This week the US beef protesters have tried to do some damage control as their violent protesting tactics have not gone over well with the Korean public. So this week no violence was reported and instead the groups behind these protests have brought out a Catholic priest activist group to protest the importation of US beef as well:
Priests from the Catholic Priests’ Association for Justice protesting US beef.
For those that don’t know, Catholic priests protesting in Korea is nothing new. This is a well used tactic in the Korean leftist playbook. It is actually hard to find a leftist cause in recent years that didn’t use religious groups to create a perception of moral legitimacy. In fact one of the most active anti-US activists in all of Korea, Moon Jeong-hyun is a Catholic priest:
Father Moon Jeong-hyun with organizer of Camp Humphreys protests.
He along with the Catholic Priests’ Association for Justice worked together to protest in 2002 against USFK in the wake of the Armored Vehicle Accident as well as providing moral cover, like the CPAJ is doing now, for the extremely violent protesters who tried to prevent the Camp Humphreys expansion. The CPAJ has also been quite active in trying to abolish the National Security Law.
Catholic priests protesting outside of Camp Humphreys.
It should come as no surprise that elements of the umbrella organization that the CPAJ belonged to during the Camp Humphreys riots were later linked to a North Korean spy scandal. So the motivations of these people are pretty clear.
Later on in the week the protesters needed more moral cover and had a protestant group protest on Thursday and a Buddhist group protested on Friday. The Buddhist group is led by a monk by the name of Sugyeong who has long ties with Father Moon Jeong-hyun. So it is no surprise he has his monks out here protesting US beef with the Catholic association that Father Moon is affiliated with.
Buddhist monks protest US beef on Friday night.
The fact that these leftist groups are using religious organizations for religious cover is nothing new. These Catholic, Protestant, and Buddhists groups have worked together before and will continue to do so in the future as well.
Now that the weekend is here the hard core professional protesters are back and have sidelined the religious groups with the KCTU leading the way. I expect the KCTU to provoke violence with the police tonight as they will definitely try and create an image of police brutality for the Amnesty International “investigator” that is in country to monitor the violence. So far all this investigator has seen is peaceful protests from the religious establishment. These KCTU thugs will provoke a response from the police and when the response happens the leftist groups will make sure then that the Amnesty International investigator is on hand to see it.
If the investigator writes a report condemning the police this will give the leftist groups added moral legitimacy that their friends in the Korean religious establishment has also helped them create.
It will be interesting to see what this investigator has to say if the KCTU tries to provoke violence with the counter-protesters coming out tonight against the US beef protesters. Because of this I would be surprised if the leftist thugs try and provoke anything with the counter-protesters. These protesters are trying to score a big propaganda victory against the Lee Myung-bak government by trying to get Amnesty to write a report critical of the government.
This whole week of protests from religious groups affiliated with the leftist groups was all about massaging domestic public opinion and setting conditions tonight to claim police brutality in the ever going leftist propaganda war against the government. It will be interesting to see what happens in what could be a critical weekend for the future of the leftist struggle to overturn the election of Lee Myung-bak.
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2:09 pm on July 5th, 2008 1
The Priest was the guy who had a handful of his core membership protesting out in front of the US Embassy the day after the 9/11 attacks.
He was also the one who got the Maehyang-ri issue off the group by staging violent, fence breaching protests in 2000. His publicity stunt during the fever of the NK-SK Summit worked.
He was arrested for the fence breaching, but the judge threw out the penalty because he said the man had at least brought to public awareness a worthy issue.
The fact you can find him, and the other Catholic priests and nuns who follow him, at EVERY protest issue related to the US connection to Korea — shows what he and they are all about.
2:27 pm on July 5th, 2008 2
Thanks for the information and analysis. Do you have any background information on Father Moon Jeong-hyun? Your link to the English aware article by Lee Han-soo is great. He clearly understands that they are crossing a boundary and have actually protested ideas that the Church itself supports. I guess I will have to ask my priest if he belongs to CPAJ the next time I attend mass.
4:48 pm on July 5th, 2008 3
Ahhhh.. Clergy.
Warning: The following link contains educational material that is also entertaining. Win Win.
http://www.patcondell.net/
Make sure you check all of Pat’s vids, available on youtube as well.
7:27 pm on July 5th, 2008 4
I think the Corean Biblical translation of Leviticus lists US beef as the only unclean meat…everything else from octopus to dog is fair game, so to speak.
11:38 pm on July 5th, 2008 5
To the priests’ credit, their stated reason for getting involved in the protests was their concern over the escalation of violence. And indeed, things have calmed down considerably.
Which probably explains why the nutjobs organizing this public abortion have told them to take a hike.
As even Baeksu has concluded, these assholes are deliberately provoking the violence and then exploiting the images to prolong these protests and shut down the government. As so many have already observed, they are trying to overturn the results of free and fair elections that removed them from power.
Yet they’re the ones caterwauling about LMB’s “anti-democratic” behavior. Oh, the irony.
11:40 pm on July 5th, 2008 6
Oops, I botched the first link in that last comment. It’s supposed to point to http://joongangdaily.joins.com/article/view.asp?aid=2891955
1:32 am on July 6th, 2008 7
The idea that they are getting involved because the protests were turning violent is bogus.
Many of these are the same priests and nuns who get involved with almost every protest related to the US in Korea. And a majority of the protests involving hundreds of people or more include violence.
For example, these same faces were involved in the Pyongtaek riots of 2006 - I think it was - when Roh’s administration finally moved the squatters (like the priests) off the land needed for the expansion.
The priests game up with the game plan from the beginning and positioned themselves on top of the building and urged the shock troops on when the riot police started moving in.
Just like with Maehyang-ri, The Priest and his followers wanted a direct violent conflict.
The Priest was also the main figure in Pyongtaek back in 2005 when the university student union and organized labor staged a few days of battle including ripping down the fence line. They also fought the riot police in a major way in the rice paddies outside the fence line.
The dedicated anti-US groups will protest any and everything remotely related to the US in Korea and manipulate it any way they can to try to score participation of average Koreans.
They shift their rhetoric and tactics which ever way they believe the wind is blowing…
2:19 am on July 6th, 2008 8
usinkorea, there may have been priests involved in those other incidents. But I don’t think it was on the scale that was seen in Seoul over the past week.
Further, what you’re saying is in direct conflict with what they’ve been saying and doing: they’ve been preaching nonviolence, and they’ve led the protesters away from the Gwanghwamun/Sejongno flashpoint. Words and actions. (See Gordsellar’s post for the details)
I know you’ve studied this matter in detail, but perhaps an objectivity check is in order. You seem to be viewing this solely through the lens of past protests, and discarding information that runs contrary to your prior suppositions.
2:20 am on July 6th, 2008 9
If the priests were really in cahoots with the people pulling the levers on these protests, why would they have been asked to take a hike? See the JoongAng Daily article I linked above.
4:27 am on July 6th, 2008 10
Is anyone paying attention to what’s happening? The radical left just pulled a U-turn to distract everyone and it worked.
Not all priests are radicals, not all sisters are radicals, not a protestant ministers are radicals, not all buddhist monks are radicals — just as not all Koreans are radicals.
HOWEVER, these priests, sisters, ministers and monks ARE — and they have been for years.
The radical left evaluated their position and saw it was turning against them. The people were willing for non-violent protests but no longer supported violence. It was growing and they were losing their support. Immediately they called off the Hanchongryeon and pulled back the KCTU by having them exert their efforts on the illegal strikes on 2 Jul (EVERYBODY LOOKING AT THE STRIKES? NOW SWITCH ATTENTION BACK TO PROTESTS … BUT VOILA IT’S DIFFERENT…) Religious groups took over to divert the attention of the Korean people PRETENDING to be non-violent ministers of God. (NEXT SMACK THE PRESIDENT WITH BEING A BUDDHIST HATER — OR CATHOLIC HATER — OR MONKEY HATER — OR WHATEVER WORKS… PEOPLE ATTENTION DIVERTED AGAIN…) Now the President looks like the bad guy again and the religious groups look like saints. Now it is safe for the radicals to come out of hiding. All of a sudden all of the once pipe wielding radicals are born again Christians (i.e., the Hanchongryeon photographed with signs declaring a new non-violent beginning.)
As Robby, the Robot, stated: “DANGER!!! DANGER, Will Robinson!!!”
These radicals have been and always will be violent. They have repeatedly proven this over and over and have been documented in photos over and over. However, do the Koreans pay attention? NO…the radicals know that their attention span is as long as the next crisis or next diversion. They just did a double diversion and the Koreans have lapped it up. Are they stupid? No. However, they are easily duped…just like their kids were so easily duped…just like they were so easily duped by the lies and fabrications of MBC, KBS, Hankyoreh News, Kyunghyang News, etc.
You asked about Fr. Moon Jeong-hyun. He is from Kunsan and started his fight against the Park Chung-hee dictatorship and US “occupation” of Korea back in the 1970s. He was jailed and tortured for his beliefs in the Park era. He has continued his activism to this day. You may remember him for Mahaengro, but I remember him from the student riots back in the late 1980s…and became well-known in MDS standoff…and took the anti-war and anti-US lead in 2002. His last stand was at Daechuri. He is now in failing health and put in a cameo appearance during the priests turn at bat during the past week.
At Daechuri, he shared the reins of battle with Fr. Kim In-kook and Fr. Jeon Jong-hoon. Fr. Jeon is now the lead radical priest controlling the anti-war elements. They have a website…but are still active though without a cause to spring into action.
FOLKS… KOREA IS FIGHTING FOR ITS LIFE AND SOUL. THE RADICAL ELEMENTS ARE ABOUT TO LOSE EVERYTHING — SO THEY HAVE NOTHING TO LOSE. THEY ARE ATTEMPTING TO OVERTHROW THE GOVERNMENT BY UNDEMOCRATIC MEANS AS THEY HAVE LOST ALL POLITICAL POWER!!!
These are dangerous times so please pay attention to what is going on. It is not simply games that these people are playing. What you see out there are well-planned and well-executed strategies. They are radicals with a purpose. On the other hand, what we have seen so far is the Lee administration play right into their hands EVERYTIME…apologizing and apologizing again and now kissing the feet of the Buddhist order…
4:38 am on July 6th, 2008 11
BTW in your photos above, I believe those are not Catholic priests, but Protestants ministers.
In the photo with the Buddhists, Fr. Jeon Jong-hoon is the priest with the white vestments. The same type he served communion to the residents of Daechuri before the Hanchongryeon took their splintered bamboo poles to slice up the ROK army soldiers in the fields.
4:47 am on July 6th, 2008 12
10:20 am on July 6th, 2008 13
[...] appears that the leftist affiliated religious groups have been able to keep the extreme left wing thugs in check at least for last night as no violence [...]
10:24 am on July 6th, 2008 14
KK Kau Manua,
“…THEY ARE ATTEMPTING TO OVERTHROW THE GOVERNMENT BY UNDEMOCRATIC MEANS AS THEY HAVE LOST ALL POLITICAL POWER!!!”
This is the truth. I don’t think the radical left would stop even if the beef deal were “renegotiated.” They would simply find another way to stir things up. I suspect this will not end soon and will not end well for the people of Korea. The tragedy is that good people in Korea will have to suffer the consequences of the outcome of where this is all going. Even if they were able to renegotiate, a demand on the United States to renegotiate would probably lead to a significant negative backlash from Washington. I think this is when we would truly see the true motives of those instigating these “anti-American” beef rallies. They will turn their venom directly on the one they truly hate: the United States.
P.S. Many leftist think they are always morally right. Therefore, it should be no surprise when one sees these people use all means possible to accomplish their goal and use the goal to justify the means. Thus, they can use undemocratic means to overthrow a democratically elected government. Yes, in advanced democratic countries there are organized protests, but these kinds of problems should have been worked out through their “elected” representatives. If they did not like the results, they could kick these people out during the next “legally” held election. The people who are supporting these protests are simply doing long-term damage to Korea’s image and sowing the seeds of ill will in the hearts of Americans.
11:59 am on July 6th, 2008 15
Every time these so called religious persons come out to protest something as silly as the importation of U.S. Beef, they just drag their hypocritical religion down with them…especially those representing the Catholic religion, which has happened in the Philippines already.
Yea, the noisy LEFT is desperate and has been found out to be nothing more than “Chumps” of the North’s Anti-Imperialist, get rid of America, etc. program, but these stupid SOBs still keep marching to the same old off-tune beat.
Let the Korean police beat the Hell out of them over-and-over again, because people such as these will never listen to reason, or an intelligent discussion. Do they really think that the World gives two shakes of the Tally Whacker about them? Then they are only fooling themselves…only NGOs like Amnesty Intl., who has NO crdibility, gets them stirred up into thinking that people actually care.
12:56 pm on July 6th, 2008 16
Ut videam,
KK and the others explained it in detail - including notes I had put in my comments: It is the message of the day. I specifically said that the leaders of the religious groups will do and say anything they think will gain the best play in the general population.
For Maehyang-ri, at the time Korean society was ripe to vent on the US thanks to the euphoria over the NK-SK Summit - The Priest staged violent strikes against the bombing range out in the middle of no where - because that would gain media coverage at a time when the media was preoccupied with other things.
In 2005 and 2006, The Priest tried to do the same thing in Pyongtaek and the student union at Ichon’s Freedom Park and the MacArthur statue. In these three cases, they failed to gain public support. In fact, because the society was afraid Roh wanted USFK to downsize and didn’t want to fight to prevent it — the society listened to the media and put pressure on the activist groups.
Now, Roh is gone, and the society has shown it is ready and willing to join in the protests but were balking at some of the violence, so they have done what leaders do — tried to influence the environment to suit what they think is best for their cause.
Talking about previous protest cycles isn’t a narrow view.
It helps understand what is going on now.
So — when I see many of the same faces of the leaders who have used violence in the past to promote their message - now preaching non-violence —
—- and I have seen these same faces at EVERY conceivable cause to protest the US in Korea —
—-I find it hard to swallow the BS they are selling today.
And all of these priest and nuns and monks aren’t spontaneously gathering due to individual initiative. They are following leaders — and many of those leaders are well known on the anti-US circuit.
3:30 pm on July 6th, 2008 17
At least there is still justice in the USA.
http://www.latimes.com/news/printedition/california/la-me-cho27-2008jun27,0,1677646.story
2 La Habra police officers cleared in deadly New Year’s Eve shooting
O.C. district attorney says the officers acted legally when they killed Michael Cho, who apparently was wielding a tire iron. Korean American leaders are told it was ‘a justifiable homicide.’
Thank baby Jesus they killed him. The police saved an unknown number of lives by legally exicuting this Korean pre-murderer.
1:39 am on July 9th, 2008 18
Looks like I was right all along GI.
As violent protesters rejoice in their actions during candlelight vigils in Seoul, an ordinary family is shocked, saying, “I think they’re going in the wrong direction.”
Signs are that ordinary citizens are turning their backs on the protests originally prompted by fears over U.S. beef imports, while a hard core of professional leftwing demonstrators remain determined to harness them to a smorgasbord of causes.
http://english.chosun.com/w21data/html/news/200806/200806240029.html
3:58 am on July 9th, 2008 19
This is all part of the usual ebb-and-flow of Korean protest cycles. For the average Korean, it is sport. For the die-hards, it is sincere.
But, though I believe the average Korean isn’t sincere when they take up arms with the radicals, or parrot them in conversations around the office water-cooler, I still believe they are significant - and it is one reason I’d rather see US troops pulled out of harm’s way instead of facing a teetering-but-dangerous North Korea…
1:42 pm on July 25th, 2008 20
Mad cowed assemblymen.
WHO REPRESENTS KOREA?, MAD COWS?, MOBS?. OR DUMMIES?
The Korean people want to be free from the mad cow riots. It reminds Rousseau’s statement. “Man is born free, yet everywhere he is chains.” In this social condition, he proposed an idea of a representative government. So the citizens send their elected representatives to the parliament to present the voice of the people to find solutions for the problems.
Now in Korea, the government is a representative democratic system.
Under the present circumstances, the opposition parties are boycotting the assembly to prevent the opening of the new assembly. Thus, the opposition leaders are neglecting their own duties to represent the people. In other words, they abandoned their responsibilities as the representatives of the people. Outside the parliament, they do not have a legitimate voice or a forum. If they have a legitimate disagreement with the beef import issue, they should come to tell their opinion to the national assembly. They are just trying to paralyze the function of the government.
Thus, their very action is destructive and disqualifies their representation –A reverse course to the parliamentary system.
It is questionable if the government authority has the power to dismiss the disobedient opposition members. If so, it should oust them and let the people have a new election for their own true representation. Otherwise the society can not stand in peace under the status of “misgivings.” Needless to say KorUSFTA benefits.
BAN KI MOON, UN SECRETARY
Even if they have a disagreement with the beef imports, they should have convened the assembly even during the demonstrations.
More over, the national Assembly knew that UN Secretary Ban Ki Moon will visit Korea. They should have prepared in advance to receive him. Thus, UN Secretary Ban Ki Moon should have been respectably welcomed, as an international dignitary, and let him speak to the joint session of the government and the Assembly that represented the Korean people. But, they failed miserably as they violated their protocol in the occasion. Unfortunately, the UN secretary did not have a chance to speak proudly to his countrymen, Koreans, who were saved by the UN army. Thus, the Korean people scarred themselves, as if their representatives were ignorant derelicts. They seemed to have ignored their own status as the assemblymen. They just tried to snub the Lee Myung Bak government.
However, the opposition leaders actually snubbed themselves as if spitting into each other’s face. What a shameful action?
They misrepresented Koreans’ image to the world.
Koreans must know that South Korea was able to preserve its tiny territory because UN member nations sacrificed their lives to save South Korea from the communist aggressors.
But they missed the great opportunity to express the Korean gratitude to the Secretary who represents the member nations. Because of their misrepresentation, the Korean people be ashamed of themselves.
The Secretary is a proud Korean citizen. Thus, the Korean people are considered to be honored so much in the international scene because of his statue.
Imagine if these mobs had taken over the legitimate government in riots, what would happen to the people? Their suffering would be much worse than the mad cow ghosts can give.
GORBACHEV KIM
Remember the procommunist demonstrators that your mentor Kim Jong Il is evolving into Gorbachev Kim. You do not have any other place to go now but Myanmar or Zimbabwe. Korea should keep up its pace according to the change of East Asian political scene. The denuclearization is both US and our victory.
The opposition leaders and senseless demonstrators owe an apology to the nation. Especially, the undignified religious leaders should be ashamed of their not-so-saintly, subnormal spirituality, joining the senseless mad cow demonstrators against the very new government that you did not give even
a short period of honeymoon. Don’t you think you are cruelly mad cowed? – Think over! Where to go from here? Have good time South Korean mad cowed comrads!
Do you know why the smart cruel communist soldier killed the women traveler? They just wanted to give the trouble to the South Korean government.
Wake up! Stay on the line of law and order! Eat beef; work harder, Korea will be beautiful for ever beyond the mad cows. It’s yours.