Another Iraqi man has been killed by a soldier from the ROK Army’s Zaytun unit in Iraq due to a traffic accident:

An Iraqi local government official has been killed in a traffic accident by a Korean military truck, South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) office said Thursday.

On Wednesday afternoon, the Korean driver, a corporal only identified by his family name Song, was trying to avoid a car which had cut in front of him on a street in downtown Irbil when he hit the 53-year-old Iraqi official, the office said.

Let’s use the uproar over the tragic 2002 US Army traffic accident that killed two Korean girls as a model of how the Korean government should handle this accident. First of all the soldier should be handed over to the Iraqi authorities for trial because I’m sure whatever SOFA Agreement Korea has with Iraq is unfair and unjust. Then the candle light vigils should be sweeping the country as I write this. Then President Roh should issue a weeping apology on national television followed by all his ROK Army generals to the people of Iraq due to this attack on the Iraqi people. Then a massive compensation package should then be handed over to the victim’s family.

Listed above is what many in Korea expected the US to do after the tragic accident of 2002, so what are the chances they will do the same when the tables are turned? Don’t hold your breath to long because I still haven’t seen an apology from President Roh or a massive candle light vigil for the man killed when a ROK Army soldier accidentally shot and killed an Iraqi soldier last year.

Just for the record the US military did have a candle light vigil, USFK Generals apologized after the accident and US President George W. Bush apologized a few months after the accident, and the victims families were compensated as well. Will the same happen in this case? No because this story is already buried in the media.

Hat Tip: Flying Yangban