Today is the fifth anniversary of the 2002 West Sea Naval Battle which means for the ruling Korean government and their leftist allies it is, Hide Your Head in the Sand Day. For those of you not familiar with the West Sea Naval Battle let me recap it for you.
On June 29, 2002, one day before the closing ceremony of the World Cup the North Koreans tried to draw attention from all the glory South Korea had been receiving from their amazing World Cup performance that year by prevoking a naval battle in the West Sea. The North Koreans planned for and executed a premeditated ambush of a South Korean patrol boat. In the ensueing clash six sailors were killed and 18 more were wounded.
This tragedy of the murdered sailors was bad enough for those left behind, but to make matters worse for the victims and their families, the South Korean government did everything possible to keep the grieving families quiet because they did not want to upset the Sunshine Policy with North Korea. So while politicians in the Korean government encouraged anti-Americanism in the aftermath of the US Army armored vehicle accident that killed two Korean school girls earlier in June 2002, the Korean government in turn did nothing to address the premeditated murder of six ROK sailors by the North Koreans.
The government even told the families to be quiet about the incident and sent no flag officers to attend a memorial ceremony or even offer any condolescences. USFK however did send representatives to the ceremony and USFK Commander General LaPorte offered the families his condolescences.
One wife of a deceased sailor was so fed up with Korea, that she left Korea for good and went to the United States. This is what she said before boarding the plane:
“If the indifference and inhospitality shown to those soldiers who were killed or wounded protecting the nation continue, what soldier will lay down his life in the battlefield?”
Here’s a quote from one of the fathers of one of the murdered sailors that really struck a cord with me:
The father said, “My son is buried in the National Cemetery. But I’m going to take my son’s remains to my family burial site in my hometown.” Having watched the situation develop, he thought his son who was killed by North Korean soldiers was considered nothing more than a criminal.
Some parents said that they are more scared of people who consider the U.S. a bigger enemy than North Korean leader Kim Jong-il, who killed their son. We lose courage to defend the country, when we hear that a wife whose husband fell in the battle is preparing to leave this country. Reading a condolence letter from the USFK commander to mark the second anniversary, the wife said, “The Americans remember my husband and his brothers-in-arms better than Koreans… Frankly, I hate Korea.”
“Frankly, I hate Korea”, no those are not the words of a disgruntled expat or GI saying that, that is a Korean woman who had enough of the actions of the Korean government and left the country. She is not alone in her criticism of the Korean government over what happened in 2002.
The Chosun Ilbo newspaper last year published a series of interviews from some of the sailors injured in the 2002 attack and here are excerpts of what they had to say:
Another naval gunner, Kim Taek-jung, 25, has given up his dream of becoming a civil engineer and is preparing for the civil service exam instead. “Because civil engineering requires active work at the site, I’ve made a realistic decision to become a public servant, I still have four or five pieces of shrapnel in my body,” Kim said. “One night I remembered the faces of my six dead comrades, but I couldn’t recall the name of one of them, so I sobbed all night.”
Although they suffer from sleepless nights and nightmares, those without external injuries are not entitled to benefits as “persons of merit.” Ko Kyug-rak, 25, also a naval gunner, said, “For over a year after the incident I was unable to sleep more than three hours a night.” Aboard the patrol boat that turned into a sea of flame, Ko saw his peers burned and their heads blown away and lost some of his hearing. But when he went to a military hospital to claim benefit, Ko was given cool treatment. “A doctor ignored the psychological problems and only asked me to show any external wounds,” he said. “If benefits for persons of merit are granted for this level of injuries, the doctor said, it would have an adverse effect on the state budget.”
Another wounded veteran, Kim Myun-joo, 26, has applied for meritorious benefit twice, but in vain. “I’m just sad because I feel like that post-traumatic stress disorder and efforts to safeguard the country are being neglected,” he said
Of the six victims this paper interviewed, three have office jobs and three are students, all trying hard to make a future for themselves despite the difficulties. What they want from the country is just one thing: that it remembers that many young people were killed or wounded while safeguarding the country on June 29, 2002. “I just wish they remembered the battle once a year, even if they don’t pay much attention. Nothing else,” said Lee Jae-yong, 25.
President Roh has never attended a memorial ceremony for the murdered sailors and I seriously doubt he will attend this one either. Really only the ROK Navy to their credit and USFK memorialize the event every year. The South Korean ruling party politicians hide their heads in the sand every June 29th because this incident is perfect example of the failure of the Sunshine Policy. The South Korean government gives massive amounts of aid to North Korea and what do they do? They murder Korean sailors. You give them more massive aid and what do they do? They fire a tactical ballistic missiles which further raised tensions in the region. You give them even more massive aid and what do they do? They build and test nuclear weapons.
The Korean government has learned nothing five years after the West Sea Naval Battle because they have increased the aid shipments this year to North Korea to a record of over one billion dollars while simultaneously refusing to fully fund the US-ROK alliance. Is it any wonder why North Korea is always so billigerent when they know they can continue to get away with it?
The Korean government is either in total denial about the nature of the North Korean regime or they just simply don’t care. The first responsibility of any government should always be to protect their citizens. The West Sea Naval Battle is just one example that the Korean government could care less what the North Koreans do to South Korean citizens. Hundreds of South Korean citizens have been abducted by North Korean commandoes and agents over the years from South Korea. A South Korean wife of one of the abductees had to mount her own personal operation to free her husband from enslavement in North Korea while the South Korean government did nothing. Even sadder are the hundreds of South Korean POWs which still remain in North Korea against their will. If the South Korean government could care less about the welfare of servicemembers serving their country now, is it any surprise they could care less about the welfare of South Korean POWs kept in North Korea in violation of the armistice agreement signed decades ago.
Certainly the Korean government has learned nothing and if the same type of incident were to happen again the reaction of the Korean government will likely be the same, which is pretend nothing happened. Unfortunately for the sailors and their families involved in the 2002 West Sea Naval Battle, something did happen and the memory of their sacrifices should be recognized by their government and the public in general.
USFK Commander General Burwin Bell built a memorial on Yongsan Garrison in memory of ROK Army soldier, SGT Yoon Jang-ho who was killed by a suicide bomber in Afghanistan. Maybe General Bell should also build a memorial to the sailors of the West Sea Naval Battle as well.
Popularity: 8%
6:43 pm on January 25th, 2007 1
[...] Respect the cease-fire? The UN most be using the Palestinian definition of a cease fire where one side stops firing while the other one continues to take pot shots. How can the UN claim North Korea respects the cease fire when North Korea murdered 6 six South Korean sailors and wounded 18 others in a planned ambush to draw attention away from South Korea’s amazing 2002 World Cup run? Or how about the 1996 spy submarine incident that claimed the lives 13 ROK Army soldiers and 4 civilians? There has been numerous clashes in recent years in the West Sea and the DMZ due to North Korean violations of the Military Demarcation Line. I can keep playing this game, but I think everyone has got the point, North Korea isn’t abiding by the cease fire resolution and the UN is making excuses for another dictator; not that it isn’t anything new. [...]
8:46 am on February 28th, 2007 2
[...] Let’s hope the government of Korea honors SGT Yoon properly as a hero who tried to make life better for the people of Afghanistan instead of ignoring or marginalizing his sacrifice like the Korean government has done in the past with the six sailor killed in the 2002 West Sea Naval Battle. [...]
1:20 pm on June 28th, 2007 3
GI,
I didn´t get the point.
What´s wrong with SK giving food to NK? Wouldn´t be worst leaving NK withouth assistance?
I mean, they are dying of hunger so they have nothing to lose now, which makes them extremelly dangerous. Giving some food and assistance wouldn´t calm them down? I think this is some kind of control of NK by SK. I know that it is impossible to control NK, but “some” control is better than nothing. This is my opinion.
7:50 am on June 29th, 2007 4
GI,
Thanks for memorializing these brave sailors who died and wounded for defense of the country.
Just like what Sec State Rice asked her ROK counterpart, if he remember the names of girls who were killed by track vehicle and also if he also knew the names of the sailors who were killed in this battle. ROK MOFAT replied that he only remembered the names of those two girls but not the dead sailors. It shows what level of their priority when it comes to their relationship with US compared to DRPK.
Dr. Yu,
Most of aid to DPRK goes straight to power elite first and secondly it goes to the military depots. And whatever left after that, then it might goes to the hungry people. Almost every defectors are claiming that food aid to DPRK does not reach to the people who really are hungry. If there is no monitoring going on in DPRK, then how can the aid donors can confirm that the delivery to starved people have been made?
8:49 am on June 29th, 2007 5
Ditto to what CPT Kim has said. The food aid goes directly to the regime and the military. The average citizens sees very little of it. There have actually been pictures smuggled out of NK of the food aid in the hands of the NK military. The money the regime saves by not having to buy food for the ruling elite goes into helping them fund their ballistic missile and nuclear programs which help them further extort money and aid from the international community.
Cutting off food aid would be something that would directly impact the ruling regime. However, such a policy should be combined with cutting off cash flow from their illegal activities as well. This would effectively put a choke hold on the regime that would cause it to collapse. Despite all the rhetoric SK does not want reunification, China doesn’t want it, and neither does Russia. Ironically the only people who wanted reunification were the US and Japan and now the Bush Administration has decided to pass the NK problem to the next administration just like Clinton did. While this goes on another generation of North Koreans will be lost. How many more lost generations of North Koreans will there be before anyone does anything about it?
9:31 am on June 29th, 2007 6
I know most of you may disagree on this but most koreans think it’s still worthy sending food to NK because of these reasons:
1) It’s innevitable for S.Koreans looking at the N.Koreans as their kin, so even if only 10% of the food goes to the civilians they think it is still worthy.
2) NK is above SK so if a war breaks SK will be the first to be blown out. So … let’s “cooperate” with them.
Now reagrding SK not really willing to reunite with NK it is someting new for me.
For me, as a korean, reunification is the only way for SK survive China, Japan and Russia in the future (not only for war case but also, and mostly, for economic reason). It is obvious: Bigger market, bigger military, more resources, etc).
12:56 pm on June 29th, 2007 7
Yu, the steps you put forth will only postpone unification for the next generation. But that does make sense. Why should this generation take on the difficult job. There’s no profit in it.
The faster the fall of the DPRK, the faster the rise of a unified Korea. But it will be VERY expensive, whenever it happens.
Wouldn’t a bigger market, bigger military, and more resources, be a good thing now, rather than 5, 10, 15 years from now? Maby not. Let the next generation worry about that. This generation can be the one remembered for keeping the DPRK alive.
My thoughts go out to the South Korean Sailors that died, and those that loved them. I am glad that they are remembered. Thanks for this Rememberance GI. June is a month that stands out for me.
The two girls, the Sailors, and the American Military Doctor that was Murdered in 2000, while shopping in Itaewon. And other events.
1:00 pm on June 29th, 2007 8
[...] hear all the time but who knows what was achieved. The other, you probably never heard of it (Via. ROK Drop). But its been 5 years and it still highlights that many people are still in denial of the North [...]
2:14 pm on June 29th, 2007 9
Shameless blog plug:
http://worldwidewes.livejournal.com/
5:54 pm on June 29th, 2007 10
6:15 pm on June 29th, 2007 11
Thanks for the quotes from the interview with the sailors today. I’d missed that one…
As I remember it, Pres. Kim Dae Jung (still in office at the time) went to Japan for the World Cup closing ceremonies despite the attack.
The memorial for the dead was held in a location where press and citizens could not attend.
The line that the North Koreans crossed to shoot up the SK boat was actually some kms below the official naval DMZ line - it was a line the South Korean government established to try to prevent clashes between the ROK navy or its fishermen and the North.
At the time, all the anger in the Korean press and people was pointed —- at the government in Seoul - not Pyongyang - because SK’s intelligence didn’t “prevent” the attack by figuring out what the North had in mind beforehand!!
Of course, the usual leftist sites in South Korea promoted the North Korean version of events along the lines of something like —- South Korean fishing vessels had been sneaking into North Korean waters (actually, the DMZ) to illegally catch crab - so - it was their fault the clash happened — and all our anger should be directed at the South Korean government for — covering up what the SK fishermen were doing in order to lay the blame at Pyongyang’s feet.
It takes a special kind of person to……….
Rice busting the balls of the Koreans 1 year later, when Korea was just starting to tone down the orgy of hate over the tank accident, is one big reason I want her to run for president.
7:04 pm on June 29th, 2007 12
usinkorea,
You are correct on all accounts. The whitewashing and covering up of the murder of these six sailors is truly extraordinary.
8:37 am on June 30th, 2007 13
[...] has attended the memorial yesterday of the six sailors murdered by the North Koreans during the West Sea Naval Battle five years [...]
6:50 am on July 1st, 2007 14
Yes DR You ….you have hit the nail on the head….Thank You for pointing this out to us…
The Koreans are scared of the North Koreans so they are out to appease them as much as possible and the North Koreans know this so they are not very agreeable to anything.
Korea is what?……0-400-1 in wars? This is because instead of taking on the enemy the Koreans have always looked out for themselves instead of the greater good of the nation….just look at the way people park….and this has led to disorganization and appeasement ….Wars loses and occupation….I guess the same could of been said about Japan in the early 1900s….lets not piss them off and they will be our pals
6:40 pm on July 2nd, 2007 15
[...] while the memorial ceremony was going on for the six sailors murdered by North Korea during the West Sea Naval Battle? Kim Dae-joong from the Chosun Ilbo has the [...]
10:17 am on August 18th, 2007 16
[...] Jae-joung is declaring that the six sailors killed and the eighteen more that were wounded in the deliberate North Korean attack died for nothing because they should not have been defending South Korean territory in the first [...]
10:50 am on September 17th, 2007 17
[...] this is what the six South Korean sailors murdered by North Korea in 2002 died for, so their government could surrender the sovereign South Korean territory they [...]
9:04 pm on October 5th, 2007 18
[...] Kim Dae-jung and Kim Jong-il than I suspect that means we can expect more of the following: the murdering of South Korean sailors, shootouts on the DMZ, missiles fired at Japan, nuclear brinkmanship, the growth of North Korean [...]
5:07 am on October 25th, 2007 19
[...] treatment of the memory of the sailors murdered and wounded intentionally by North Korea during the 2002 West Sea Naval Battle. Even more disgraceful has been the government’s treatment of the surviving family members [...]
9:33 pm on January 8th, 2008 20
[...] still amazes me how Roh Moo-hyun has ignored the deaths of these ROK sailors, has never even attended one memorial ceremony in their honor, and his aides have even insulted the [...]
9:35 am on January 11th, 2008 21
[...] like with the whitewashing of the 2002 West Sea naval battle it has been disgraceful the treatment the Roh Moo-hyun administration treated the plight of South [...]
8:45 am on April 3rd, 2008 22
[...] I can only imagine that the South Korean military must feel quite good having their testicles restored after 10 years of leftist rule in South Korea that allowed the North Koreans to walk all over them. It must feel even better when their own government is no longer treating them as criminals. [...]
6:59 am on April 9th, 2008 23
[...] took six years but finely the South Korean government is going to honor the sailors murdered in the 2002 naval ambush by North Korea: The government will rename the naval clash with North Korea in the West Sea in [...]
4:40 am on July 12th, 2008 24
[...] happen but considering the South Korean public could care less when six of its servicemembers were premeditatedly murdered by North Korea why would they care about what happened to this 53 year old [...]
6:46 am on October 3rd, 2008 25
[...] of their citizens, runs a systematic gulag operation that has hundreds of thousands imprisoned, murders ROK military personnel without provocation, murders a South Korean civilian by shooting her in the back, shoots missiles [...]
1:26 pm on October 19th, 2008 26
11:19 am on November 15th, 2008 27