U.S. atrocities in Korean War
South Korean delegation tours U.S. cities
By Scott
Scheffer
A delegation from South Korea conducted a five-city speaking
tour of the United States in late March to talk about U.S.
atrocities against the Korean people during the 1950-1953
Korean War. The Korea Truth Commission, the International
Action Center and Veterans for Peace sponsored the tour.
Between March 21 and March 29, Hyun Ki Cho, a Korean
grassroots activist, and Hwan Kye Il, a victim of a U.S. troop
attack as a child, spoke to large groups in San Francisco, Los
Angeles, New York, Boston and Washington, D.C.
In each city Cho's description of the sheer scope of the
violent attacks on civilians during those years left no doubt
that these attacks--and there is evidence of some 160 of
them-were not mistakes, but were in fact U.S. military
policy.
Hwan Kye Il was among a large group of unarmed villagers who
were viciously attacked. He lost his left eye to shrapnel. In
each city he described how it has affected his entire life.
In San Francisco there was a large turnout from the Korean
community. In addition to the moving testimony by the two main
speakers, IAC Co-Director Gloria La Riva reported on the
militant struggle of Daewoo auto workers who face massive
layoffs as General Motors moves to take over the Korean auto
company.
La Riva was part of a recent IAC delegation to South Korea
that met with labor activists, striking Daewoo workers, student
leaders, former political prisoners and survivors of U.S.
massacres.
She also produced a video with dramatic footage from the
trip, including scenes from the excavation of a cobalt mine.
The mine contains the bodies of more than 3,000 people the
South Korean regime executed--with U.S. complicity--during the
war.
Seventy-five people turned out In Los Angeles--about half
from the city's huge Korean community. In addition to the South
Korean delegation, Hwa Yong Kim, a Korean American and the Los
Angeles representative of the KTC, recalled how she walked past
the remains of her neighbors and friends as a child after a
massacre by the U.S. military. Preston Wood of the Los Angeles
International Action Center also spoke.
In New York, the 75 people who turned out at the UN Church
Center were moved by the report from Yoomi Jeong, the assistant
general secretary of the KTC. Jeong described how only a week
earlier she had learned that an uncle whom she had never known
had been executed at the age of 15 by the South Korean
authorities for his role in the Korean people's struggle.
IAC Co-director Brian Becker analyzed the aggressive,
militarist nature of the Bush administration.
Jeong then joined the delegation in Boston, where about 60
people attended the meeting at the Community Church of Boston.
The audience was visibly moved by the talks. The meeting
included a sampling of Korean culture--a drum solo performed by
P.J. Yim, president of the Boston Chapter of the Congress of
Korean reunification.
The tour wrapped up in Washington, where the meeting was
chaired by Sharon Black Ceci of the Baltimore All People's
Congress. She traveled to South Korea last year and toured some
of the sites where the military killed innocent civilians, and
where the South Korean regime executed massive numbers of
political prisoners. Brian Becker also joined the Washington
program.
The tour made a great contribution to the education of the
North American progressive movement, not only on the true
history of the Korean War, but also on the very nature of U.S.
imperialism.
The struggle for justice in Korea continues today as people
fight to rid themselves of the presence of more than 37,000
U.S. troops, demand a peace treaty to formally end the war
between North and South Korea, and demand an end to the
terrible trade sanctions against the Democratic People's
Republic of Korea in the north.
Brenda Sandberg, Sharon Black Ceci, Maggie Vascesenno and
Phebe Eckfeld contributed to this article.
This article is copyright under a Creative
Commons License.
Workers World, 55 W. 17 St., NY, NY 10011
Email: ww@workers.org
Subscribe wwnews-subscribe@workersworld.net
Support independent news http://www.workers.org/orders/donate.php)
HOME
:: U.S. NEWS ::
WORLD NEWS ::
EDITORIALS ::
SUBSCRIBE ::
DONATE
Email
this article
Printable
page