The FTA Has Turned Ugly
An anti-Free Trade Agreement protest of 25,000 has clogged downtown Seoul, and on that day, it wasn’t safe to look “American” on the streets, not even for the Swiss.
A Swiss man and two friends were set upon by a mob of angry protestors who apparently mistook them for Americans on Wednesday. The group of 10, who were taking part in a Gwangwhamun rally to protest against an FTA between Korea and the U.S., approached the man and his friends shouting abuse in Korean, most of which he could not understand.
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Jerry, 32-year-old Canadian who has lived in Korea for eight years, says he has also encountered the force of Korean protest. When he first came to Korea he found the spectacle of the demonstrations fascinating and even mimicked some of the chants to learn the language.
Nice of them not to lynch anyone, though. Rest assured that no one will be arrested or prosecuted.
A new America-hating cause celebre has been found, and it’s 2002 all over again. Eventually, they’ll be attacking, stabbing, kidnapping, and spitting on our troops again. How did we get to this state of affairs? The Roh government tried to pursue the economic benefits of the FTA without bothering to explain them to the Korean people. It refused to confront the deceptions, incitements, and hypocrisy of the pro-North Korean, anti-American left (whose adherents are past or potential Roh voters). They seized control of the debate by acting like thugs, and the government yielded its monopoly on violence to thugs in the service of tyranny. Not even the mothers of policemen are safe.
Since the FTA seems about as good as dead, I just wonder why we’re subjecting ourselves to needless acrimony at the cost of ever-worsening relations. Can we just call off this whole exercise, already? And for good measure, can we please announce the start of FTA talks with Japan?
I said from day one I believed the FTA talks were approached by the Roh and Uri side to set Roh up to be the punching bag.
They basically put forward an issue they believed they could win votes with.
It didn’t matter that Roh was supposed to be defending the FTA.
The only important thing was to get attention focused on an issue Uri-types think they can gain public support on – and the fact it will be an issue well into next year’s election cycle is the big bonus…
ONLY REASON for NO even initiating FTA with US was to push for acceptance of sort of KS. It would have been tacit approval of DPRK. Now that it will not happen NO and his leftist commie cronies will protest it to death to kill it.
As for ugly protesting – world #1 protester title goes to Koreans driving business, investment and tourism away as CNN/BBC tend to shoot for hours but broadcast worst 30 sec footage. And foreign business are often targeted by unions.
I personally witnessed much of protest in 1986 – 1988 when I was spending much time in Seoul on business. Most memorable part was when I was asked to close the curtain and not look outside when I was staying at Seoul Hilton in summer of 1987 where Chun was holding a meeting to decide who was going to his successor and I got a call within a 10 secs of peeking outside’s massive protest by assnine 386 asking me to not to look out again or I’ll be thrown out of my room.
As to protest, I was surprized in 1988 when our GI Bus left Yongsan and a protest was in full swing. The KNP and protestors parted like the Red Sea and let us through. I don\’t think a bus load of round-eyes would be that lucky in 2006.
Will these protests in Seoul continue into the weekend and the holiday on Monday?
What the hell is wrong with these people?
We’ve protected them for 50+ years, and this is what we get?
America should withdraw all its troops & equipment from the Korean peninsula TOMORROW. Let the Norks have their way with this nation of ingrates. They all deserve to be slaves.