South Koreans Rally for U.S. Alliance

[Omaha Steve]

Full story: http://apnews.excite.com/article/20060811/D8JEFHD00.html

South Koreans Rally for U.S. Alliance
Email this Story

Aug 11, 5:37 PM (ET)

By JIN-MAN LEE

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) - Thousands of South Koreans, including former defense ministers wearing their old military uniforms, rallied Friday in Seoul demanding the president halt moves to retake wartime command of the country's military from the United States.

"Stop the plot to destroy the Korea-U.S. alliance!" some of the protesters chanted during a rally in front of the city's central train station.


A former South Korean war veteran shouts slogan during an anti-government and pro-U.S. rally in Seoul, Friday, Aug. 11, 2006. Thousands of conservative South Koreans, including former defense ministers wearing their old military uniforms, rallied Friday in Seoul demanding the president halt moves to retake wartime command of the country's military from the United States. The Korean read " Impeachment." (AP Photo/ Lee Jin-man)


Over their heads flew balloons strung with placards bearing the images of the South Korean and the U.S. national flags side-by-side.

Police said about 5,000 people, many of them elderly veterans, turned out for the demonstration that underlined the worsening divide in South Korean society over the government's push for the return of wartime command.

[AX10]

1. Obviously, conservatives everywhere are looking to make...

trouble and dress up and play soldier.

[ovidsen]

2. Wonder what the truth is?

I've read where a lot of South Koreans want the US to pack up and leave.

That's when they're not going to the movies...

...So are South Koreans scared of the menace to the north? Nope. It’s summer, and they are going to the movies in droves — to scare themselves about something quite different.

“Guimul” (“The Host”) is a monster movie, and a monster hit, drawing a record audience of 6 million — equivalent to one in eight South Koreans — in its first 11 days. It’s about a child-snatching mutant that rears up into Seoul out of the Han River, spawned by toxic fluid carelessly discharged from — guess where — an American military base.

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/08/11/opinion/11foster-carter.html

[hogwyld]

4. I go there on business regularly..

The vast majority of the Koreans want anything American out of there yesterday. We are pretty much despised, and they hate/fear us a lot more than N. Korea. Chalk up another one for w.

[CatholicEdHead]

5. We have made their relations with North Korea worse the past

few years. South Korea was breaking down the barriers slowly and gradually before the "axis of evil" rethoric ruined everything.

[hogwyld]

6. but there is hope

The majority want to kick out the U.S., and eventually, they'll elect proper representation. Once we are out of the way and not meddling, they can re-unify peacefully.

[Missy M]

3. I wonder who paid them to do it?