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Four Dead, One Missing In West Sea Battle S-N Korean Navy Ships Trade Fire; 4 Killed, One MissingThis was the headline that put a dent - a small one - in South Korea’s euphoria during their impressive advance in the soccer World Cup they were co-hosting with Japan in 2002. As Kim Jong Il, known for jealousy, sought to take away some of the South's international glory, South Korean society (briefly) asked, “How could they do this to us?” ---- for about a week. 2 |
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Meanwhile, just a few short
weeks later, the June 13th
crushing death of two middle school girls by a USFK armored
vehicle on a public road -- sent Korean society into an orgy of hate
that had two rounds lasting months, eventually taking up most of the
year and the first quarter of 2003.
It even had Korean presidential hopefuls in far away December planning visits with the parents of the dead girls -- with media in tow. The (bitterly) funny thing is ----- Funeral No Shows His reference at the end is to the United States - Despite the hostility between the US and North Korea, the US has paid the North to 3 |
allow it
send teams across the countryside - under North Korean supervision
to be sure - to search for the remains of GIs who died in the Korean
War.
The funeral for the dead ROK sailors who died defending their nation's territorial waters was also held in an obscure location some claimed was chosen because the media and general public could not gain access to it - so coverage of it would not offend Pyongyang. Whatever the case, it was absolutely clear the South Korean government did not want the clash to derail the policy of good vibes between the North and South where South Korea constantly walks on eggshells to avoid offending the temperamental North Korean regime.
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The
actions of the Kim Dae Jung administration should have raised
heckles, but the odd thing about the sea battle was the
general lack of
reaction
by
South Korean society as a whole.
"How could you let this happen?" "Why didn't you know it beforehand?" "Why didn't you prevent it?" That is exactly the kind of thought you saw expressed in the press and in the people. Very little like, "Kim Jong Il, you bastard!! After all our good will, you do THIS to US!!!" But before we look at this, let’s look at the actions of the Korean government that stepped in quickly to defuse any potential North Korean backlash -- (for a society obviously willing to follow its lead) ---- 5 |
North `regrets` battle, seeks talks 2002.07.25 6 |
Some
opposition politicians and newspaper editorialists complained about
how quickly the Kim Dae Jung administration accepted the North's
apology - and the claim the shoot out was "an accident" -- however,
as noted above, South Korean society did not go crazy. Not in
any sense of the word. Their anger was against the South Korean government for not being
prepared for such a clash and prevent it beforehand. Very
little anger was
 directed against Pyongyang. Contrast that
with the reaction to repeated apologies by US officials just a few
months later after the US armored vehicle crushed the two middle
school girls north of Seoul :
(The image was widely displayed on the internet in Korea and in some protests. An American English instructor said her elementary school students brought in small poster cards with the image and information about GI Crimes similar to a baseball player card in the US.)
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Flash back to the 6 South Korean soldiers killed in an armed, planned act of aggression just a few months earlier -- Kim accepts `apology` 8 |
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But the Kim administration did more than
accept a quick “kind of” apology from Pyongyang and not even
from dear leader Kim Jong Il --
I was thankful the Korean press did pour forth similar anger at the North’s “apology” as they did those of the US government over the tank accident
That Was An Apology? 9 |
 (left - the much fewer and smaller pro-American civic groups
that do criticize North Korea heavily are usually above the age
of 60 and also veterans. The older generations are the only
segment in Korean society that still fits the lie “most Koreans
want US troops to stay.” See this link about the “radical
student” myth.)
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Now, back to how little heat was put on North Korea while the
press attacked the South Korean government and South Korean
society pretty much ignored the whole thing… If you do a search of the English language archives of the major Korean press, you will find many more stories about how the South Korean military should have known about the attack from intelligence, or that the Korean military had the capability to respond with more fire power but were ordered not to do so for fear of hurting the Sunshine Policy of reconciliation. Most of the heat was attacks on the Sunshine Policy and Kim Dae Jung administration - with shots fired back in support of it by politicians in Kim’s party and “pro-Unification” civic groups who sought to minimize the West Sea Battle, but there wasn’t much on the “bastard North Koreans.” When a fart by a US soldier causes a chorus of “Yankee Go Home!" Below is the level of criticism the North received for a short time --
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The North said, “Those in the military command of the South committed provocations to pour cold water on unification fervor and the inter-Korean reconciliation process.” By contrast, in the South the military is being harshly criticized for allowing massive damage during the battle by loosening its defense readiness because military leaders were too much influenced by the sunshine policy. This boiling criticism against the "political soldiers" of the South Korean military makes it difficult for South Koreans to take the North's charges seriously.
That describes the Korean reaction to the
sea battle well -- a short burst of “boiling criticism” aimed
mostly at the South Korean government.
[EDITORIALS] Sunshine casts a shadow Joongang Daily 7.1.02 Did the South Korean military react properly to North Korea's naval provocation in the Yellow Sea? We believe that the sunshine policy played a part in our navy's poor response to the North's attack. Evidence is growing that the South's military leadership was hesitant to order counterattacks despite assuring us that both security and rapprochement are pillars of our North Korea policy. The military was careless; our warships were out of firing range of the patrol boats they were protecting. Our military leaders should be held responsible for the sinking of a South Korean naval vessel that left four crewmen killed, one missing and 19 injured. 12 |
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Some of this is internal Korean politics attacking the Kim Dae
Jung administration. Much of it is justifiable criticism. It
only relates to anti-Americanism by providing an example of how
other tragic events in Korea are handled by a society that
routinely vents great amounts of anger and frustration at USFK
and the US, but can’t work themselves up much when it comes to
everybody else especially their “brothers to the North” -- (well
maybe against the Japanese)
By itself, it is really striking to see how little condemnation was heaped on the people really responsible for the attack - the North Koreans - even when the Sunshine policy of President Kim Dae Jung was lambasted. And the message about the nature of the attack was far from unified --
[TODAY] Scrap 'sunshine'? Then what? Joongang Daily 7.4.02 Did the hardliners in North Korea attack the South Korean navy ships with firm determination that they would risk a war if necessary for their regime's survival? It hardly seems likely. 13 |
The situation seems to require an apology and a promise from North Korea that such incidents will never happen again. But calling for a complete end to the sunshine policy because of the incident on Saturday is too rash. It is important that the sun keeps its warmth throughout the tension between North Korea and the United States. The sudden attack of the North Korean ship on ours was not because of the sunshine policy but because of a strategic mistake in failing to station ships within firing distance from the speedboats that blocked the path of the North Korean ships. We offered a weak spot for the North Koreans to exploit. Look at the tactics in this argument -- the idea of “intention” in the attack is dismissed by saying “it would have meant they were asking for total war.” Then the North’s nuclear bomb making efforts are just tension between “the US and North Korea” -- I guess the South isn’t concerned. (And the reality is they aren’t. A poll I quoted on another page of the 6th Edition of the newsletter showed only 9% of South Koreans believed the nuclear crisis was something their government should focus policy on!! You constantly read about the nuclear crisis being between “the US and North Korea” with all the emphasis on the US “ending its hardline policy toward Pyongyang.”) And then the whopper comes at the end when it seems this regular columnist for one of Korea’s major newspaper groups argues South Korea is to blame for the attack, because it left itself open to attack?!?!?! Remember, in the 2002 Tank Accident orgy of hate, average Koreans believed the US soldiers killed the two girls on purpose, because the Korean media kept quoting the anti-American civic groups ad nauseaum and sometimes directly making the claim themselves (the MBC network in particular). But what about the running sea battle? 14 |
Accidental or Premeditated? Naval Clash Divides the NationRemember how I said the Korean media’s anger lasted about a week, let’s look at how quickly they managed to return to the status quo message -- This opinion piece came almost one month after the attack --
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(I can almost hear the university students in the background signing out loud their favorite slogan, “The US is THE obstacle to Unification!!”)
Just when least expected, the naval clash in the Yellow Sea
occurred. The sudden attack by North Korean warships on South
Korean patrol ships in the Yellow Sea seemed to lend credibility
to what
the hard-liners
in the U.S. government were saying. Even
after the attack, the South Korean government said that it would
go on with its old policies and stance on North Korea as if
nothing had happened. Gee golly, if the Korean press and people were only as forgiving to the American bastards…. 16 |
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There was also just a small minority in the nonetheless widely read press that did actively support the university students and labor movement’s thesis the South was to blame for the attack, because its fishing boats had violated the divide. Suspicions loom over fishing boats near sea border Joongang Ilbo 7.5.02
It was
found Wednesday that fishermen based on Yeonpyeong Island
caught almost three times as much in the days leading up to
Saturday's deadly North-South sea battle, adding weight to
reports by fishermen that boats fishing too close to the
Northern Limit Line sparked the clash in the Yellow Sea.
Let’s think about this for a minute. From other reports, we know the North Korean navy, sometimes accompanied by fishing boats, had been crossing into South Korean waters 10 to 15 times a year, and in fact, by June of 2002, they had already crossed 11 times that year.
The Korean navy had boarded some of the North’s fishing boats about a week before which is likely why the North decided “to teach them a lesson.” 17 |
How many times during these incursions into the South’s waters did the South shoot a North Korean ship? None. But using the logic of “the South brought it on itself” due to fishing boats perhaps crossing the line, why hasn’t South Korean society been up in arms demanding attacks on the North Korean boats that do the same? And look at this tid bit of useful information --- the line the South’s boats are accused of crossing WASN’T EVEN the border with North Korea’s territorial waters -- (South Korean boats) often go all out to increase catches by crossing the fishing limit line, 9.6 km south of the NLL, whenever the Navy’s patrol boats look away. (The NLL is the border with the North) No. For the intellectually hip in South Korea, like the person who wrote the Joongang Ilbo editorial, and like a great many in Korea's universities.... ....the Sunshine Policy good vibes must continue to flow even when North Korean military boats move into South Korea's internationally defined territorial waters and and shoot up the South Korean navy wounding 22 of its sailors and killing 6!! Even worse, some push the good vibes to the point of laying the blame on South Korean fishing vessels which do not violate North Korean waters ---- but some barrier line drawn up by the South Korean government to create a buffer zone between it and the territorial waters line ------ in an effort by the South Korean government to prevent such clashes in the first place!!! It boggles the mind... 18 |
 If
only Korean academia and most of the media were this forgiving ---
spent this much effort stretching their minds to find excuses for
the bad acts of USFK members or the American government -- or even
just the accidents -- like in this photo of the two GIs involved in
the 2002 Tank Accident leaving a police station after one of the
times they were brought in for questioning.But --- there is positive news about the West Sea Battle in relation to the US-SK relationship. A year after the good feeling of the World Cup had left, and after the massive orgy of hate that filled most of 2002 had calmed down, once the US media began running almost daily stories about it... ....when the 1 year anniversary of the Tank Accident was approaching --- which was the same exact time the anniversary of the West Sea Battle was due ----- the Korean media as a whole had discovered the bitter irony of how the South had treated the death of those 6 saliors and that of the 2 middle school girls. And the Korean media did scold itself and Korean society about it. What follows are exerts from that news coverage. If the Korean media were consistent in searching out such hypocrisy and plain wrong thought, or if it were just diligent in searching out its own thoughts as it reported things about USFK and the US-SK relationship, the alliance would be in much better shape, and I would not be spending so much time calling for it to end. 19 |
First Anniversary of Naval Clash Korea Times 06.27.03
But it is regrettable that their sacrifice seems to have been
forgotten as the memorial day
has failed to win nationwide concern as paid to the first
anniversary of the death of two schoolgirls
run over by a United States military vehicle on June 15. The
entire nation mourned the tragic death of the two girls, with
hundreds of thousands of people taking part in candlelight
vigils in Seoul and other major cities around the country.
(right - mother of a sailor at his memorial) In contrast, the death of the six sailors looks increasingly like it will only be remembered by their bereaved families and the military, despite their contribution to national defense. The clash occurred only hours before the World Cup semifinal match between South Korea and Turkey in Seoul, attracting global attention. Kim Jong Il also ordered a Korean passenger plane blown up out of jealousy of Seoul hosting the Olympics in 1988. [EDITORIALS] Our heroes deserve better Joongang Daily 06.18.03 The clash was not incidental, but a provocation by the North Korean military. Around the same time two school-girls were crushed by a U.S. military vehicle. If only one-tenth of the attention paid to the girls were given to the war heroes, the bereaved families might not have such enormous feelings of alienation and grief. |
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In a telling anecdote, it is said that Condoleezza Rice, the White House's national security adviser, .asked a Korean government official if he knew the names of the two middle school girls killed last year by a U.S. armored vehicle He answered yes right away. Then she asked if he knew any of the names of the sailors killed in the West Sea battle. The official stuttered, unable to answer the question. This embarrassing incident shows us how ridiculous our country may seem to the world. As of the date of the edit of this page (Dec 2005), some have criticized the Bush White House staff of being horribly undiplomatic with such tough talk toward not just South Korea - but even toward Kim Jong Il's medieval regime. I believe, if the US would speak like this more, especially with our allies, it might put an end to a nation like South Korea enjoying the benefits of a close strategic alliance while kicking the US military and America in the balls as a part of making Korean society feel better about having to have aid from another nation. It should be intolerable to have to listen and watch South Korea regularly foment anti-US sentiment as a part of social culture --- while at the same time having to coordinate the defense of that same Korean society. It is the omission of speaking the obvious that leaves tens of thousands of Americans in South Korea ready to defend it at the drop of a hat - with hundreds of thousands more GIs around the world already ear marked for Korean War II if it should ever break out ---- while South Korean society views those same troops and that same relationship --- as a cancer. Crowd 110,000-strong at rally against North Joongang Daily 06.23.03
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The second half was called a “national mass meeting,” which included a memorial service for soldiers killed in the Yellow Sea naval battle last year and criticism of the North’s government and pro-North sentiment in the South. Participants shouted, “Dae Han Min Guk,” the official name of Korea, while waving both the Korean and American flags. As of this edit -- Dec 2005 -- the pro-American demonstrations have become somewhat more frequent -- a few times a year -- though nothing like the well disciplined frequent anti-US rallies by the long time civic leaders like The Priest. This is somewhat new in the culture surrounding anti-Americanism in South Korea. Normally, Korea will "turtle" for a few months whenever it seems the US government has listened too earnestly to the Korean protests and might be rethinking its committment to the South --- as when in 2000 they announced plans to close down close to 50% of US bases and move below the Han river away from the DMZ --- or when the US media covers anti-US attitudes in the South. But, as time moved away from the orgy of hate that ended in the early months of 2003, as it passed away more and more ----- but USFK maintained its drive to consolidate its bases and even downsize the number of GIs inside Korea by 1/3rd, and as the drift in the alliance kept widening despite Korean society keeping pretty quiet, as far as large, violent anti-US protests go as well as less drum beating for those protests by the press... ...the elements in South Korean society that have long seen much value in the US relationship have finally started to get around to actively fighting for a better interpretation of it. It is a very healthy sign. But, as of this moment, it is still too small compared to the activity of the dedicated anti-US groups, Korean university education, the Korean Teachers Union that makes anti-US lesson plans for kids of all ages in public school, the Korean Labor Unions, and even President Roh's administration - particularly the Unification Minister who frequently puts quotes out in the press about how the US has been the cause of Korea's problems going back to the late 19th century. It will take more frequent pro-US editorials and much more activity by pro-US NGOs to even reach parity with the long established anti-US process. 21 |
[EDITORIALS] “
Very little outrage was
directed at North Korea. The press voiced some for about a
week, but the people did not rise to the occasion as they
soon would over the USFK accident. 
Seoul welcomed the North's move. “The message should be regarded
as the North's clear apology for the naval clash,”
(side
note - in fact, the Korean press often said USFK did not
apologize for the accident “for several weeks” even though they
had to have known the USFK commander and representatives went to
the hospital the day of the accident and USFK held a candle
light vigil one week later with VIPs of the military and Embassy
and the Korean government
as well as helicopter fly over --- none of that made the
news….the image above left is of that vigil…..as the Korean
press tried to calm the anti-Americanism down in early 2003, one
of the frequent notes hit was “If the US had not been so callous
at first, this could have all been avoided”!!)
A
large demonstration was held at City Hall plaza Saturday
afternoon in protest of North Korea’s nuclear ambitions.
An estimated 110,000
demonstrators protested Kim
Jong-il’s rule in the North, called for a strengthened alliance
between the South and United States and said a prayer in memory
of those lost during the Korean War. The protesters also
criticized the Korean Teachers and Educational Workers Union for
what they called anti-American teachings.