I'm starting to get angy about events in Pyongtaek. Angry.



The premise is simple:

The Korean government should be making moves to MINIMIZE the trouble in the expansion and maximize the smoothness of the transition.

But, I don't see how you can get away from the idea it has made moves designed to make it worse. Well, that is too strong, but it is a viable analysis.

Maybe I am over-estimating the availability of the tens of thousands of riot police around the nation, but I highly doubt it.

I do know one thing --- there are more than enough local police to have escorted the military buses in. And it was predictable the activists would try to block the convoy.

It makes absolutely no sense why the regular army units have been put in the position they have ---- unless it is by devious design.

Why was their convoy left in a naked position?

Why were thousands of riot police not stationed to protect the fence line once built?

Why were regular soldiers used to secure protesters for arrest instead of trained riot policemen?

Unless it was designed to produce images like this below



What do we know beyond doubt?

We know absolutely sending regular soldiers would remind the society as whole of the days of dictatorship ------- the days in which President Roh and his closests advisers were part of the mass movement to do battle against those former generals.

We know if you send soldiers into such an area, they are going to tangle with protesters despite the best of precautions.

We know riot police were available and many were sent.

We know the soldiers were put in a position where they would clash with proesters even though they were not the spearhead of the assault (the riot police were) ---- we know the maximum was not done to keep the soldiers awy from protesters.

We know the soldiers were left behind the fence line with it not being protected by riot police in numbers to prevent a breach.

We know the soldiers were thus left open to a counter-attack by protesters.

We know such an attack on the fence was sure to come.

We know the government has not been on a PR campaign to explain the base transfer and get the society on board and put pressure on the protest leaders.

Just the opposite -

We know the Unification Minister and others in the admin used an editorial by the American NKHR Amb. that said nothing new to go batshit.

We know just the day before the military-civilian clash --- Roh was demanding Korea formulate a foreign policy that goes out of its way to set itself apart from the US.

We know Roh brought back up the idea of an "independant defense" and gaining wartime command of Korean troops just before the deadlines to get the land bought and cleared came up at the start of this year.

We know from a string of quotes since being elected coming from Roh and the top people he has placed around himself ---- they believe the US has been the primary problem for Korean society dating back to before the colonization by Japan ---

for example, the ex-Unification Minister and current front runner to win the Uri Party presidential nomination said exactly what I just wrote -- that the US was the "secret hand" behind the Kwangju Massacre, that the US was responsible for Japan colonizing Korea, and more. We have also recently witnessed another top Roh and Uri Party man leave the administration for the election season to come out saying the FTA talks slated to go on for a year (during two election cycles) was just the same as the Japanese colonization.



We know everyone knows enough of Korean society is not behind removing all of USFK or most of it.

We know Uri Party and Roh do not have a strong majority over the conservative party to railroad measures not supported by the people through the government.

A viable interpretation of ------- why the military was tapped to go to Pyongtaek, and why it was left in a position to produce images like the ones above, is that Roh and crew want to call up images of Kwangju and issues favorable to their progressives.

Camp Towns, GI crimes, base pollution, bully USFK and US in Korea forcing the Korean government to do things against it and the Korean people's will, the plight of peasant farmers.....and more.......are all long term issues that have been used as the bedrock of anti-US culture in Korea --- in the society as a whole - NOT with just the radicals.

But it has also been clear forever the majority of Korean society does not want to exercise these issues -- though the like to exercise them - to the point of seeing USFK leave.

There is no question The Priest decided at the start of this year, as the key early deadlines at Pyongtaek approached, to try to win support from the bulk of the society rather than motivate his radical base by use of violence.

He clearly chose kite flying and grandmothers in the protests to try to win over average Koreans into letting the anti-US inclination override the inclination to avoid spending billions of tax payer dollars on a self-defense force.

But it didn't work.

And that was also equally predictable.

So, what do we have now?

We have images that have more hope in pulling people to The Priest.

The stack is still against The Priest:

The media will blame the protesters for the violence --- we have already seen that.

But, having regular army soldiers pictured beating on civilians sure as f- is one of the best shots for turing the tide in The Priest's favor.

And I am more and more becoming convinced that is why Roh and crew have done the things they are doing........

My 2 cent's worth...

I think many of the people who got caught up in the anti-American rhetoric (generally focused on events like the death of the two school girls in 2002) who would have voted for Lee in the last election but instead voted for Roh, now realize they made a big mistake. It's going to take more than a good propaganda campaign to get them to vote for a progressive candidate in the next election.

I agree with that.

I don't know about other issues though.

None of the political parties or leading politicans seems to spark much respect in the society on any range of issues.

So, I don't know how the election will turn out.

I don't know how much concerns about the future of the alliance will factor in. I can picture it being the most important feature of the election or not much of one.

I think we can see a sign of this in how Uri feels like some of the old 2002 magic can be brought up again.

If the society was sending out a big message that it made a mistake and is going to change leadership for the conservatives because of trouble in the USFK/US-SK relationship ----

I believe Uri Party - like all typical political entities ---- would adjust its message to suit that ------- they would be making moves to appear to be solidifying the alliance to ease the minds of voters.

They are not doing that.

So, I would take it that the society putting out an ambigious vibe on how dissatisfied they are with how Roh has managed the US relationship.....

As most everyone here knows, Koreans are hyper-sensitive about Korea's image in the world. As much as they dislike "politics as usual" (read: corruption) - in their minds electing a country bumpkin like Roh was a mistake - not because he turned out to be just as corrupt as most of his predecessors - but because he hasn't presented a good image to the outside world.

I don't have time to find the link to the article or pull quotes, but according to one of the articles in the Korean English press today ----

----after this weekend's bash-fest on soldiers after the line was not protected, they are supposed to have installed some significant counter-measures.

The article said something like they had installed guard posts every so many meters along the long fence line, and they have stationed a lot of riot police along the line.

The article said the riot police were supposed to have been on duty from the start but were unable to stop the protesters, because they were too demoralized after 2 or 3 elderly farmers died in a violent anti-trade rally in Pusan some months back.

I don't really buy that. I can see the demoralization, but if the government had slated an overwhelming force of riot police in the area, they could have handled the protesters and perhaps even detered them (but probably not that).

It is my wild hunch the riot police didn't give it 100% in stopping the protesters from breaching the fence and attacking regular army soldiers, because they were not stationed with enough people on hand or clear enough orders to motivate them.

We saw a couple of weeks ago the local police officials refused an order from the central government to have its riot type units protect the planned fence line. They said the military should do it, but it seemed clear (or was directly stated) the rejection to follow orders was a protest against how the central government had left the local forces high and dry out facing the protesters alone on two previous missions - both of which were failures.

I believe the same thing happened with the fence breach.

But, apparently, at least this latest articles says, the military is getting serious and has the prosecution and other authorities getting their bums onto the hot seat.

We will have to see if the next show will be the usual riot police vs protesters scrum and shield bashing we see all the time in Korea or a cluster**** like it was this last time.

What I mean is ----

what the article said today about perimeter defense of the Korean regular soldiers (and the land they are occupying) ----

----- and about how the protesters and protest leaders were going to be arrested, booked, held, and fined when they broke the law --- even to the point of military court martials ----

was encouraging ---- if they carry it out.

For myself, I'm not thrilled with the idea of court martials for civilians.

Especially given Korea's authoritarian past.

But, I don't know if the civil law has stuff on the books to handle this kind of thing - where many protesters are arrested.

But, it is Korea's law ---- and according to the article - it seems they have special proceedures and laws concerning civilians interferring with military installations and their operation --

and the expansion land has been designated a Korean special military zone.

It is my wild guess such laws were designed in part with North Korean agents in mind ---- but that is a blind wild guess on my part........