SOUTH KOREA: STUDENTS STORM INTO U.S. MILITARY BASE DEMANDING WITHDRAWAL OF UNITED STATES TROOPS

Record ID: 646020

  • Title: SOUTH KOREA: STUDENTS STORM INTO U.S. MILITARY BASE DEMANDING WITHDRAWAL OF UNITED STATES TROOPS
  • Date: 12th August 2003
  • Summary: (W3) SEOUL, SOUTH KOREA (AUGUST 11, 2003) (REUTERS) SLV PROTEST RALLY BY STUDENTS AND CIVIC GROUP MEMBERS IN FRONT OF U.S. ARMY HQ (2 SHOTS) SCU STILL PHOTOGRAPH SHOWING STUDENTS SEIZING U.S. ARMOURED VEHICLE; SLV PROTESTERS PUTTING WARNING LETTER ON BARBED WIRES ON A GATE OF MILITARY COMPOUND
  • Embargoed: 27th August 2003 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: POCHON AND SEOUL, SOUTH KOREA
  • Country: South Korea
  • Topics: Politics
  • Reuters ID: LVADU7VL52XW49XNG7GFP12A8XTS
  • Story Text: South Korean students storm into a U.S. military base to demand withdrawal of U.S. troops South Korean student protesters raided a United States (U.S.) military training site on Thursday (August 7, 2003) to demand the withdrawal of U.S. troops from the country at the Rodriguez Range Complex, north of Seoul.
    About a dozen members of the student group Hanchongryon strode into the site carrying American flags, and with South Korean flags draped around their bodies.
    After a struggle between the U.S. combat soldiers, they managed to claim back their U.S. flag and set it ablaze.
    After chanting anti-U.S. slogans, they climbed onto a military vehicle.
    They briefly seized the vehicle and stood on top of it while continuing their protests and waving the South Korean flag. They were later arrested.
    The complex is home to the U.S Army's first Stryker combat team which is equipped with state-of-the-art fighting vehicles.
    The team had moved on Wednesday (August 6) from the training site to Osan Airbase to leave South Korea over the weekend after about 10 day training.
    North Korea's KCNA news agency said the training was "a scout party to ignite another war of aggression".
    South Korean government announced over the weekend that they would take a tough measure against any illegal demonstrations by the student group.
    On Monday (August 11), however, hundreds of Hanchongryon students and some civic group members staged another protest rally outside Seoul's U.S. Army Headquarters. They put a warning letter on barbed wires on a gate of the military compound.
    A civic group leader said the U.S. has raised the threat of a war on the Korean peninsula.
    The United States maintains nearly 100 military installations in South Korea as a deterrent against the communist North.
    The United States and South Korea are formal military allies. But pollution, noise and traffic from the U.S.
    bases and occasional crimes by American troops have been a source of friction with communities near U.S. facilities.
    About 37,000 U.S. soldiers are stationed in South Korea, most near the Demilitarised Zone (DMZ), a no-man's land that has separated North and South Korea since the 1950-53 Korean War.
    The two Koreas are still technically at war because the conflict ended in a truce.
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