The Death of an Alliance, Part 39: The Korean Malaise, Anti-Americanism & Anti-Anti-Americanism
The bee-man has officially entered his sixteenth minute, and Korea’s fiery gaze has shifted to the violent excesses of the extreme anti-American left — chiefly the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions and Hanchongryeon. There is new statistical evidence that the violence of the red guards has triggered a backlash and alienated the silent majority. This occurs just 20 days before a round of local elections that will choose the next mayor of Seoul and the governor of Kyonggi Province, among other key posts.
Even President Roh Moo-Hyun sent out his Prime Minister to denounce the violence. New Prime Minister Han Myung Sook is expressing some very fine ideas about democracy to a bunch of Stalinists, but doesn’t she exactly sound like the new sheriff in town:
In a “message to the people,” Han Myung-sook said her government will only advocate the principles of nonviolence and peace in the ongoing national dispute over the relocation of U.S. military bases in Seoul and near the North Korean border to an expanded base in Pyeongtaek.
. . . .“I regret the violent protests,” said Han, deploring a recent string of physical clashes between civic activists and law-enforcement authorities in Pyeongtaek.
“Our society is a democratic one that respects diversity. Every citizen is entitled to speak against the government freely. But the way in which they express their individual opinions should be legitimate and peaceful. Physical clashes should never recur.”
She then urged all concerned parties, including the activists, police and the government, to move one step back and return to calm.
Sheesh — now she wants the police to step back? Is that an order? Are the thugs taking orders this week?
“The government frankly admits there has been a lack of dialogue (regarding the U.S. base issue) and is willing to talk to the people with an open mind to seek ways of settling the dispute.”
You were expecting Rudy Guiliani, perhaps? Twenty days before elections? Roh, in a lose-lose situation, sent out a surrogate to try to do what could not be done — make everyone happy. He could either alienate much of his base, reinforce the public’s image that he lacks the confidence and competence to uphold the rule of law, or do both. My money is on the last of these. And if by “dialogue,” Han is suggesting reopening negotiations with the United States, well, you know where I stand on that. There was also supposed to be some talk about the demographic basement falling out from under Korea.* Think “malaise,” only in Korean.
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Just over two weeks before an election is a bad time to lose the silent majority, but that appears to be happening:
More than eight out of 10 South Koreans surveyed oppose violent protests against the expansion of Camp Humphreys, a U.S. military base in Pyeongtaek, a government survey said Thursday.
Most of those surveyed also said it was not right for anti-U.S. groups to intervene in the dispute between residents of Pyeongtaek, 70 kilometers south of Seoul, and the government.
. . . .According to the poll, 17 percent of the respondents said the expansion plan must be blocked if necessary, even if the rallies become violent, while 81.4 percent said violence should not be used to resolve the matter.
The Chosun Ilbo translation of this result, linked below, is that this percentage of respondents believe that the protests must be blocked “by violence if necessary,” which is different enough to push the result. The results are somewhat less unfavorable for the red guards when you unload the word “violent” from the question.
About 66 percent said it was not right for civic organizations to meddle in the matter with the excuse of helping locals defend their livelihoods. Thirty percent said the intervention is needed to effectively frustrate the Humphreys expansion project.
Most people viewed the intervention as politically motivated with 58.1 percent, saying it was intended to use regional opponents to instigate anti-American feeling in South Korea. About 35 percent said they believe the organizations have pure intentions for helping the rural residents.
The results on the U.S. presence are also interesting:
In addition, 74.5 percent said it is too soon to demand U.S. troops withdraw from the Korean Peninsula while 22.2 percent answered in favor of such demands by anti-U.S. activists, the poll said.
More than 84 percent of those polled said the U.S. troops play an important role in ensuring security on the peninsula.
You can’t do a direct comparison to these results, but in light of these results, they do suggest that anti-Americanism has bottomed out, or at least that anti-anti-Americanism is on the rise. The Chosun Ilbo also reported the results of the government-sponsored survey, adding these details:
Asked about the military’s response to the protests, 65 percent said it needs to take harsher measures to protect itself, but 30 percent felt the military was right to restrain itself. Respondents felt the government should accept peaceful demonstrations (49 percent) but curb violence by mobilizing more police (47 percent).
The way those questions are worded (or translated, perhaps), they’re somewhat hard to interpret. I’m glad that nearly half of Koreans want the police to handle this, but the support for “harsher” Army action is the kind of result that will be an orphan as soon as it hits TV screens and the opposition attacks it. Nobody wants another Kwangju, right? Hold that thought.
It’s not simply a matter of putting a lot of police on the scene. Police aren’t just security guards. They’re called “law enforcement” for a reason, although the bungling of the leading thugs’ prosecutions certainly suggests that no one really intended to put violent demonstrators on trial until a public reaction forced them to try something half-assed. The police were armed with few weapons and less evidence. The prosecutors presented it anyway, and it’s my experience that presenting shitty cases for indictment is par for the course in Korea. The judges, rightly, dismissed the cases, which caused the prosecutors to make some unprofessional-sounding statements about the courts. The judiciary is supposed to consider the evidence impartially and without political influence. If the prosecution really wants indictments, then it still has time to coordinate with the police before this weekend’s next riot.
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Even the students, historically the most left-wing age group in Korea, are tired of this crap. Here are the results of a survey of 500 of them:
The overwhelming majority or 89.3 percent of students surveyed said their student unions should pay more attention to problems on campus and students’ welfare than to political and social issues, which mattered for only 6.4 percent. Some 44.2 percent thought it desirable for their university union to break with the Korean Federation of University Student Councils and stop engaging in political activities, while 26.5 percent were against it and 29.3 percent gave no opinion.
Asked what they thought about student’s detention of professors for 16 hours over Student Council voting rights at Korea University, a resounding 70.2 percent saw no justification while 22.6 percent did. But an equally resounding 70.5 percent approved of farmers’ protest against a free-trade agreement with the U.S., while only 26.1 percent disapproved.
And then again, being anti-anti-American doesn’t necessarily mean you’re pro-American:
When it came to recent protests against the expansion of the U.S. military base in Pyeongtaek, 52.6 percent thought them justifiable, significantly more than those who did not (40.7 percent).
Constrast that to the 81% opposition when the grown-ups were included. The results on the U.S. presence were also sharply divided among generations:
Students’ opinions on political and social issues are divided. A mere 14 percent said the government should make more concessions to North Korea, while 56.8 percent believed the current level was enough and 28.5 percent wanted the government to stop them.
But more than half of the respondents wanted the U.S. Forces Korea to withdraw, with 55 percent calling for gradual withdrawal and 3 percent for an immediate pullout. Some 32.8 percent said the USFK needs to stay longer and 9 percent wanted it to stay permanently.
“Permanently” seems a lot longer when you’re 20 than when you’re 70, of course.
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There is one more result from the first poll that I want to go back to:
An even bigger majority or 86 percent said activists were unjustified in likening their protests to the 1980 Gwangju Democratic Uprising.
As if one cue, the union thugs at the KCTU insert their steel-toed feet in their mouths:
It also renewed a controversial analogy between its activities and the 1980 Gwangju Democratic Uprising, saying the demonstrations will be held “to revive the spirit” of protests against the authoritarian government of the time. It demanded the government set up a body “to achieve social consensus for a peaceful resolution of the situation in Pyeongtaek,” release those detained in last weekend’s violence, and “punish those responsible for the violent crackdown on our demonstrations.
One day, I will have to borrow a barrel of chutzpah from these people, who have just as little compunction about lying as they have about violence. Here, you can see video grabs of them attacking soldiers with sharpened bamboo sticks. You get a better look at those here (Reuters, Lee Jae-Won). It’s clear evidence of premeditation.
Those convicted should have their choice of hard time in the South or voluntary parole to the North. It would be interesting to count the number of takers.
* Although immigration is one of the best ways for a society to offset a demographic decline, South Korea refuses to open the doors to North Korean refugees.