When pressed about anti-American
government and anti-USFK attitudes in Korea, one of the most common responses
you get from the media, and even from many expatriate, is that only a small
minority of university students harbor such great hatred.This is wrong. It has a slight grain of truth in that it is the hard core students (leftists like in the 1930s who were so infatuated with the "idea" of socialism and disgruntled with their own society they could quote Communist propaganda) that keep the fires of hate the U.S. burning between the "scandals".
It is also true that the vast majority of Korean society does not identify with the hard core radicals, because their views on economics, the truth of North Korean society, and other extreme positions alienate most Koreans.
However, you would not get the kind of anti-American and double standard press coverage of USFK if the majority of Koreans do not want to absorb it. The Korean press is mostly free. It plays to the consumers as much as it preps them for the anti-USFK mindset.
The reason the spikes in anti-Americanism become so hot and massive in Korea
is this well of bad feeling that Korean society harbors as a whole. It
is also why minor and major issues, like trade friction that go on between all
nations or the 2000 minor water pollution case, are blown up to the point that
even Canadian and other expats who are not prone to defending the U.S. government
or military become irritated by the level of Korean ferocity.
The only conclusion to make is that the vast majority of Korean society share
many of the base assumptions of the radicals. Koreans are capitalists
through and through and recognize the limits of the North's "good-will", but
anti-globalization, anti-IMF, anti-WTO, anti-U.S. hegemony, and especially anti-USFK
are common features in the majority and minority's way of thinking.You could argue that many of those positions are shared by other groups around the world including some in the U.S. True. But, some keen observers of South Korean society have pointed out frequently that in South Korea such attitudes are taken to great lengths and have a direct impact on foreigners living in Korea, especially American soldiers.
In other words, you don't see many Europeans or Americans raiding U.S. bases in violent protests or raiding the American Chamber of Commerce. The acts of violence in anti-globalization are isolated and condemned, but in Korea anti-Americanism including some violence is more of a routine.
Those of us who have had the misfortune of traveling alone in Korea and being accosted for being a non-Korean Westerner understand the differences between anti-globalization and anti-American rhetoric in Europe and in Korea.
