The radical student group that is one of the strong anti-American civic groups that often catches the imagination of the Korean people made the news against this week.Radical University Student Union Studied Juche!!News Flash -- or Not
One of my frequent mantras is against the "Radical Student" myth. I have already posted extensively on this topic before. (Try this link) To sum it up in a sentence, the average Korean is not as dedicated in anti-US activity as the "radical" students, and the students push their views to the extreme, but, they nonetheless share much in common thought with the average Korean.
So, it really shouldn't have come as a big suprise to anybody this week when the new student leadership gave files to the media from the previous leadership that showed they were directly seeking to bring North Korean thought into South Korean society---
The juche tracts included a 90-page booklet titled, "Collection of Theses on the Juche Ideology in Commemoration of the 90th Year Since the Birth of Chairman Kim Il-sung: How South Korean Juche Ideologists Are Struggling for the Propagation of the Juche Ideology". Also included were reprinted copies of editorials from the (North) Korean Workers' Party organ Rodong Sinmun, titled, "Let's Construct the Path of an Independent National Economy," and "Let's Arm Ourselves with the Basic Spirit of the Juche Ideology."The "average Korean" is not as extreme in their views as the radical students. The average is not as dedicated in maintaing the anti-US energy produced in the sharp spike/rise in anti-US activity in South Korea. The average Korea is also a die-hard capitalist. But....they do share the basic beliefs of the radicals -- that the typical GI is not a good person, the US has done nothing but mettle in Korea's affairs, that Korean society would eventually be better off without the US-SK alliance, but, they just don't feel the time has been right to put these ideas into policy. In short, the average Korean is much more pragmatic about what having USFK in country does for their economy and security.Former HUFS General Students Association chairman Baik was indicted on December 31 on charges of having led nearly a dozen violent illegal demonstrations including a sit-in on a Pusan pier last July and for his membership of Hanchongryun.