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by Christian / Base21 Media Activists
dvs-b@t-online.de

Said a young demonstrator yesterday protesting in front of the head quarter of Hannara-dang (Grand National Party). The demonstrators, mainly members of Hanchongryeon (Korean Federation of Student Councils) want to protest against the “reactionary policy” of the Grand National Party against North Korea.

Yesterday's date - June 15 - is very significant for South Koreans: exactly three years before the summit between the former president of South Korea Kim Dae-jung and the leader of North Korean Workers Party and People's Army Kim Jong-il took place. During the summit both sides promised a peaceful future and a common struggle for a reunification.

But since this date nothing fundamental has change in the relationship of the two countries. Still there is no peace treaty - technically they're still in war. There are no post or telephone contacts between the ordinary people of North and South. South Korea still has the National Security Law. According this "Law" everything related to the North means supporting the enemy, a major criminal act. Of course the North has similar laws, with the only difference that the punishment in the North it might be much more severe.

In the last times some small steps in the direction of a kind of normalization were made, like the reconnection of two railroads, interrupted since the end of Korean War 1953.
But on the other side during the new nuclear crisis - the North announced that it want to build nuclear weapons - many people here worry about a possible attack by the US against the North.

This situation brings the people on the streets - especially on this date - to demand at first a peaceful solution of the current crisis. But perhaps their wish will be unfulfilled. It seems that the US want to bring the North to collapse. Still it started with a kind of containment policy.

Last week it forced Japan and South Korea to follow their course. In this case, Rodong Shinmun, the newspaper lead by the North Korean Worker Party, said sometimes before that's tantamount to a declaration of war. And this, the North says, that it could be happen that "the People's Army will launch a preemptive strike against the aggressor". It is clear whom it means: the US forces. The US has 37.000 troops in the South, mainly concentrated near the DMZ, in and around the capital Seoul. So the North counts with the fact that, perhaps, the US don't want to bring the 12 million inhabitants of Soul in the danger of the artillery of the North Korean forces (in the normal live you would call it "take them hostage" - it's a perfide idea, but it is the reality on the peninsula. Experts says that the North is able to shoot 500.000 shells per hour into Seoul) But perhaps Kim Jong-il sometimes forget that his counterpart in the White House is same crazy like himself. At least after the aggression against Iraq even Kim, jr. has to know that Bush doesn't care about nothing.

This brought the activists here to the realization that only their active engagement against the US policy of militarism and its collaborators in the South Korean government will safe the peace here on the peninsula. To underline this South Korean anti-war, unification, leftwing political and student activists held Sunday afternoon another rally in front of Yongsan barracks of USFK (United States Forces Korea) downtown Seoul. For hours several thousand protesters blocked some entrances and the main road leading to the barracks.
In speeches they condemned the US policy of threatening the peace on the peninsula, like on the large rally last Friday, they remembered the killing of the two schoolgirls by US armored vehicle one year before and they demanded the withdrawal of USFK as one of the "main obstacles to achieve unification and real peace on the Korean Peninsula". In a short performance the merciless policy of US imperialism and its collaborators in the South Korean government were screened. But of course on the end of the play the people, struggling against imperialism, achieved the victory! And of course like usual several US flags were burned during the rally.

On the end some student activists wanted to march to the next entrance of the barracks but were blocked by large units of violent riot cops.

Also to mark the date in the early morning KCTU (Korean Confederation of Trade Unions) organized a marathon in Yeouido’s Hangang gongwon (Han River Park). Several hundred unionists and some students participated.