Tragic Death of Two Middle School Girls
unleashes orgy of hate USFK / US

(Image to the left is of a anti-US rally for high school and middle school students.  It has become very common for the anti-US civic groups to actively promote hatred among kids including elementary school children and the production of anti-American lyrics set to popular kids tunes.  Many of the videos from the teen rallies also show the leftist labor party presidential candidate giving speeches at them.)

Korean society used the accident for half a year of intense hate leading to a handful of injuries to US soldiers in violent protests and unprovoked attacks in the street.  Koreans wanted murder charges brought against the two soldiers in the vehicle, and they did pressure the US military to court martial them for manslaughter.  This only added fuel to the fire, and the acquittal caused an explosion of hate that even caught the attention of the American media.  

It will help people who have never lived in Korea who might "understand" why Koreans could get angry at the horrific death of two middle school girls to look at another incident that took place near to the date of the tank accident.

Near the end of the World Cup soccer games, North Korea staged a running sea battle in South Korean waters.  At least 5 South Korean soldiers were killed and 22 others wounded.  The "public outrage" over this premeditated killing of S. Koreans defending their country lasted no more than one week, and most of the anger was in the media, and it was directed at South Korean military intelligence for not having predicted the North's intentions.  

The death of the middle school girls was terrible, but an accident.  The death and injury of many more Koreans at the hands of North Korea was a planned act of aggression.

But only the US experienced months of rabid hatred.

Another element of the accident to take note of is the lack of press coverage it got until after the World Cup had finished and all the foreign tourists and media had left.

The Korea Herald didn't report it at the time.  The Korea Times ran a story the day after the accident, but fell silent afterwards.  And the Korean language media did not start running almost daily news of it until a few weeks later.

Anti-US activity had been high throughout 2002 and the second half of 2001.  I have reviewed much of it in this newsletter.  (And this fact should show people that the amount of hatred displayed over the tank accident was not generated by that event alone)  

But, a few weeks before the World Cup opening ceremonies in Korea, President Kim Dae Jung and the Korean media put the word out that anti-Americanism seen by the foreign press would hurt Korea's image and potentially its economy if US consumers became angry.

And the Korean people listened.  The many large anti-US rallies that had been going on for months died as did the negative press coverage that was drum beating the masses into the streets in the first place.

Korean are extremely worried about their global image to the point of suing Jay Leno for dog eating jokes.  They even pass congressional statements condemning Leno for insulting the Korean people.

The Korea Times June 14th story the day after the accident did mention that the base
 commander of USFK apologized for the accident, but this was ignored when Korea began working itself into a frenzy after the WC left.  The Korea Times also prepped the readers how to feel by saying the USFK had apologized most likely as an attempt to hold off anti-American protests.

After the Times article, virtually nothing was heard for the next two to three weeks.  Luckily for the foreign readers, the Stars and Stripes did report on events during this period:

Some 400 soldiers attended the vigil as well as top VIPs of USFK and the US Embassy.  (The families of the two girls backed out at the last minute).  

The vigil included songs and elements following Korean customs for deaths.  It also included a helicopter flyover tribute.  The soldiers sang the first stanza of "Amazing Grace" and the Korean national anthem was played followed by that of the US.  At the end of the ceremonies, the VIPs placed their candles at the foot of two large photos of the girls and the nearly 400 soldiers spontaneously followed.

Too bad the Koreans didn't hear about it.

The Korean media also played up a different version of the accident than S&S:

KT:  Witnesses blamed the driver for careless driving while trying to pass a slower moving vehicle by using the shoulder of the road.  

This is physically impossible, because there is no shoulder of the road where the accident happened.   See this link for photo slides that not only shows the site of the accident, it also shows the gory bodies of the crushed girls and "proves" USFK lied about the accident and killed the girls on purpose.  

A news report on MBC (one of three government sponsored networks in Korea) also had a former Korean military tank driver show using images of the dead bodies how the only way the injuries the girls suffered could have occurred is if one US soldier was standing on the outside of the tank directing the driver how to run over them.

 S&S:  At the time of the accident, the convoy had rounded a bend in the road and was traveling uphill while a column of Bradley fighting vehicles was going in the other direction, Maka said.

 South Korean police, who showed photos of the accident scene to S&S, said the AVLM is wider than the lane it was traveling in and extended about 30 inches off the road.

Another S&S articles reported on a town hall meeting held about 10 days after the accident when the accident report was completed.  It tried to dispel the rumor and false information promoted by the Korean press and sometimes the K. government.

 The investigation concluded that - contrary to early news reports - the vehicle was not wider than the lane in which the vehicle traveled.  The lane is 3.7 meters wide, it reported, and the AVLM is 3.65 meters wide.  Five US military eyewitnesses said the girls were on the road when they were struck.

 There is no shoulder on that stretch of the road, Macdonald said:  "You have to be walking on the road if you're walking in that direction."

One of the cries from the Koreans after the acquittal of the soldiers who were operating the tank was, "If the soldiers didn't kill them, who did?"

They mind-blocked the fact that USFK claimed responsibility and settled the case by monetary settlement as per South Korean judicial system.

But to be honest, the girls must share some of the responsibility for the accident.  As noted above, the tank that killed them was not the first to pass them.  It was the third or fourth.

The girls had the opportunity to cross the street or walk to their right up the grassy embankment and wait for the convoy to pass.  They chose to walk right along side the road and the column of tanks.

USFK is still at fault too, because the soldiers could have stopped and fixed their communication equipment that was not functioning properly.

Another report by MBC on the accident also falsely reported that Korean soldiers taking part in the military exercises got into a fist fight with the US soldiers who killed the girls, because the soldiers were laughing and joking about the accident.

To this day, many South Koreans will tell you that one reason Korean society exploded was because of the two soldiers were joking about the accident on the scene.

Besides the media, politicians, and other institutions in Korean society that promote hatred of USFK/US, the internet is another key source of promotion.

Korea is an internet society.  "PC Bangs" or rooms are internet cafes with 30+ high speed access computers open 24 hours a day 365 days a year.  You can locate them everywhere in cities large or small.  

To see what kind of information is popular on these sites, visit Voice of the People or Base21.  Also try Green Korea and USFK crimes.

Here is a specific example of the kind of "journalism" Koreans like to read on the net:

We are still investigating whether the incident is an accident or intentional.  We will find out the truth and punish accordingly.

How can you find common ground with people who easily believe US soldiers would run over Korean children on purpose?

But many Korean people do believe it.

If you heard that your daughters, going to their friends' birthday were killed for no particular reason at all, can you imagine your anger?

 Moreover, if the slayers are acquitted of the charge by an unequal treaty, can you understand this situation.  USFK are continuing to commit crimes.

As noted above, in normal Korean practice, a driver in a fatal accident reaches a monetary settlement with the family of the victim.  If such a settlement can't be reached, then the person can land in jail.  It is rare that a traffic accident results in jail time unless extreme negligence is at fault.

Since you too are from a proud nation with human rights and freedoms, we hope you will consider your responsibility in this and take steps to prevent similar crimes.

Do you want to sit idly by while your nation is called the "axis of devil" without knowing the criminal acts done by USFK?

The pictures from the investigation seemed to be taken in a different location than the accident spot.

We should check if they couldn't see 30 meters from the exact spot, to know if the driver really couldn't find the students.

Moreover, they should have been able to see the two, because at the time the weather was clear and they were wearing bright clothing.  Therefore, their arguments show us some inabilities of American soldiers.

The provost said that the track commander saw the girls 30 meters away before and it took 8 seconds to meet up with them.   He said the commander called the driver by radio three times to warn that there were pedestrians several meters ahead, however, the driver didn't hear the warning.  Here, there are two problems.  First, the American force's battle ability is so wonderful!!!  Even though they are in a war, they will not be able to receive commander's orders, going on toward their enemy's camp without stopping.

Believe me.  I have taught enough Korean adults - many above the age of the university students who wrote the above website article - to know that this kind of "logic" wins in Korean society, and information from USFK or the US Embassy will be ignored because of the same "will to hate" that makes idiotic arguments like the one quoted above acceptable to Korean adults.

After the Korea Times June 14th story on the accident, another didn't run until June 27th, and it was not primarily concerned with the deaths.                                                                

Korea Times 6-27-2002

Two reporters affiliated with an internet news firm have been under arrest since Wednesday evening on charges of trespassing on territory occupied by US military facilities, local police in Uijongbu said yesterday.

Police officers are also examining the claims by some witnesses that the two reporters were beaten with clubs and dragged in chains as they were being taken into US military police custody.

This was the violent protest whose video I linked above.  The "reporters" and university activists who maintain the websites cut the fence and broke into the base.  The Korea Times did not report that some 9 US soldiers were treated in the hospital for wounds suffered from thrown concrete.

The next day, the times reported the plight of the "reporters":

The group said its two reporters were beat harshly and tied up with wire by US soldiers when they were detained...

 Protesters tore down barbed wire ringing Camp Red Cloud just outside Seoul to enter the base.  US soldiers hit the protesters with shields and steel batons.

Here is the Stars and Stripes version of events that day:

An uneasy quiet hung over this U.S. Army camp Thursday after nine American soldiers and a South Korean policeman were injured in violent protests over the deaths of two teens killed June 13 by a U.S. armored vehicle.

Maka said nine soldiers suffered minor injures Wednesday, most from paving stones the protesters hurled over the fence.

 By 4 p.m., about 200 protesters gathered at the main gate, but more were arriving.  They began hurling rocks and paving stones over the fence at guards inside. Two hours later, protesters cut a hole in the fence and a dozen crawled inside and began attacking guards, base officials said.

They were subdued, however, and were turned over to South Korean police. Two of the people apprehended inside the fence were journalists.

After the Korean media protests over the treatment of Korean internet "journalists" there was not another story until July 5th.

And on July 8th the Korean government took up the cause of the journalists when its loosely affiliated Human Rights Commission demanded to interrogate the US MPs who arrested the activists who broke into the base.  They fined USFK when it did not respond.

The first week in July, after the World Cup left on July 1st, witnessed the return of other anti-US related stories the Korean press uses periodically.

One story was about the on-going anger over the plan to build US Embassy structures on a historical site.  I reviewed this event on another page.  See the index to this newsletter.

The other was on environmental pollution caused by USFK bases.  This is a perfect long-term issue to use.  I have reviewed it in these newsletters too.

The Korea Herald editor even threw in trade issues in this barrage of re-awakened anti-American feelings in the Korean press:

The U.S. proposals for liberalizing trade in services announced Monday are uniquely comprehensive and specific. Washington's initial requests to 144 countries in 12 service areas, ranging from movie making to power generation, have left almost no stone unturned.

At the same time, these demands are extremely concrete, allowing little room for its trade partners to wiggle out of the agreement.

Gee golly wilikers.  All this time I thought signed agreements were supposed to be binding.

Worse still, the U.S. Trade Representative makes it clear industrialized and newly industrializing economies, like Korea, are major targets.

Korea is one of the richest nations on earth (which Koreans take great pride in) but they want to have their cake and eat it too.

With this sudden flurry of anti-US issues coming out, it looked as if the WC had left just in time!

The Korea Herald showed the line the public would keep throughout this long running hate festival on the 8th of July when she commented on (another) apology by USFK commanders by stating the commonly held opinion:  "We welcome his statement, albeit belated."

It does not matter that USFK and US Embassy people apologized and did more long before July 8th.  In fact, despite actual reports of such apologizes, the Korean public continued to insist that one of the primary causes of Korean rage was USFK ignoring the accident.

What is unfortunate is that he failed to explain why he had to reverse the U.S.  military's earlier stance to account for the death of the two innocent teenagers. Those who wondered what LaPorte meant by "corrective actions" to be taken to prevent therecurrence of similar accidents...

 These are the descriptions of the situation where the girls were struck from the initial investigation jointly conducted by the U.S. military and Korean police. Regrettably, however, these descriptions have only brewed doubts about the credibility of the investigation. Those who are knowledgeable about operations of the armored vehicles question the testimonies by American witnesses.

The Lawyers for Democratic Society, a leading Korean civic group, appealed that the Korean government reinvestigate the case on the ground that the initial probe is unreliable.

It is none other than the unchallenged truth that can save the goodwill and friendly alliance between the two nations and further help prevent similar disasters in the future.

And I will bet you a million dollars I don't have that if a completely run Korean investigation came up with the same exact results, the Korean press would have screamed for another investigation.

I have seen it before.

This is the process.  Apologies are never sincere enough and detailed explanations only cause "doubts" --- unless it matches what Korea's righteous rage wants to hear.

Nobody every questions the motives of the Korean witnesses even in cases like the 1995 subway incident.  That event produced an equally loud explosion of hate by Koreans.

Back then, a Korean man claimed that he was protecting the "honor" of a Korean woman who was being sexually harassed by a U.S. MP.  The woman testified in court that she was the soldier's wife and he had his arm around her waste.  She said when she explained to the Korean man that the GI was her husband and everything was fine, the Korean spit on her and slapped her face, and that started the fight that led to a brawl involving about 13 US soldiers and family members and over 50 Koreans.

I used to have, in the mid-1990s, female adult students (20-50 years old) who told me they didn't feel comfortable walking in the street with me alone in the street after class in the city of 250,000 I was teaching in, because particularly the older generations would glare at them and think they were "whores" and I was a soldier.

Despite the testimony of the Korean wife, the soldier was found guilty of assaulting the Korean man and sentenced to six months in jail even though the prosecution or the Korean man never produced another woman to say she was the one harassed.  The Korean wife was also found guilty of a crime and fined.

I have never seen a case where a US soldier was found not guilty in a Korean court.

Later stories in the 2002 tank accident kept the hate alive by questioning whether USFK was obstructing justice:

The Korea Times ran this story on the 10th:

``We received no response from United States Forces Korea (USFK) about our  request for the appearance of the two Americans who operated the vehicle,'' a prosecutor at the Uijongbu branch of the Seoul District Public Prosecutor's Office said.

Here was an article from the Herald on the 9th:

U.S. Forces Korea (USFK) said it decided not to send the two soldiers because of local protesters holding a rally in front of the prosecutor's office.

Korean protesters held a rally in front of the office demanding a trial of the two Americans at a Korean court, reinvestigation by local prosecutors and a quick compensation for the family.

In fact, USFK did bring the soldiers for the interview on the 10th, but they did not call ahead in order to give the prosecutor's office less time to call the civic groups and media to organize a protest.

Here is another article that ran on the 9th:

Local civic groups are up in arms about what they call the U.S. army's high-handedness and insincerity in handling the recent deaths of two South Korean schoolgirls, who were accidentally run over by one of its armored vehicles.

 The rage has intensified since the two soldiers involved failed to appear before local prosecutors on Monday, citing safety concerns.

 ``It is clear that the United States Forces Korea (USFK) is attempting to shirk its responsibility for the homicide," claimed Je Jong-chol, an activist from the National Campaign for Education of Crime by U.S. Troops in Korea.

This is one of the influential internet based civic groups.  These groups are extreme, but they are quoted regularly, almost monthly, by the Korean press as authoritative sources.

 ``The USFK commander didn't even make a formal apology until 22 days after the incident. He should have made an apology immediately afterwards, and  we cannot understand why it took as long as 22 days for the Americans to apologize for the deaths of two innocent souls.

This is how easily the lies are maintained.

 ``And now, they are rebuffing a summons from Korean prosecutors," he charged.

``We are trying to resummon the U.S. servicemen, but if they keep refusing, there is virtually nothing else we can do," said Park Yoon-hwan, a senior prosecutor at the Uijongbu branch of the Seoul District Public Prosecutor's Office.

And this is how the Korean government helps promote the orgies of hate.

(Update -- summer 2005 -- recently the Joongang Daily reported on another recent GI crime, and in giving background information, it claimed again that the US did not apologize until Nov. in the tank case.  Several bloggers, including myself, emailed the JAD, and they did print a retraction, but they left the internet version of the story online.)

You don't see here where USFK invited the Korean prosecution to send people to the US base to question the soldiers - a place where Korean violent protesters could not reach the front door as they could when the Korean prosecution tipped them off about the first attempt at an interview.

The Korean politicians also helped keep the hate white hot:

Korea Herald 7/11/2002

Lawmakers call for Korean authorities to take over jurisdiction over U.S. soldiers.  They also called for a thorough reinvestigation by the Korean prosecution and formation of a standing task force of Korean and U.S. experts to deal with crimes by U.S. soldiers stationed here.

On the 12th, the Korea Times ran this story:

After ignoring a summons by the Korean prosecution earlier, the two U.S. soldiers made an unannounced appearance before the prosecution Wednesday, but returned to their base one hour later, citing safety concerns.

The Grand National Party accused the USFK of sending the two soldiers to the Korean prosecution in an attempt to quiet public criticism while actually having no intention of letting the two be questioned by the Korean prosecution.

Soon all of Korean society was mobilizing to promote the anti-American movement:

 

Korea Times 7-16-2002

Today is ``Youth Day in Uijongbu, where at least hundreds of middle and high school students are expected to gather in front of the train station for a memorial concert, demanding U.S. President George W. Bush's apology for the killing of two  schoolgirls by an American armored vehicle during a training exercise last month.

Emotions are expected to be high. Some 5,000 participated in recent demonstrations, including both grown-ups and youths, in the city of 360,000.

``When a U.S. soldier sexually harassed a girl, the American President himself gave an apology, but with two Korean girls dead, the USFK's apology wasn't even official, and did not contain the word `apologize' either," said Kim Do-young, 25, an activist.

The Japanese girl referenced above as being "sexually harassed" was brutally raped.
A rape is an intentional, willful, violent act. 

But that means nothing in Korean hate-America logic.

Furor spread as questionable circumstances were reported by witnesses. Manybelieve that none of the basic safety precautions were taken, stemming from the USFK disregard for civilians in the area.

The local officials in the area claimed USFK never told them the tanks would be using the road although USFK claims it did.  Regardless, the accident did not happen on the first day of the training nor the first convoy of the day.

 On July 19th, Stars and Stripes was the only source I know of in Korea that reported the monetary settlement agreement USFK reached with the Korean government and the two families of the victims.  

The bereaved families of two girls run over by American armored vehicle last month are expected to receive around 195 million ($166,524) won each, according to the Justice Ministry yesterday.

S&S reported that the USFK responded to claims of needing to "solve the problem" quickly and take responsibility were the result of the families not filing claims.

Two articles on the chances of handing the soldiers over to the Korean criminal court ran soon after in the Korea Times and Korea Herald:

``The Status of Forces Agreement (SOFA) implies an inequality from its very start... (The waiver request) is unlikely to be granted because the accident occurred while the soldiers were on duty,'' (Defense Ministry spokesman) Hwang said.

The quote in the Herald was:

"It will be difficult for the U.S. Forces Korea (USFK) to give up jurisdiction because the accident occurred during a training exercise," Brig. Gen. Hwang Eui-don, a ministry spokesman, said.

"No such precedent exists in Korea or any other country where U.S. forces are stationed," he added.

 "It is true that the accord has some unequal elements, but it is unavoidable (in order to guarantee legal rights of U.S. soldiers stationed overseas)," he said.

The Korean government doesn't like to announce that, in fact, it has SOFA agreements with nations where it sends official military detachments - like the medical corps sent to Afghanistan ---- where a Korean officer shot and killed his subordinate.

(According to Korean and non-Korean articles on that case (which weren't many), the Korean officer was talking with an Afghan village elder and the junior officer was talking loudly on the phone.  The senior told him to be quiet, and when the junior kept talking too loudly, he took out a gun and shot him.

The Korean senior officer was brought back to Korea, and the ROK military said stress in a combat zone was involved.  The Korean media did not report what legal procedures would be taken against the man.  Nor did it announce what the penalty would be for the murderer.  In fact, there were only a couple of articles on the case.)
  
Koreans believe SOFAs are imperialistic, extraordinary documents outside the framework of international relations.

They also don't like to admit that Korean soldiers are NEVER tried in a civilian criminal court - even in a case like the one where a soldier used a machine gun to rob a bank and wounded several people --- an extremely rare event in Korean society.

Here is a very, very common tactic in the hate promotion:       

South Korea exercised jurisdiction on 5.5 percent of all crimes committed by U.S. soldiers stationed here between 1999 and 2001, a lawmaker said yesterday.

Of the 1,246 crimes involving U.S. Forces Korea (USFK) personnel during the period, only 69 cases were tried in Korean courts, according to data unveiled by Rep. Kim Boo-kyum of the Grand National Party at the National Assembly's Political Affairs Committee.

"But 24-34 percent of the crimes were serious offenses including homicide, which are subject to formal criminal trials. The SOFA provisions should be revised to grant Korean legal authorities the jurisdiction to properly handle such crimes," Kim said.

These stories come out at least three or four times a year.  

They fail to point out that the vast majority of crimes are traffic and parking or other "crimes" punishable by small fines.

Nor do they point out that the vast majority of violent crimes involve American soldier-on-American soldier.

But it really doesn't matter.  Koreans hear what they want to hear.

Two major USFK crimes did happen while I was in Korea.  Both times, the stories were front page news for months and WERE handled by Korean courts.

I have found in the Korean English language press stories of US soldiers being tried and found guilty and put in Korean prisons dating back to 1989 and an assault on a Korean taxi driver.  (That year is the last I could research, because the databases don't extend past it yet.)

(Update Jan 2006 -- Using the archives of the Washington Post and New York Times -- which do not cover South Korea beyond the broad security situation much -- I have found more information about some US soldier crimes over the years that the Korean media online archives do not reach.

This research gave even me a big surprise --- the first two GIs convicted in a Korean court and sent to a Korean prison occured in ----------- 1967 !!!!!

It was for a rape they both took part in.  The part of the SOFA giving Korea jurisdiction over crimes against Koreans while soldiers were off-duty was signed in 1966, and especially the Washington Post covered some crimes in the following years. 

The WP and NYT archives show about 1 or 2 articles about a GI crime in Korea from 1967 to about 1973, then they dry up for some reason.

I did a test check of the five year period between 1995-2000 with both archives and turned up virtually no articles --- even though I know of two murder cases I watched while in Korea as well as a good number of other cases involving everything from rape, to street assaults, to common theft in the Korean press.

 ------ So, that at least means that the two US papers not covering trials of GIs by Korean courts does not mean such trials did not take place after 1973

I will continue to update the site on The GI Crimes Myth as new crimes (and trials) occur and as I find information about older ones.....)

But I still found a majority of Korean adult students (mostly already out-of-college adults between the ages of 25-40) who would tell me there are no US soldiers in Korean jails and that soldiers are never tried in Korean courts.

I had Korean adult students who even refused to believe the Korean English language newspaper articles I had copied from my research that showed US soldiers were in Korean jails.

It is a mind-block --- a willful ignorance --- and a very clear sign of racism.

The Korea Times did print a column by a Korean lawyer who had worked on revisions of the SOFA and the US military tried to fight distortions in the media, but they were whistling in the wind.

Colin Powell apologized for the U.S. in his visit to Seoul.
It did nothing to stop the bleeding.

Two soldiers were attacked by citizens in a bar district who claimed the soldiers hit a Korean man first.  Of course, I have no reason other than my own personal experiences of being harassed and pushed around in the street by drunk Koreans at night to doubt them. 

In the above case, some 30 "good citizen" Koreans responded by chasing the soldiers through the streets and beating them until they managed to hold up in a bar with the doors locked until the police came - to arrest them.

Another soldier, the commanding officer of USFK MPs was mobbed at a Korean university in Seoul where his Korean wife was teaching a course.

She invited him to lecture on management, but students who saw his uniform on campus staged an impromptu protest -- complete with signs.

The massed outside the woman's classroom yelling for him to come out.  He and his wife did - surrounded by her students - who escorted the two to their car.

The car was kicked and pounded on by the mob until Korean riot police were called in to free a lane for the car to leave.

On August 9th, the USFK commander again apologized:

``I want to once again personally extend my heartfelt apologies and condolences to the families and friends of the two girls," he told reporters during a luncheon at Dragon Hill Lodge inside the U.S. military base in Seoul.

With his voice overcome with emotion, LaPorte continued, ``We are committed to working together with the ROK government and military to prevent such a terrible accident from happening again."

On the same day, the two major parties in Korea demanded to try the soldiers in Korean criminal court:

"The United States should hand over the soldiers (to the Korean authorities), so they can be tried in a Korean court," Chairman Hahn Hwa-kap of the Millennium Democratic Party (MDP) said.

Asking related authorities to get to the bottom of the case, Grand National Party  (GNP) spokesman Nam Kyung-pil said the U.S. military should take into account a 1957 precedent in Japan where the army waived its jurisdictional rights over an American soldier who shot a Japanese woman while on duty.

Remember this was an election year and President Roh road the wave of hate to victory because the conservative candidate was seen as a sycophant to America.

Notice also that even Korean politicians can't see the difference between an accident and an intentional crime:  the US soldier in Japan shot the woman on purpose.

The Korea Herald editor set a new low for herself with an editorial after the apology:

It is deeply regretful that the U.S. military is ignoring the doubts spreading among Koreans with regard to the cause of the road accident that killed two Korean teenage girls in a village south of the DMZ two months ago. Extremely unwise is the U.S. military that keeps turning a deaf ear to the rising voices of anger from Koreans.

The uproar is an understandable response to investigations undertaken by the U.S. military and Korean authorities. For mysterious reasons, they yielded different results but left crucial questions unanswered.

The families of the ill-fated girls and the rallying activists have demanded, in vain, a transparent investigation as a procedure to a fair trial.....the concerned authorities on both sides were obviously insincere and lukewarm in coping with the tragic deaths of the two innocent girls.

 Like with most other issues inflaming "anti-Americanism" here, Koreans are struggling to defend their dignity and values against the double standards used by their supposedly trusted benefactors.

Again, the double standard is coming from Koreans.  They fail to report the truth, write blatant lies, and then mind-block reported facts in order to keep the justification for their racist hate alive.

Again, Koreans settle fatal traffic accidents by monetary settlements.  The party at fault goes to jail if they can't reach a deal.  

USFK settled with the families for over $100,000 dollars.  $22,000 was given through donations by USFK soldiers.  A small amount of customary bereavement money was given the day of the accident.  Money was also collected from USFK members to build a memorial at the scene of the accident.  

A candle light vigil was held while Koreans were still too busy watching the World Cup to care about the two girls.  USFK apologized the very first day and kept apologizing for months.

But Koreans will never listen......it is all about maintaining an acceptable level of hate toward USFK/US, and anything will due to promote it:

Korea Times 8-11-2002

In expressions of protest, thirty taxi drivers parked their vehicles at the front gate of a U.S. army base in the city north of Seoul, while citizens hung banners reading ``Give Up Jurisdiction'' and ``No to U.S.' War on Iraq,'' followed by a candlelight vigil.

It all mixes together.  The death of the two girls, missile defense, trade pressure, anti-war, and Jay Leno.....

And they call USFK insincere about the death of the girls....

In September, the tank accident mixed with Korea's memorials for the 9-11 attacks in the US the year before.

See this site for more shocking images related to 9-11 Koreans used to promote the hate.

See this site for review of other ways Korea expressed its 9-11 hatred of the US.

Here were reports that came with references to the death of the two girls:

As we have pointed out on several occasions on this page, the way to prevent terrorism should not be another type of terrorism named war, but rather lies in rectifying America's pro-Israeli policy that causes the Arab world so much  despair and anger along with attempting to solve problems not through the use of military power but through dialogue and negotiations.

Believe it or not, the Korean fascination with Israel stems from their being angry that the Jewish holocaust is more well known than the colonization of Korea by Japan.

That is why they saw no problems when a Hitler theme bar opened in Pusan complete with waiters with Swastika arm bands.

And they found a "Bin Laden" tea room acceptable as well.

A Korean Herald news story on the same day voiced much of Korean people's feelings toward the U.S. and its military in Korea.

"The aggressive U.S. policy has forced South Koreans to change their perception of what an 'ally' is," said Rep. Kim Won-wung of the Grand National Party.

"In the past, a country that helped deter a war here was an ally. But now, only those who contribute to promoting inter Korean peace, reconciliation and unification should be considered our ally," Kim said.

So, even the Korean government sees the US as blocking unification.

(By the way, the GNP is considered the conservative "pro-American" party.  
And it cost their candidate the very close election in 2002 when both parties joined in the anti-Americanism.  The GNP just couldn't shake "the taint" of not being anti-American enough.)

The Dean of the college of law at the university of foreign studies added to this message:

"On the global path toward peace and cooperation following the end of the Cold War, the United States, which should play a key role in achieving the goal, is rather impeding it," Lee said.

"Controversies surrounding the unfairness of SOFA are a relatively trivial issue in South Korea-U.S. relations, but the U.S. side is letting them stand in the way of a number of cooperative projects that could benefit both sides," said Lee of HUFS.

The first wave of hate after the death of the two girls did not die until September when the US media paid attention (barely) to an attack on 3 USFK members on the subway in Seoul.

On September 15th, the 3 soldiers were mobbed. 

The Korean media reacted to it just as it had the story of the two soldiers accused of
hitting the Korean man first on the previous page and just as they did in the 1995 subway incident:

``We were distributing pamphlets about the deaths of the schoolgirls. After the soldiers threw away the pamphlets they were given and I scolded them for disrespecting our activities, a soldier suddenly started throwing punches at me," Suh told reporters after being sent to a hospital.

Three U.S. soldiers allegedly beat a former lawmaker during a subway scuffle Saturday over the June 13 deaths of two teenage Korean girls who were run over by a U.S. military armored vehicle, police said yesterday.

The latest incident involving U.S. troops has further enraged the Korean civic organizations that have been demanding that the U.S. military relinquish its jurisdiction over those involved in the girls' deaths.

When the train stopped at a station near Kyung Hee University, where the rally was being held, angry students seized one of the servicemen and later handed him over to the police.

About 6,000 students and civil rights activists attended the rally in memory of the two girls who were crushed to death by an armored vehicle from the U.S. 2nd Infantry Division on a narrow country road north of Seoul.

The man told a different story on the activist shot video after the incident where he stated he simply put his hand on the soldier's face when the students and the soldiers "got into a scuffle" when the students became angry he wouldn't take the Korean written flyer announcing the anti-USFK rally.

(The video is worth watching though long.  It shows the mad dash by two of the soldiers being chased through the streets by the mob and protected by the riot police.  I have reviewed the video in more detail on other pages in this newsletter.)

I also like how the Korea Herald forgot to mention that the students forced the soldier to participate in the aforementioned rally.

The "confession" the soldier was forced to write as part of the "festivities" at the anti-American rally the activist mob forced him to attend is shown on the right of this page.

The video shows another forced verbal "apology" to the long-time pro-North Korean civic activist who was the leader on the subway, and it enrages me to see the South Korean riot police assisting in the forcing of the apology.

The soldier was forced to make statements against himself and USFK at the rally.  He was held there some 4 hours before brought to the hospital to make the apology.  He told Stars and Stripes he was just happy to be alive.  His mother also said she was shocked when she watched the video on the internet.

This time the USFK and the U.S. Embassy spoke outrage of their own and the story made a couple of U.S. papers:

``According to the soldiers' statements, they were pulled, punched, kicked and spat upon by demonstrators while a crowd of some 200 demonstrators watched," it added. ``Despite the alleged attack on the three soldiers and the demonstrators' forced abduction of Pvt. Murphy, South Korean police charged him with assault."

This is Korea.  This is the double standard.  This is the society wide hatred.

The Korean press woke up to the potential damage in U.S. relations and stories of the middle school girls' death dried up and protests participation dropped. 

Some civic groups tried to keep the fire burning bright:

``The USFK and the embassy's allegations that the soldiers were assaulted and kidnapped by South Korean students and the former lawmaker is intended to cover up the crimes committed by American soldiers,'' a spokesman for the civic group said in a news conference in Seoul."

(the plain clothed man with the mike is the "reporter" for the internet "news" sites dedicated to nothing but promoting hatred of the US and USFK.  I would bet$100 he was one of the "reporters" who broke into the US base)  

Most Koreans, however, new it was time to pull back. 

I learned to call this phase of Korea's hate process:  the turtle effect.

They don't want the US government to really pull US troops out.

They don't want to pay for their own defense or join their military.

And they don't want their love of anti-American activism to cool off the US consumer market their export driven economy uses.

The storm over the death of the girls did not reappear until a couple of months later when it was clear the US media was not going to run more than two stories on the attack on US soldiers.

The story also never made it on CNN, FOX, MSNBC, or the three networks.

So Koreans built their confidence back up, and exploded for another few months after the tank driver and his spotter were found not guilty in a USFK court.

I have covered events during this second explosion of the Tank Accident on other pages in the newsletter using other Korean media articles and information taken from the anti-American websites and other more mainstream sources in Korea.

Check them out too and look at the other pages in the newsletters.

I hope you will begin to see how the process works.  Each new "event" is just a new spoke in a long turning wheel.......