By It has been nine years since the tragic 2002 armored vehicle accident that killed two Korean teenagers Shim Mi-son and Shin Hyo-sun. For those that haven’t heard of this accident it was an event that brought the US-ROK alliance to probably its lowest point ever and swept a minor political candidate Roh Moo-hyun into office as President of South Korea due to his anti-American platform. Much has changed in Korea since this terrible accident and a lot of it for the better in regards to the numerous road improvements in the 2nd Infantry Division area where the accident occurred as well as improved driving regulations for USFK convoys.
For those that haven’t read my prior postings on this topic I highly recommend that today be a good time to do so:
She hasn’t seen...
3:37 am on June 13th, 2011 1
The candlelight vigil held by USFK about 7 days after the accident is one of the prime examples of why I argue against the idea that a key reason spikes in anti-US activity have ocurred is lack of effort on the part of USFK to get out in front of a crisis by getting their views heard.
I can’t find the link, and I’m not back home in the US to look through my files, but the S&S did a very good write up of the vigil. It was clear USFK bent over backwards trying to stay in front of this story. Like with the pollution cases I’ve mentioned here recently, they brought onto base Korean government people, people from the local community, and tried to get people directly related to the incident – the parents of the two girls – who said they were coming to the vigil but backed out at the last minute after the anti-US NGOs got to them – and the Korean press was there too.
They held a service mixing Korean and American mourning customs.
The write up in S&S was long and detailed.
But nothing was heard about it in the Korean press.
USFK can’t control what the Korean media will and will not publish.
5:11 am on June 13th, 2011 2
I was at Stanley that year. Wasn’t it also election year? I remember the last time I rode the local bus. After I got back I was told that local transport was nolonger allowed. I’m sure that was a local policy. I could see why on the faces of the Koreans. Normaly I got along well with the locals.
6:01 am on June 13th, 2011 3
Are we 100% certain the girls weren’t pushed in front of the GIs by a Dperk Agent?
7:30 am on June 13th, 2011 4
I was back in Korea the 2nd half of 2002 for language study, and I had to take a lot of public transportation each day, and it really sucked…
Normally, I had about 1 bad run in once a year – usually near some transportation hub. In the 6 months of 2002, I had about 6…
7:32 am on June 13th, 2011 5
#3 Setnaffa. I remember when I first arrived in Korea in 88. We had a week of “new comers” briefings back then. During one on driving in Korea we were told to watch out for the kids. Because they were worth more if hit by a military vehicle than not. Korea was still third world then.
2002, I think not.
We also got briefing on the Juicey girls in the ville. Not PC to do it today I think. I know when I came back in 95, there were few briefings for new comers. None in 2002.
7:57 am on June 13th, 2011 6
The alliance remained strong throughout this ordeal. The ROK military knew what was going on. I was in 2ID at the time and worked closely with many ROK officers – to a man they would privately tell you that it was an unfortunate accident and nothing more.
It was the radical NGOs and Korean press that made a sh!t storm out of the situation.
9:11 am on June 13th, 2011 7
I am so sorry.
10:01 am on June 13th, 2011 8
#2 Wasn’t it also election year.
Believe DJ was in power or about to become president. I remember once DJ became president the 3 main news channels’ 9PM news all carried some piece how USFK was messing up the environment or abusing privilege. They carried such anti-USFK, anti-US pieces EVERY night.
#6 It was the radical NGOs and Korean press that made a sh!t storm out of the situation
Yes true.
Unfortunate incident it was but definitely it was used as a tool by groups hostile to USFK.
2:28 pm on June 13th, 2011 9
I had less trouble figuring out not to drive myself in Korea. I went over there initially (’93) to do contract work for LG in Bupyeong-gu and Seoul. I was impressed by the absolute “foreign-ness” of the place compared to Dallas, San Francisco, Chicago, Des Moines, London, or any of the smaller places I had worked.
I “loved” the place; but “hated” the folks I worked with. Or rather, the folks who always seemed to be trying to prove something. All I was there to do was help them build a LAN. They insisted on “working” 12 hours a day (only three of which was actually useful) and then trying to tag along with me outside of work.
That got old fast.
The Americans I worked with all thought the Mug Club was something special. Which I sure it was, if bu “special” you meant “rides the short bus”.
I really enjoyed the Shilla Hotel (this was before the new fountain was put in) and I was within 20 feet of Richard Nixon and JS Kim as they took the red carpet to the Presidential Suite…
Never figured out what Nixon was doing in Seoul in March/April ’93…
I assume some Koreans are like people everywhere, willing to kill for political gain… That’s why I asked it it might have been a DPRK agent or a Hanky reporter (same thing?) pushing the girls in fron of the GIs…
I’ve only ever met really nasty Koreans in the USA. I assume it’s because they feel safer “acting up” away from their home town.
3:25 pm on June 13th, 2011 10
usinkorea – what the hell? Did North Koreans in Japan hack your site? It’s being linked to a Japanese beauty products that hide the effects of aging such as sagging breasts and stretch marks?
3:39 pm on June 13th, 2011 11
#10 – I took the site down about 2 years ago for a variety of reasons – the primary one being that it had become dated – another being that by then GI Korea had covered all the main topics in a way that better suited the times we are in now.
So, I guess the domain name was bought by somebody else…
3:43 pm on June 13th, 2011 12
Oh yeah, it was moronoriffic. The accident happened in June and it only got really worked up in October when it was election time. Well, Noh could jump off a cliff for all I… oh wait.
3:47 pm on June 13th, 2011 13
#11 – Wow fast response. Looks like J-spammers picked it up from how this site makes no sense given the title.
3:59 pm on June 13th, 2011 14
usinkorea wrote:
Spikes occur because the pro-North chinboista groups (some of them with marching orders and/or resources from the DPRK) are always on the lookout for something — anything — that might resonate with the public.
But these spikes often go unmitigated because of a failure on the part of the PAOs in USFK. I have had to work with some of them, and one head guy in particular was utterly hostile to any press or media. He failed to do what every other corporate entity in South Korea does to boost their image and protect themselves when something goes wrong, which is various forms of pressing the flesh with the press.
I won’t say his name, but the guy put the grade-A in a-hole, and his primary interest was protecting his cushy job which he was probably not well qualified for.
So the week-later vigil was in the PS&S. Big whoop-dee-doo. It’s a week late and a dollar short, not to mention that it was in the wrong-language media.
4:02 pm on June 13th, 2011 15
And as much as I loathed Roh Moohyun, he was simply a beneficiary of the spike in anti-US sentiment, not the instigator. The guy went overboard after his election trying to convince American corporate and government interests that he was not anti-American or anti-USFK, and though he hemmed and hawed on it for way too long, he pissed away a great deal of political capital at home to send ROK troops Iraq.
4:25 pm on June 13th, 2011 16
“So the week-later vigil was in the PS&S. Big whoop-dee-doo. It’s a week late and a dollar short, not to mention that it was in the wrong-language media.”
You missed the point.
The Korean press was brought on base to cover the vigil just as were members of the local community and higher up people from the Korean government. The vigil covered aspects of Korean mourning customs including use of Korean.
The Korean press refused to publish it – even though they were there to cover it.
I’ve seen the same on more than a couple of the pollution stories. Including giving out Korean-language press releases to the media and having translators at the press briefings.
USFK can’t force the Korean press to publish what they show them.
4:35 pm on June 13th, 2011 17
“The accident happened in June and it only got really worked up in October”
If I remember correctly, it was heating up to the heights until about August when they went too far — when a mostly university student-aged group promoting on the subway a massive protest at the college ran into 3 US soldiers and attacked them — with it all started by the middle aged ring leader (who was kicked out of the National Assembly for pro-NK activities) who punched one of the soldiers in the face.
Video of the mob chasing one of the soldiers through the street made it on the net and briefly on the news.
The Korean media knew things had gone too far and immediately shut up. The daily, multi-story coverage of the accident and protests disappeared over night.
Then after a couple of months without the American or foreign press getting wind of the GI Mobbing story, they started in again on the accident in the runup to the December election. The trigger was said to be the fact the 2 GIs in the armored vehicle that crushed the girls were found not guilty of a crime by a USFK court.
4:39 pm on June 13th, 2011 18
Kids here get hit all the time because they don’t follow traffic rules and drivers ignore red lights. Years ago, I almost hit a middle school girl that was going to j-walk but had her head buried in her cell phone and looked in the wrong direction.
4:45 pm on June 13th, 2011 19
What’s up the Stars and Stripes archives and/or search engine?
I couldn’t locate the long article on the candlelight vigil held for the 2 girls, and I can usually find things. And today I was trying to find the one on the mobbing of the 3 GIs on the subway, and I found the article on another site, but when plugging in the title or parts of the text into Google, it turned up nothing…
???
Normally, plugging in article titles or parts of a sentence will pull up links to the original source.
Did S&S pull the story of the mob attack?
4:51 pm on June 13th, 2011 20
usinkorea wrote:
Who in the Korean press was there to cover it? Was it folks like these or someone higher up?
No, I’m not missing your point. I think you are missing mine. USFK, thanks to the PAOs they had at that time, had a hostile relationship with the press, and then when they were suddenly in hot water, they tried to make nice to save their butts. I loathe much of the press in Korea, but it doesn’t work that way for anybody.
Taking at face value your claim that the event wasn’t reported in any of the Korean-language media (and I’m not so sure that’s true), a staged candlelight vigil one week after the fact might easily have gotten pushed off the regular media by major news events going on at the time. Was anything big happening that week?
Cub reporters would have been sent and it could easily have been relegated to the back pages or out of some of the papers altogether. The media covers lots of things that don’t make it into print.
Of course, this goes back to what I was saying about the PAOs. The intentionally hostile relationship with the press essentially precluded USFK from getting the kind of coverage it sought from the candlelight vigil.
Moreover, the pro-American press (e.g., the Chosun Ilbo, the most widely read paper in Korea) might have had a reason to downplay the story as well — to keep the story low key lest it whip up anti-USFK sentiments.
5:00 pm on June 13th, 2011 21
“Was anything big happening that week?”
The World Cup – which is why the news media wasn’t covering the accident itself (beyond a couple of initial stories) yet.
I’m not going to go around and around with you on this.
To me, inviting the press and locals in and showing them around, including Korean-language info packets and with translators, should be enough to get facts out.
But it isn’t. Like how the Korean media refused to report the monetary settlement and other things USFK did after the accident. (And as I’ve said, I’ve seen this on the pollution stories too – both those in Seoul and elsewhere – as well as the bombing range “accident”.)
If you want to lay a significant amount of blame for this on USFK’s press people for not giving the Korean press handjobs, fine.
5:11 pm on June 13th, 2011 22
You’re not going to “go around and around” with me on this because you’ll lose. And it won’t be a loss of attrition but a loss based on facts.
You have painted a picture of the media conspiring in one big collective anti-USFK entity, but that conclusion ignores (a) the incompetent handling of this incident, past incidents, and possibly future incidents by the PAOs of USFK, and (b) how the nature of the Korean press would work to inadvertently let the Pyongyang-led chinboistas to take control of the situation even if/though significant portions of the Korean media were not anti-USFK.
I had words with those PAOs back in 2001. I warned them of this stuff before the fact, and that only convinced the jackass that he was in the right for treating everyone like they were out to get him and smear USFK.
My interest is in preventing such things from happening again in the future. The chinboistas must not be allowed to win.
5:28 pm on June 13th, 2011 23
World Cup stirred up the nationalism and the dperk and their useful idiots were quick to point it at an unfortunate traffic accident.
The NUMEROUS other incidents (not to mention all of the @#$% USA songs and music videos) were obviously designed to drive a wedge between the ROK and the US. And obviously it was a lame effort, because in 2007 and 2010 I saw it was back to normal.
Still, I’ll be glad when KJI joins Osama and his dad.
5:47 pm on June 13th, 2011 24
You’re not presenting facts anything beyond what I have.
I’ll stand by what I’ve said so far.
6:01 pm on June 13th, 2011 25
usinkorea wrote:
When you do eventually find it, could you show us the PS&S article describing the candlelight vigil? I’m not saying it didn’t happen (I remember it happening) but I’d like to use the information there to cross check with the Korean-language media.
Those weren’t Bran Muffins wrote:
That’s exactly what I wrote about in the chinboista link, something I’d been noting for years, even before the 2002 incident.
Unfortunately, a number of bloggers, etc., have been useful idiots for the pro-Pyongyang chinboistas, angrily and emotionally laying out their anti-American agenda and making it seem as if they represented most/all Koreans. Dupes doing exactly what the DPRK handlers wanted them to do. Great job, folks.
6:17 pm on June 13th, 2011 26
I can’t log into your site Kushibo because it’s putting me in an idiot loop whenever I try to post a comment but – Kokohead crater….
6:24 pm on June 13th, 2011 27
You must not have been in Korea at the time.
The reason things didn’t blow up at first was because Korea was co-hosting the World Cup and the ENTIRE country was focused on that.
6:29 pm on June 13th, 2011 28
I went into the middle of the big candlelight vigil in December 2002 to see what the atmosphere was like… basically it seemed like a bunch of college kids going to a rock concert and yes, the infamous f-in usa song and variations of it were playing, along with angry speakers. People were selling candles for profit too basically. Oh, and you had riot police on the outside. It was really really crowded. Actually, I was around some students who had taken the subway in from Incheon and they were still pretty nice, but I guess kind of surprised when they heard where I was from. Obviously I wasn’t in the military at that time.
6:38 pm on June 13th, 2011 29
Guitard: You’re right. I came in August of 2002 and was 아쉽다 because I missed the awesome atmosphere of the world cup. I was keeping up with it with the Chosun Ilbo before going into Korea and then I went into total immersion in August and saw it really build in October with the elections.
I told my parents I thought that the whole incident would heat up later and that you’d hear about it but that it would be ok. So, I missed that part of the news cycle in July and I perceived it as really picking up with the election – and especially in December. I was living in Mapo-gu, going to Yonsei at the time, avoiding English, hanging out with Japanese and Japanese Koreans, and wasn’t in the military yet so I wasn’t getting exactly what most expats were getting.
6:39 pm on June 13th, 2011 30
Dupes. Sure. We’ve had this argument before. Plenty of people understand the depths of the anti-US sentiment in Korea (at that time) by how much the Korean media promoted the anti-US groups “facts” (and ignored what USFK was telling them) and other tell-tale signs.
But, you have always used the “stop claming you know what each and every Korean in Korea thinks!” tactic for a long time…
On the article, it seems Stars and Stripes has some issues with its 2002 material – perhaps between 2000 and 2003. I’ve done several searches yesterday and today that should have pulled up the links to this and a couple of other articles I tried to locate.
Usually, typing in the title of an article with quotation marks will pull up hits to the original source, but it isn’t working with S&S on Google.
8:01 pm on June 13th, 2011 31
Roh was a political whore who would have said anything to get elected. Once he was elected he had absolutely no idea what to do other than pump money to NK.
8:22 pm on June 13th, 2011 32
That was Bush, G.W. at the Shilla in ’93, not Nixon.
11:37 pm on June 13th, 2011 33
The main reason that the armored vehicle accident blew up into a maelstrom of anti-US activity and caused the election of at the time 3rd place pro nK, anti US presidential candidate Roh, was the then clueless, USFK Commander that decided to bring charges against the 2 soldiers involved in the accident. His own junior JAG officers advised against it as they said the case was weak to nonexistent but the Senior JAG officer did not back up his subordinates and agreed with the USFK Commander. The commander’s intent was to show the US form of justice with an open trial, of course forgetting that in Korea when you show up in court it is basically the sentencing phase with the Korean’s conviction rate running in the high 90% rate like Japans. Additionally the Uijeongbu Prosecutors office was set to return a finding of accidental death while the euphoria of the World Cup was still distracting the nation. Instead USFK announces a trial, invites the victims’ families and the Korean Press to the trial, and as predicted the soldiers are found not guilty, the Korean press and left wing organizations scream whitewash and cover up and the nation explodes and Roh rides the anti US wave to the Korean Presidency. And US/ROK relations sink to the lowest ever.
12:06 am on June 14th, 2011 34
The 2nd spike in activity shot up after the acquital, but it would have done the same after a Korean court ruling done earlier. The 1st spike was well on its way – until they went too far and attacked the 3 soldiers on the subway (and got part of it caught on video).
Also, handing over the two GIs in the armored vehicle for criminal trial in a Korean court due to Korean public pressure would have been a terrible precident to set in terms of the SOFA.
The Han River Poisoning is a good example of how the SOFA is needed. There, the Seoul prosecutor wanted a fine, but the judge threw it out citing public sentiment and ordered a criminal trial. USFK refused to hand over jurisdiction, and a trial was held without the USFK contractor being in court.
I think eventually USFK did allow the contractor to pay a fine which the Korean court eventually ordered a couple of years after the incident happened.
I think the USFK commander was wrong putting the soldiers on trial. They should have toughed the public fury out and just kept repeating that facts about the case and how accidents are handled in Korean courts and explaining how it was being handled by the US military system.
It would not have made a difference. Korean society was ripe for what happened after their good showing in the World Cup. Korean nationalism was soaring.
Also, the euphoria over the 2000 NK-SK Summit was still being felt. USFK had been looking like a not-so-necessary evil for a few short years before 2002.
That is why the press and public kept something like the selection process of Korea’s “next generation fighter plane” and the F-15K going so long.
Spikes like the one in 2002, and others, do not happen in isolation. There were years of conditioning behind it, conditioning that comes in a variety of forms and from a variety of locations.
12:19 am on June 14th, 2011 35
Here is a new thought:
I said during the Roh years that Korean society was quieter than usual on the anti-US front than I had seen in the 1990s, because they sobered up when he actually got elected, because they did not want to see their votes being put where their mouthes had been. They had gotten used to the trend of a (mostly) pro-US alliance Blue House that would (mostly) ignore street demonstrations and negative public sentiment concerning specific, isolated events.
When they woke up in Jan. 2003, however, they saw that they had actually voted in a long-shot, former anti-US alliance activist, and it scared them into a prolonged relative quiet.
As time past, I wanted to see what would happen if/when the conservatives go the Blue House back, and the Cows Gone Wild Saga seemed to confirm what I’d thought.
But, things got unusually quiet again for a couple of years and counting…
Now, my read of Korean society’s pulse is off. Things do seem to have changed since the time I taught Korean adults in the late 1990s and since 2003.
Now, I am thinking this is a sign of the importance of conditioning in the society. Things like how the Korean press handled itself in the past.
I used to talk about “water-cooler” spikes in anti-US activity: Times where the Korean press would churn out stories on a minor issue but with no cooresponding rise in street activity. But, it would generate a lot of talk among average Koreans. I could tell by what my adult classes wanted to talk about those weeks.
I am thinking now that, during the quiet of the Roh years, when things like the sizable riots around the US bases expansion did not make major news, the society did lose a key conditioning influence, and that helped allow what seems like a transition in the society in terms of attitude toward USFK.
4:39 pm on June 14th, 2011 36
#31
He also continued saying contradictory statements well after he was elected, depending on what nation he was visiting or head of state he was meeting with.
9:50 am on January 26th, 2012 37
#22,
“I warned them of this stuff before the fact, and that only convinced the jackass that he was in the right for treating everyone like they were out to get him and smear USFK.”
So, you are to blame and yet you try to lecture others