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The U.S.–South Korean Alliance: Anti-American Challenges

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  24 March 2016

Extract

December 2002 shook up South Korea's conservative establishment and its U.S. ally. Five days before the South Korean presidential election, with a quarter of the electorate still remaining undecided, leaders of nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) and religious activists staged a massive candlelight vigil in front of Seoul's city hall to protest against “unequal” provisions in South Korea's Status of Forces Agreement (SOFA) with its U.S. ally. The political rally drew some 40,000 protestors from all walks of life. Moreover, it was only one among many climaxes in a long mobilization drive launched by NGOs and “netizens” since June, when a U.S. armored vehicle driven by Sergeant Fernando Nino and Mark Walker ran over two teenage girls during a military exercise in Hyochonli. That month saw some thirty NGOs establish a national umbrella organization to demand the trial of Nino and Walker under South Korean law. Then, in December, the Catholic, Buddhist, and Protestant religious orders joined in to lend their authority to the protestors by collectively calling for the revision of SOFA to give South Korea “primary jurisdiction” over criminal cases. The radical hanchongryon university students, too, showed up in protest sites to stir up and escalate anti-American sentiments, regularly raiding U.S. military bases in Uijongbu and Yongsan and even breaking into the U.S. Embassy compound in November. But unlike the past, this intrusion of radical hanchongryon activists did not drive away presumably conservative middle-class groups from political rallies. On the contrary, the call for a SOFA revision grew louder after the U.S. military court judged Nino and Walker not guilty of negligent homicide.

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Copyright © East Asia Institute 

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References

Notes

1. Twice revised in February 1991 and January 2001 since its original signing in July 1967, the Status of Forces Agreement defines the legal status—that is, legal rights and responsibilities—of United States Forces in Korea (USFK) and its “civilian component … in the employ of, serving with, or accompanying” it over a wide range of issues ranging from facility and land grant to taxation, custom duties, immigration, and criminal jurisdiction. See www.korea.army.mil/sofa/sofa1966_ui1991.pdf and www.korea.army.mil/sofa/2001sofa_english%20text.pdf for “Basic Agreement,” “Agreed Minutes,” and other related documents.Google Scholar

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35. Although many see the 2000 summit meeting as the turning point in South Korean public sentiments on the issue of the U.S. military role, the number of supporters for an immediate U.S. troop withdrawal remained more or less stable over time. The Sejong Institute reported their share as varying between 4.8 and 7.9 percent in its three mid-1990s surveys, whereas our 2002 opinion polls estimated 6.3 percent of the total respondents. The percentage endorsing a staged U.S. military pullout likewise ranged between 34.5 percent and 45.6 percent in the Sejong Institute's three polls, not too different from the 44.6 percent in our survey. See Institute, Sejong, Public Opinion Survey, conducted in 1995, 1996, and 1997 with a randomly chosen sample of 1,200–1,800 interviewees.Google Scholar

36. The U.S. Army's Second Division, with 13,800 personnel, was headquartered in Dongduchon, where 73,502 people lived as residents in 2000. The Second Division also maintained three camps in Uijongbu, another prospering satellite city near Seoul with 355,380 inhabitants, as reported by the national census. The situation was equally problematic in Camp Walker, where 7,800 soldiers gave a logistic support for the USFK. With the residents growing from 919,953 in 1970 to 2,480,578 by 2000, Daegu literally grew over Camp Walker, establishing the Dalsong District in 1981 and Dalso District in 1987, both south of Camp Walker. What had been the outskirts of Daegu became a central district of the city in a mere seventeen years.Google Scholar Then there were three U.S. military training grounds and shooting ranges in Paju, Maehyangli, and Pochon—respectively 28.0, 7.6, and 5.1 million pyong in size, taking up much available land in each city, town, or county. Moreover, Paju and Pochon had a sizeable population of 178,434 and 138,654 in 2000. See Joongang Ilbo, July 19, 2001, for information on the location and size of U.S. military bases in South Korea. The resident size of the cities surrounding U.S. military bases and training grounds is compiled from Korea National Statistics Office, National Census, 1970, 1980, and 2000.Google Scholar

37. The issue of pollution came to the fore when an NGO reported a U.S. civilian component's leaking a poisonous liquid from a U.S. military base into the Han River, the source of water for Seoul, and criticized the subsequent attempts at cover-up by U.S. military authorities in May 2000. When prodded in a national assembly inspection session six months later, the Ministry of Environment revealed that the ministry had found the USFK to have polluted twenty-six times since 1990. To make the South Korean public even angrier, U.S. authorities failed to compensate for environmental damages in all twenty-six cases. See Chosun Ilbo, September 25 and November 3, 2000.Google Scholar

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44. At the initial stage, as envisioned by the Land Partnership Plan (LPP) agreed in March 2002, Seoul is obligated to buy up isolated lands. Then follows a joint construction phase where Seoul shares the cost of building military facilities on its newly purchased lands with Washington. Once U.S. troops close down their old military bases and move to the new ones on their own cost, Seoul is to recoup its initial investment in land purchases by selling those old bases returned by U.S. troops presumably at profit. See “Executive Summary: Land Partnership Plan Under the United States and Republic of Korea Status of Forces Agreement,” signed and approved by the SOFA Joint Committee on March 29, 2002, pp. 23 (available online at www.korea.army.mil/LPP/LPPExSum.pdf).Google Scholar

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46. Chosun Ilbo, January 19 and 20 and February 8, 2002.Google Scholar

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49. Chosun Ilbo, September 30, 1999.Google Scholar

50. Chosun Ilbo, October 1, 1999.Google Scholar

51. See Chosun Ilbo, October 4, 1999; April 21 and May 15, 2000; October 22, 2001; and February 6, 2002.Google Scholar

52. Chosun Ilbo, January 12, 2001.Google Scholar

53. The United States strove to win the villagers' hearts by pledging to build a memorial monument near Nogeunli's railroad overpass and provide scholarships to victims' families, only to become deadlocked over what to inscribe on the proposed monument. See Chosun Ilbo, January 12, 2001, and January 17, 2002.Google Scholar

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55. The European Union countries lagged behind considerably, having on average only 0.8 Internet users per 100 people. The United States was better networked, but not by a large margin: 3.2 users per 100 residents. See Ministry of Information and Communication, “Gukminui jeongbu sanyon: jeongbo tongsin seonggwa” (The achievement in the area of information and communication during the first four years of the ‘government of the people’), December 2001 (available online at www.mic.go.kr/jsp/mic_b/b100–0001–1.jsp).Google Scholar

56. The importance of cellular phones as a medium of communication is visibly seen in the increase of expenditure from 3.3 trillion to 12.7 trillion won between 1997 and 2001. See Ministry of Information and Communication, “Gukminui jeongbu sanyon: jeongbo tongsin seonggwa” (The achievement in the area of information and communication during the first four years of the ‘government of the people’), December 2001 (available online at www.mic.go.kr/jsp/mic_b/b100–0001–1.jsp).Google Scholar

57. The National Tax Agency publicly released information on the results of an investigation against its internal rules and regulations in order to “satisfy society's right to know as well as deter future illegal tax evasion,” the effect of which was to morally tarnish Joongang Ilbo. The prosecutors indicted its owner on six-year imprisonment and 26.2 billion won fine in November 1999. See Chosun Ilbo, September 18, October 2 and 18, and November 30, 1999.Google Scholar

58. Chosun Ilbo, January 25 and February 7 and 9, 2001.Google Scholar

59. The owners of the two newspapers were prosecuted in September for tax evasion and embezzlement (respectively worth 10.8 and 6.1 billion won). The publicly owned Korea Broadcasting Company, meanwhile, went free, although it evaded paying 29 billion won for tax. See Chosun Ilbo, August 17 and September 4, 2001.Google Scholar

60. The national daily newspapers ranked behind radios, public TV channels, and even Internet sites and cable TV stations in public trust. Two years earlier they had ranked behind only public TV stations. Equally critical, when asked which communication medium was most influential, the respondents' answer split among public TV stations, Internet sites, and national daily newspapers by the ratio of 66.9:10.7:10.3 in 2002. See Korea Press Foundation, “Olron suyongja uisik josa: midieo yonghyangkwa silryoido pyong'ga 2002” (The opinion survey of the viewers and readers in 2002: The influence of the media and the level of public trust), pp. 3, 9–10 (available online at www.kpf.or.kr/stat3/datafile/20030115ms10036.pdf).Google Scholar

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64. Joongang Ilbo, June 27, 2002.Google Scholar

65. Joongang Ilbo, June 29 and July 3, 4, and 8, 2002.Google Scholar

66. For newspaper coverage on major candlelight vigils, consult Chosun Ilbo, November 30 and December 4 and 15, 2002.Google Scholar

67. Chosun Ilbo, January 4, 2003.Google Scholar

69. New York Times, January 16, 2003.Google Scholar

70. Chosun Ilbo, January 26, 2003.Google Scholar

71. Chosun Ilbo, February 7, 8, and 9, 2003.Google Scholar

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