Brace Yourself
Today is petting zoo day (no, not this petting zoo), so blogging time is constrained for now. I was going through all of the relevant coverage of the Bush-Roh meet, was reading through Bush’s brief welcoming statement, and what do I see?
It’s my honor to welcome the President of our very close ally to the Oval Office. I’ll have a statement; the President will have a statement. Then I’ll answer two questions from the American press. I first want to express my country’s deepest condolences for the accident that took place, where a U.S. military vehicle killed a Korean woman. And we send our deepest sympathies to the woman’s families. And, Mr. President, I just want you to know our heart — our hearts are sad as a result of this incident.
Uh oh. More details from from ABC, via the AP:
U.S. soldiers in South Korea have stopped all non-emergency services and training to review safety measures after a fatal accident involving an American military truck, the U.S. military said Saturday. The “safety stand down” was ordered by Gen. Leon LaPorte, commander of U.S. Forces in Korea, after a 51-year-old Korean woman was killed Friday by a U.S. military truck near the capital, Seoul.
“Commanders at all levels will stop non-emergency services and training to review safety procedures, discuss existing measures, and develop improved procedures to prevent vehicular accidents,” USFK said in a statement. LaPorte personally visited the family of the woman Saturday to express his condolences.
The Army seems to be taking this one very seriously, as Yonhap reports:
The commander of the US Second Infantry Division offered a formal apology Saturday [11 June] for the death of a South Korean woman in an accident involving a vehicle of his unit the previous day. The 51-year-old woman surnamed Kim was hit and killed by the 2.5-ton truck while pulling her cart on a street in Dongducheon, north of Seoul, Friday afternoon. The victim was a resident of this city, not far away from Dongducheon where the army division is based. “I offer my sincere apology to the Korean people and the citizens of Yangju for the accident,” division commander Maj-Gen George Higgins said at the municipal administration office. He also expressed deep condolences to the victim’s family and the Yangju citizens. Earlier in the day, Higgins visited the mortuary of a hospital where the victim’s body is placed, burning incense and paying homage before her portrait.
I suppose it’s a smart move, given that another accident you may have heard about is still in the news three years later. Will the fact that the division commander, the USFK commander, and the President of the United States have all apologized for a car accident be enought to satisfy the Korean left? Not according to the OhMyNews scale. Any loss of life is tragic to be sure, and no words of condolence can console a family for the loss of a mother. On the other hand, there are nearly 6,000 traffic-related fatalities on South Korean roads in 1998 and 1999. If fatality rates have stayed level or continued to increase since then, one can wonders how many of those lost lives the Korean left considered worthy of mourning . . . or exploitation.
Not to mention the completely preventable loss of these lives.
And then again, the Korean press has been fairly quiet so far, and no elections are imminent. The Korean left is in such disarray that it’s actually seeking to reunify with the more moderate Millenium Democratic Party. If that trend holds through next week, we might have some hope that there will be a dispassionate investigation of what happened, reasonable measures to lessen the risk of a similar accident occurring, a solatium payment for the family. To expect South Korea to focus on the place where millions are actually dying and could still be saved is simply too much to hope for.
As for the summit, I’ll try to post a roundup later when my son isn’t crawling across my lap. From what I’ve read, however, there wasn’t anything terribly earth-shaking: a general agreement to work together on resolving the nuclear crisis; denial of any rift in the alliance. The real news will start leaking out in a few days.