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Editorial:
Can We Ask Soldiers to Die for Such a Country?
Kim Jong-seon, the widow of Petty Officer Han Sang-guk, who was killed in a June 2002 naval battle with North Korea in the West Sea, turned her back on her homeland Sunday and boarded a flight bound for the United States. Before getting on her flight, she said, ¡°If the indifference and inhospitality shown to those soldiers who were killed or wounded protecting the nation continue, what soldier will lay down his life in the battlefield?¡±
In the battle on June 29, 2002 -- one day prior to the closing ceremony of the Korea-Japan World Cup -- six sailors were killed and 18 wounded when a North Korean patrol boat that had crossed over the northern line of control ambushed a South Korean naval vessel. The bereaved have spent the last three years in an atmosphere where it was difficult to even grieve. Nervous government officials, worrying that the incident might cast a pall over the Sunshine Policy, even warned the families to please be quiet.
During the first two remembrance ceremonies in 2003 and 2004, not one high-ranking government official, let alone the defense minister, showed up. The person who did send condolence letters to the bereaved was not a Korean government official but the commander of the U.S. Forces in Korea. A request by the families to move the bullet-riddled South Korean patrol boat to the Yongsan War Memorial, to show people that here were men who gave their lives for the country, were ignored. ¡°Our children who lost their lives to the enemy are being treated like criminals who tried to ruin the atmosphere of intra-Korean reconciliation,¡± one family member said.
From the time of the 2002 battle to the end of that year, there were nationwide candlelight vigils to mourn the death of two schoolgirls killed when they were run over by a U.S. armored vehicle. Any civic group worth its salt was there. In June 2004, right around the time of the second anniversary, a crowd of 5,000, including party and government figures, gathered at the funeral of Kim Sun-il, who was killed in Iraq. Their deaths, too, were heartbreaking, but they were not killed defending their country like those who were killed in the West Sea fight.
The Republic of Korea is a nation that does not remember soldiers who answered the country¡¯s call and died fighting for it. It is a nation that silences the bereaved for fear of upsetting the enemy who shot their sons for no reason. Is it a nation that has the right to ask the soldiers who even now guard the DMZ to give their lives for it?
Kim Jong-seon, the widow of Petty Officer Han Sang-guk, who was killed in a June 2002 naval battle with North Korea in the West Sea, turned her back on her homeland Sunday and boarded a flight bound for the United States. Before getting on her flight, she said, ¡°If the indifference and inhospitality shown to those soldiers who were killed or wounded protecting the nation continue, what soldier will lay down his life in the battlefield?¡±
In the battle on June 29, 2002 -- one day prior to the closing ceremony of the Korea-Japan World Cup -- six sailors were killed and 18 wounded when a North Korean patrol boat that had crossed over the northern line of control ambushed a South Korean naval vessel. The bereaved have spent the last three years in an atmosphere where it was difficult to even grieve. Nervous government officials, worrying that the incident might cast a pall over the Sunshine Policy, even warned the families to please be quiet.
During the first two remembrance ceremonies in 2003 and 2004, not one high-ranking government official, let alone the defense minister, showed up. The person who did send condolence letters to the bereaved was not a Korean government official but the commander of the U.S. Forces in Korea. A request by the families to move the bullet-riddled South Korean patrol boat to the Yongsan War Memorial, to show people that here were men who gave their lives for the country, were ignored. ¡°Our children who lost their lives to the enemy are being treated like criminals who tried to ruin the atmosphere of intra-Korean reconciliation,¡± one family member said.
From the time of the 2002 battle to the end of that year, there were nationwide candlelight vigils to mourn the death of two schoolgirls killed when they were run over by a U.S. armored vehicle. Any civic group worth its salt was there. In June 2004, right around the time of the second anniversary, a crowd of 5,000, including party and government figures, gathered at the funeral of Kim Sun-il, who was killed in Iraq. Their deaths, too, were heartbreaking, but they were not killed defending their country like those who were killed in the West Sea fight.
The Republic of Korea is a nation that does not remember soldiers who answered the country¡¯s call and died fighting for it. It is a nation that silences the bereaved for fear of upsetting the enemy who shot their sons for no reason. Is it a nation that has the right to ask the soldiers who even now guard the DMZ to give their lives for it?
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