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In fact, this scene is not unprecedented. Korean people of a wide range of ages previously performed such candlelight protests, which they directed at the U.S. government for the deaths of two middle-school girls during a U.S. military operation in 2002.
The situation is different this time, however. Today’s public demonstrators are targeting their own government, not the United States.
The previous public protests over the death of the two middle-school girls may have been perceived as an outbreak of anti-Americanism, especially by right-wing politicians and some American people. As for the recent candlelight protests, some Korean right-wingers have even alleged that some pro-North Korean political force has been at work behind these movements to unsettle the South Korea-U.S. alliance.
Do those previous and recent candlelight protests indicate a rise of Korean people’s anti-Americanism as the right-wingers have claimed?
Admittedly, some Korean people who have joined these protests may not readily accept a favorable view of the current Bush administration at this point and their attitudes seem quite antagonistic. However, these superficial aspects cannot reveal the deeper truth.
In fact, the protests are a form of a demand for an equal and fair relationship between South Korea and the United States. Furthermore, the truth is that such a spirit has grown from Korea’s growing democracy, which is a result of the developing relationship between South Korea and the United States. Their military alliance and social interactions have opened the door to Korea’s active democracy.
According to a recent report by Scott Snyder, a senior associate in the International Relations Program of the Asia Foundation and Pacific Forum Center for Strategic and International Studies, since the end of the Korean War, under the U.S.-Korea Mutual Defense Treaty formed in 1954, the U.S. military forces have never ceased to play a substantial role in easing security tensions on the Korean peninsula by countering North Korea’s military threat.
In this way, the U.S. military presence has established a foundation on which Korean society could shift from authoritarianism, under the military governments, to democracy, with the emergence of civil governments, in the late 1980s. This low security tension has also allowed foreign investors’ business confidence and their investments, critical factors for Korea’s economic development.
Besides their military alliance, the U.S.-Korea relationship has matured through their political, economic and cultural interactions, which initially were government-driven. There were international development programs designed to sustain the Korean economy, managed by the U.S. Embassy; military-sponsored outreach programs to Korean local communities; and various U.S. government-funded educational projects. Moreover, the Asia Foundation, the Fulbright program, and university-based scholarship programs substantially contributed to the development of Korean human resources.
Unchanged even today is the fact that those educated in the United States through various channels have returned to South Korea and taken leading roles in driving the development of the Korean economy and politics, as policymakers and civil movement leaders.
With American-educated Korean leaders’ influence, Korean public opinion has formed in favor of the U.S. military presence in Korea and the countries’ alliance. Snyder, by quoting a few official surveys, shows that the majority of Korean people admit the significance of the U.S. military presence for security stability, and recognize the United States as the most critical partner in South Korea’s diplomatic relations. In this regard, it seems that the Korean people’s protests against some specific affairs involving the United States do not necessarily equate to rash anti-American sentiment.
A closer review of the previous and recent candlelight protests indicates that they reveal Korea’s maturing democracy. In the recent protests, Koreans did not find fault with the United States, but severely criticized their own government for its failure to function as the ultimate guardian of their interests in Korea’s international relationships. Their claims appear legitimate and reasonable. Furthermore, they prove that Korean people as citizens do not hesitate to exercise their right to freedom of expression and assembly. Therefore, these moves are the clear evidence of the growth of Korean democracy.
In the same vein, the previous protests over the death of the two middle-school girls can be read to show something beyond mere anti-American sentiment. In their protests, the participants’ real target was not just the United States.
They were, in effect, raising issues about the unequal provisions within the Status of Forces Agreement (SOFA), which unreasonably favors the U.S. government by granting it comprehensive discretion to exercise criminal authority, beyond the Korean government’s authority, over crimes that occur on Korean soil. Such unfair issues also have arisen from the SOFA between Japan and America. But, it has been widely recognized that South Korea’s SOFA with the United States is far less fair than Japan’s.
Some Korean people and liberal NGOs do not hesitate to express explicitly their antagonism against the United States. By raising their voice of hatred, they attempt not only to convey their true beliefs but also to consolidate their support from Korean civil society where they have lost momentum. However, Korean people generally have understood well how the U.S.-Korea alliance and their other levels of relationship have contributed to the development of Korean society. Therefore, they cannot conceive of renouncing South Korea’s relationship with the United States. Imprudent anti-Americanism has no place in their mind.
As democratic citizens who cherish their society’s democracy, what they have sought is to raise their legitimate voice against their government’s mistakes and to claim what they deserve as a democratic society, namely, fair and equal treatment in international relations.
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(Lee Jae Young is a freelance writer and citizen reporter for Ohmynews International. He has a master's degree from Cornell University Law School in Ithaca, New York. ©Copyright Lee Jae Young.)
