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Anti-Americanism all the rage in South Korea
By Michael Taylor
SEOUL - It
is mid-morning on a freezing weekday in central Seoul,
and this reporter has an hour to kill before conducting
his next interview. The coffee shop in the labyrinthine
underground passage linking City Hall with nearby office
buildings and several international hotels seems like as
good a place as any. Or perhaps not, for he is a US
citizen and pasted on the front window is a large sign:
"AMERICANS ARE NOT WELCOME HERE!!!" After a quick test
of the staff's resolve, it becomes evident that they
mean what they say - no service for Yankee.
"Many Westerners call Koreans xenophobic, but I
don't agree with that," says a Western business lobbyist
based in Seoul. "They just have a healthy mistrust of
foreigners." Perhaps, but these are certainly not the
healthiest of times for US-South Korea relations.
Anti-Americanism, which is never far from the surface
here, has flared anew after a resurgence of
nationalistic pride in the wake of South Korea's
successful co-hosting of the World Cup of Football last
summer, and amid the run-up to the presidential
elections. The immediate catalyst: the acquittal of two
US servicemen who caused the deaths of two Korean
schoolgirls in a horrific accident last June. The
teenagers were tragically killed when the 50-ton track
vehicle operated by the soldiers ran them over during a
training mission.
There are about 37,000 US
troops in South Korea, and legal jurisdiction over any
crimes they commit is decided by the Status of Armed
Forces Agreement (SOFA) between Washington and Seoul.
This pact only allows Korean courts to handle cases
involving US soldiers who commit crimes when they are
off duty. Because the servicemen were on duty at the
time of the accident, the US military had jurisdiction
over the investigation, and last month an army court
cleared the soldiers of any wrongdoing.
That
decision has resulted in massive protest rallies,
including a demonstration of a reported 50,000 angry
citizens in front of the US Embassy on December 15. The
protesters are calling for the two soldiers to be tried
in a Korean court and for a permanent change to the
SOFA. Perhaps more frightening for foreign residents are
the increased reports of attacks on US soldiers,
including the attempted stabbing of an army officer late
Sunday outside Yongsan US Army Base in the capital city.
The current anti-US fervor is largely a youth
movement, and has been egged on in part by supporters of
the two major candidates in Thursday's presidential
election, both of whom are eager for young people's
support. While the phenomenon has spread from radical
extremists into mainstream politics, it seems to
reverberate at a level far deeper in Korean society. Yet
those who are calling for a withdrawal of US troops are,
in the words of a Korean cliche, like frogs looking at
the world from the bottom of a well.
Koreans
like to say that their country has been invaded more
than 900 times throughout history, a slight exaggeration
unless one includes minor border skirmishes. But the
nation spent centuries as a vassal state under the
suzerainty of the Chinese imperial court, which
nonetheless never managed to co-opt the country and make
it part of China. More recently, Korea suffered brutal
treatment at the hands of Japanese colonizers, whose
notorious abuse of the nation to feed its
military-industrial machine is bitterly remembered by
young Koreans - who did not experience it - today.
However, this was not the only nation to suffer
as an unwilling member of Japan's "East Asian
Co-Prosperity Sphere". Fear of resurgent Japanese
militarism prompted China's support for North Korean
dictator Kim Il-sung's invasion of the South in 1950.
After the ceasefire in 1953, the continuing presence of
the US military in South Korea has served China's
purposes almost as well as if the Chinese had won the
war.
"It is often said that US troops are here
to protect South Korea against an invasion," says a
foreign consultant and 15-year resident of Seoul. "But
the reality is that they're here to ease China's fears
by shoring up its borders against another invasion." He
adds that the real buffer for China is not the
demilitarized zone (DMZ), the thin strip of land
separating the two Koreas at the 38th parallel, but
rather "everything from the DMZ north to the Chinese
border ... I always tell my Korean friends, 'Go
demonstrate in front of the Chinese Embassy if you want
to see US troops removed from your country.'"
Kicking the US troops out is an ever-popular
idea, and one voiced by President Kim Dae-jung during
his successful election campaign in 1997. Yet just as
with his campaign pledge to "renegotiate" South Korea's
bailout package with the International Monetary Fund, he
wisely abandoned the rallying call after stepping into
office. Because of the obvious security risks, any
departure of US troops would be accompanied by the
exodus of foreign investors, who have played a critical
role in the rebuilding of South Korea's economy since
the Asian financial crisis that first hit South Korea in
November 1997. Government figures show that as of
September, US investors accounted for 54 percent of the
nation's cumulative foreign investment.
Yet both
Korean and foreign business leaders are afraid that the
current round of America-bashing, which has included
boycotts of US goods and companies, will have
repercussions on Korean trade with the United States.
Judging by previous boycotts, the impact on US firms is
likely to be harsh. For example, a similar but less
virulent upsurge of anti-Americanism followed a
controversial speed-skating contest in last winter's
Olympic Games and a subsequent and unfortunate Jay Leno
joke about Koreans eating dog meat. Angry young Koreans
responded with a boycott of US goods and services that
resulted in a 15 percent reduction in sales at South
Korean McDonald's outlets.
The current boycotts
are likely to be even more damaging to US restaurant
chains (or eateries that are perceived to be from the
US), as well as consumer-goods companies and automobile
manufacturers. "I am so sad because of the death of our
two schoolgirls but given the Korea-US relations, we
have to consider the economic losses and gains," Korea
Chamber of Commerce and Industry (KCCI) chairman Park
Yong-sung said in a radio announcement. Likewise,
Jeffrey Jones, president of the American Chamber of
Commerce in Korea, warned last week that the
demonstrations and violence could lead to an anti-Korean
movement in the United States. Bilateral trade reached
US$52 billion in 2001, and the United States is South
Korea's largest export market. However, this
relationship will be at risk if the simmering anti-US
feelings worsen.
Observers say that the United
States handled the deaths of the girls in a very poor
manner politically, with President George W Bush's
condolences issued via his ambassador in Seoul and
largely falling on deaf ears. Last week, Bush finally
expressed his personal condolences for the girls' deaths
during a phone conversation with Kim, but it was too
late to stave off the weekend demonstrations.
"Koreans, like everyone, are a very proud
people, and the US is not recognizing some of the
changes," says an observer. "Many in Washington think
Koreans should simply be grateful that 40 years ago we
supported them and 37,741 Americans gave their lives to
make this a free and successful place - to give them the
right to burn our flag, which Koreans like to do from
time to time. And yeah, they should be grateful - but we
haven't done a very good job of helping them to remember
why."
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