anti-war protesters clashed with the police outside
the compound.
The police and police buses blocked the demonstrators from
entering the National Assembly compound to protest the
government's plan to send troops.
Protesters punched and kicked riot police, who pushed back
with their riot shields. At least two protesters were injured.
Conservatives have backed Roh's initiative, citing the
need for U.S. help in defusing tensions generated by communist
North Korea's suspected nuclear arms programme, which the
president said still posed a danger for the South.
Seoul is on high alert incase North Korea seeks to grab
attention during the war against Iraq by conducting a
ballistic missile test that would break deals it reached with
Washington and Tokyo.
The communist country set alarm bells ringing when it
tested a ballistic missile in 1998 that flew across Japan and
into the sea beyond, and U.S. Deputy Secretary of State
Richard Armitage has said a new test was quite possible.
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