Riot over US base expansion

[Stephanie]

Should we just pull out? What do you all think? I say leave the....

From correspondents in Pyongtaek, South Korea
04may06

THOUSANDS of riot police today clashed with local residents, students and activists in South Korea opposed to plans to expand a key US military base.

The violent clashes occurred when about 3000 police in full riot gear stormed a primary school compound, where hundreds of protesters opposed to the plan were holed up.
The US-South Korean proposal outlines the relocation of dozens of US military bases in Seoul and the surrounding area to Camp Humphreys, in Pyongtaek, 70km south of Seoul.

In the clashes protesters hurled rocks and wielded sticks to keep the police at bay, while dozens of civilians were arrested and some were seen bleeding from faces in the clash.

Troops, backed by helicopters, later began establishing a barbed wire fence around a vast track of paddy fields to secure the expansion of the camp.

Police soon seized the compound except for a school building where dozens of protesters, including a number of Catholic priests, continued to stage a sit-in protest.

"Stop expanding the US military base in Pyongtaek! No war on the Korean peninsula!" read a banner held by protesters on the building.

Some local residents and farmers, backed by students and activists, had refused to leave their homes on the site of the planned expansion to protest against the Government's procurement of the area.

South Korean Defence Minister Yoon Kwang-Ung had earlier threatened to use force to evict protesters from the area.

Under a mutual defence treaty, some 32,000 American troops have been stationed in South Korea against North Korea's 1.1-million-strong army on the Korean peninsula since the 1950-1953 Korean War.

http://www.heraldsun.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,5478,19022335^1702,00.html

 

[theHawk]

Should we just pull out? What do you all think? I say leave the....

No we shouldn't. The few idiots that do these anti-US protests do NOT represent how most Koreans feel. Most Koreans know that Kim Jung-Il is a son of bitch and don't buy into the anti-american propaganda that is funded by the north.



Notice the following:

students and activists in South Korea opposed to

Its always the same, they recruit young people that don't know any better. Just like our liberals do.