USFK is despised in Korea.  The percentage of Koreans who actively feel gratitude toward the role USFK has played in South Korea's defense is dwarfed by the common social feeling that USFK and the US-SK relationship is "a cancer" on Korean society - a cancer they just can't afford to cut out -- yet. 

More people in the United States should have the chance to understand the depths of the anti-U.S. Forces Korea (USFK) environment that our soldiers live under day to day, but the U.S. media skips even important events like the mob attack and captivity of a soldier on the Seoul subway. 

The soldier was forced to attend and participate in an anti-USFK rally for several hours, made to make statements against himself and USFK, and then the Korean police threatened to charge him with assault.  This did not make CNN, Fox, MSNBC, or the network tv news and only a couple of stories ran in the NY and LA Times.

If the U.S. media does mention anti-US sentiment in South Korea, it follows the tone set by the Korean and American governments and what the Korean media tells foreigners: that only a small group of radical students are active in promoting anti-Americanism.  This is wrong.

Any cursory look at the Korean media's promotion of anti-U.S. rhetoric, holding USFK and the American government to a much higher standard than it does its own society, is a clear sign of the popularity of such attitudes.  The Korean press is a mostly free media and as such speaks much of what the Korean people want to hear.  The infamous SES pop music video with lyrics about lost love but images of Kill Americans would not have been made or shown with no public uproar if the views it expressed were not common place.

At best, the majority of Koreans see the U.S. military in Korea as a "necessary evil" but they have created a culture of hate toward USFK that emphasizes the "evil".

Korean society has set the stage for a very massive and ugly explosion against the American military as soon as they really are convinced the North is not a threat.  The spike in anti-US rhetoric among much of the population at the time of the historic 2000 North-South Summit is a clear sign of this fact.

You can also see signs of the process and culture of hate in the frequent spikes in anti-U.S. activism at each new "scandal" whether the cause is major or trivial.

This site will document those spikes and illustrate the process.

These are the three soldiers attacked on the Seoul subway by a mob of anti-USFK activists including an ex-Korean lawmaker.

The soldier on the right was the one held captive.
 
 
 
 
 

Anti-American websites from Korea are common.  Unlike in Beijing or Tehran where many flowers and a show of sympathy was given by citizens whose governments are not so friendly to the U.S. - on 9/12 a small group of Korean adults was already protesting any potential use of force as a reaction to 9-11

For more images like this, see this site.