- An antagonistic verdict proves to be a spark to kindle
unity.
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- An unprecedented political collaboration in Japan reflects
the change in public opinion in South Korea-antagonism is now focused on
long-time ally United States instead of its northern counterpart.
-
- Pro-Seoul and pro-Pyongyang Korean residents temporarily
set aside their diametric political alignments at two candlelight rallies
in Tokyo's Shinjuku Ward to voice anger at the presence of the U.S. military
in South Korea.
-
- The rallies, held Dec. 22 and 31, brought together about
200 Korean residents, in response to the acquittal of two American soldiers
by a U.S. military court in November over the deaths of two 14-year-old
girls in South Korea.
-
- Pro-Pyongyang and pro-Seoul university students, political
activists, homemakers and children marched single file, holding candles
and displaying photos of the girls, who were crushed by a U.S. armored
vehicle on their way to a birthday party in June.
-
- These rallies reflect the anti-American sentiment in
Seoul and Pyongyang that rallied more than 60,000 citizens in South Korea
and 10,000 on the other side of the Demilitarized Zone. The rare gesture
of political unity among Korean residents of Japan came about spontaneously
and started at a grass-roots level.
-
- South Korean university students studying in Tokyo organized
the rallies through an Internet newsgroup. After following the discussion
online, pro-Pyongyang Korean University students and lecturers showed up
on both dates.
-
- Until now, public opinion in South Korea has largely
reflected fear toward the North, while Korean residents in Japan endorsed
reunification.
-
- Memory of the Korean War (1950-1953) is fading in South
Korea, as it is among most Koreans who began residing in Japan before the
war.
-
- Cultural and sports exchanges between affiliates of Mindan,
the Korean Residents Union in Japan, and the pro-Pyongyang General Association
of Korean Residents in Japan (Chongryun) have taken place since the historic
June 2000 North-South summit.
-
- But the two organizations remain locked in Cold War discord
on the political level.
-
- Mindan is loyal to the South Korean government, whose
President-elect Roh Muh Hyun officially denounced the rallies in Seoul.
-
- Mindan reflects the views of mainstream South Korean
media that is wary Kim Jong Il will use the surge of anti-Americanism in
South Korean for his own political agenda.
-
- According to Mindan spokesman Bae Chul Eun, ``Basically,
we don't want to be used for their (Pyongyang and Chongryun's) political
ends.''
-
- In concert with Pyongyang's official anti-American rally
on Dec. 28, several Chongryun staff, who are rarely vocal on the political
front, jumped at the opportunity to rail against the American troops.
-
- Cho Doo Sung of Chongryun parroted North Korean leader
Kim Jong Il, who has long publicly denounced the presence of U.S. troops
in South Korea as the one major obstacle to the reunification of the Korean
Peninsula.
-
- Lee Mi Hwa, a researcher at the pro-Pyongyang Korean
University, bluntly dubbed the United States an enemy of all Korean people.
-
- Cho and Lee stand ideologically opposite the South Korean
students who organized the events.
-
- South Korean university student, Ahn Chang Kyu, says
he is protesting the November acquittal, which is fundamentally different
from government-sanctioned anti-Americanism in North Korea.
-
- Until a few years ago, any South Korean interacting with
a Chongryun member was in danger of being interrogated upon his return
to Seoul.
-
- But for two short days, political incompatibility melted
away for Koreans in Japan, as they fended off the cold on what they believed
was a ``fight for the Korean race.''
-
- If the grass-roots movement has anything to do with South
Korea's growing social movement spearheaded by an educated, Internet-savvy
citizenry, the detente will continue.
-
- Kim Young Hee, a Korean resident in his 40s who attended
with his daughter and wife, says, ``I am less anti-American or anti-Pyongyang
than I am pro-Korea.''
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- http://www.asahi.com/english/politics/K2003010700251.html
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