This time, protesters at Yongsan
want U.S. forces to stay in S. Korea
By Jan Wesner Childs,
Seoul bureau
Andy Dunaway / Stars and Stripes
Korean Employees Union members demonstrate outside Yongsan Garrison on Thursday. |
YONGSAN GARRISON, South Korea — About 1,000 demonstrators gathered outside this
U.S. Army post on Thursday afternoon.
But they weren’t chanting anti-American slogans ... they were there asking U.S.
forces to stay.
"That’s a little unique," said one U.S. soldier as he drove out of the
base’s main gate past the gathering.
Protests are held at least once a week in front of the base, which is located in
downtown Seoul and houses the headquarters of U.S. Forces Korea. Protesters yell
anti-American slogans, scrawl expletives on the brick wall around the base, and sometimes
burn the American flag. They demand that U.S. troops leave Korea.
But the Korean Employees Union, which gathered Thursday, has a different view. Their
signs, written in Korean, read "Don’t withdraw the USFK from this country,"
and "Please guarantee our right to work and to live."
Union president Kang In-sik said he wanted to let anti-base groups know that his
members, some 18,000 strong, need the jobs provided by the U.S. bases around the
peninsula.
"The local (anti-American) civic groups, they don’t know any
background," Kang said before the demonstration. "They just want to move the
troops."
The group does have some issues with USFK. Kang said they want improved worker’s
compensation insurance, and they want a guarantee that their jobs won’t be handed
over to contractors and subcontractors who might pay less or offer fewer benefits. They
also want to make sure no jobs are lost under a plan to consolidate some bases.
Kang said anti-base groups often point to isolated environmental incidents or crimes as
reasons that the U.S. should leave South Korea. "This is not right," he said.
He said South Korea needs the United States for defense against North Korea.
"I think my Korean nationals forgot" that, Kang said.
Riot police stood by as Kang’s group banged drums and chanted, and Americans
weren’t allowed to walk out of the two gates closest to the demonstration. Both
precautions are standard procedure during protests.
Americans watching from inside the gate couldn’t tell what the protesters were
shouting in Korean.
The spectators were pleased to find out that the union’s message was not
anti-American.
Emory Hicks, a staff sergeant in the Army reserves, said he was warned before deploying
here from Hawaii to beware of protests.
He didn’t expect to see one that was in support of U.S. forces.
"It’s a good thing, very surprising," Hicks said.
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