SOUTH KOREA: SOUTH KOREANS STAGE RALLY AGAINST U.S. MILITARY, MOURN GIRLS KILLED IN MILITARY ACCIDENT.

Record ID: 215424

  • Title: SOUTH KOREA: SOUTH KOREANS STAGE RALLY AGAINST U.S. MILITARY, MOURN GIRLS KILLED IN MILITARY ACCIDENT.
  • Date: 14th December 2002
  • Summary: (W4) SEOUL, SOUTH KOREA (DECEMBER 14, 2002) (REUTERS - ACCESS ALL) 1. TV: PEOPLE MARCHING TOWARDS U.S. EMBASSY, HOLDING CANDLES (2 SHOTS) 0.10 2. TV/GV: POLICE BLOCKING PROTESTERS (2 SHOTS) 0.22 3. GV/MV: VARIOUS OF SCUFFLES BETWEEN THE POLICE AND PROTESTERS; INJURED PROTESTER AND POLICEMAN; MORE SCUFFLES (9 SHOTS) 1.18 4. TV/GV/MV
  • Embargoed: 29th December 2002 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: SEOUL, SOUTH KOREA
  • Country: South Korea
  • Reuters ID: LVAAWWOF0NOZUW5UEA6OZSEUYDHH
  • Story Text: Tens of thousands of South Koreans rallied against the
    U.S. military and mourned two girls killed by American
    soldiers in a road accident by holding a candle lit march that
    turned central Seoul into a sea of light.



    Many in the crowd of mostly young people on Saturday
    (December 14) chanted slogans demanding a withdrawal of the
    U.S. military presence aimed at deterring aggression from
    North Korea, even as tensions rose with Pyongyang vowing
    earlier in the week to resume a nuclear programme.

    The protesters, holding candles and singing songs,
    demanded that two U.S. soldiers undergo a new trial for the
    June road accident. A U.S. military tribunal acquitted the
    pair of homicide charges after their armoured vehicle crushed
    two teenagers during a training exercise.

    Local media estimated the crowd in the main avenue leading
    to the presidential Blue House at up to 100,000, with 10,500
    riot police deployed to keep them from marching to the U.S.

    embassy.

    The demonstration was peaceful, almost festive against the
    backdrop of buildings festooned with Christmas holiday
    decorations, with only a few minor scuffles reported.

    Some protesters, their ranks swelled by university
    students on semester break, carried placards calling on the
    United States to sign a non-aggression pact with North Korea.

    Pyongyang is demanding such a pact in exchange for holding
    talks with Washington over its nuclear programme.

    Others carried grisly photos of the schoolgirls' bodies
    sprawled on a roadside and demanded President George W. Bush
    "apologise directly to the Korean people" for the accident.

    In a telephone conversation with South Korean President
    Kim Dae-jung on Friday to discuss the latest North Korean
    developments, Bush conveyed his "deep, personal sadness and
    regret" over the deaths.

    The apology did not completely assuage the anger South
    Koreans have felt about the accident. "
    "He (U.S. President George W. Bush) is saying a lie. So, we
    are quite frustrated and got angry. That is why people
    gathered in this square. You see the huge crowd. All the
    people got angry," said protest leader Mun Jung-hyeon
    (pronounced as MOON JEONG-HYEON).

    Saturday's demonstration was the biggest of almost 50 such
    protests since the accident and highlights the ambivalence
    many young South Koreans have about the 37,000 U.S. troops
    spread across nearly 100 installations in their country.

    The troops are meant to deter North Korean aggression
    against the South. North Korea has some 10,000 artillery
    pieces and much of its 1.1 million strong army arrayed along
    the sealed border with the South less than an hour's drive
    from Seoul.

    But the U.S. military presence is also highly visible in
    this densely populated nation of 48 million people and
    protests about training exercises disrupting civilian life
    have mounted in recent years.

    The demonstrators want changes in the Status of Forces
    Agreement, governing the rights and conduct of U.S. forces in
    Korea, which currently requires U.S. soldiers charged with
    crimes while on duty to be tried in U.S. military tribunals.

    The protests seek wider South Korean jurisdiction over
    U.S. servicemen.

    Saturday's rallies took place just ahead of Thursday's
    presidential election and at a time when North Korea's missile
    and nuclear capabilities have been thrust into the spotlight.

    North Korea said on Thursday it was reactivating a nuclear
    power plant that is believed to be at the centre of a
    suspected, clandestine nuclear weapons programme.

    That disclosure came after a North Korean cargo ship,
    containing 15 Scud missiles, was intercepted by Spain in the
    Arabian Sea on its way to Yemen. The ship, which was handed
    over to U.S. forces, was allowed to continue on its course.



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