Korean Memorial Day Highlighted with Pro-US Rally

 

UPDATE #2:  The AFP actually has a much more detailed article up about the protest and they quote the Seoul police as saying 30,000 people attended the rally on Wednesday. 

 _________________________________

UPDATE #1: The Korean Media has picked up on the story today with the Chosun Ilbo deeming the rally only worthy of a picture with no detailed information:

The Joong Ang Ilbo has a similar picture but lists more of what the protest was about and that 25,000 people attended.  It is amazing that the anti-US loons can have a protest of just a few dozen people and make more headlines than 25,000 people in front of City Hall waving US and Korean flags. 

You can read more over at Lost Nomad.

_____________________________________

I traveled to Korea this week on leave with my wife.  This is my first time back to Korea since the fall of 2005.  So far it has been an interesting trip.  For example on Wednesday we decided to go take a walk down the Choengyecheon Stream and then walk over to Myeongdong via City Hall in order to get some lunch.  I will blog more about the Cheongyecheon in a future posting but it was a good walk with a lot of people out and about because Wednesday was the Korean Memorial Day.

Anyway while walking along the Cheongyecheon Stream we noticed a number of people that were carrying Korean and American flags which we thought was odd.  Once we reached the end of the stream we walked towards City Hall and we found out why:

In the above picture you can see a number of elderly citizens were lounging in the shade and they were handing out Korean and American flags to people walking by.   The wife and I spoke with them and they said they had just held a rally and that they were protesting the Korean government to recognize their contributions as a secret commando unit during the Korean War as well as protesting the government’s policy towards North Korea.  Some of these guys actually looked familar from protest pictures I have seen before in the Korean media of the veterans groups holding rallies. 

It was Memorial Day and I thanked these guys for their patriotism, service, and their support of the US-ROK Alliance and we then continued on our way.  As we approached City Hall the sidewalks were filled with people wearing blue shirts and holding Korean and American flags.  As we waded through the crowd we saw people in blue shirts handing out US and Korean flags to other people in blue shirts as well as people passing by:

As I looked towards City Hall I could see there was a huge rally going on:

One of the people in the blue shirt we questioned said that the rally was organized by Christian church groups in rememberance of Memorial Day as well as to show support for the US-ROK Alliance.  I was definitely surprised by the turn out because this rally filled the City Hall lawn as well as having people on the sidewalks across the street where I took the picture, not to mention the veterans rallied just down the street from City Hall.  I’m not good at estimating numbers but that should give you an idea of how big the rally was. 

This was personally the largest pro-US rally I have seen and was quite surprised.  What I was most surprised about was the number of young Koreans attending this rally along with families.  Usually pro-US rallies tend to dominated by older people who remember American sacrifices during the Korean War.  Not this one because younger people easily out numbered the older people which is really a good thing to see because younger people tend to be the most anti-American in Korea. 

Maybe the anti-US trend is starting to wear out in Korea?  I have to say just from being here this week I do feel less of an anti-US vibe than in the past from just walking around and talking to people.   Any other opinions on this are welcome. 

Anyway it was lunch time and we were hungry so we started walking towards Myeongdong to get lunch.  We got a really good laugh because the street was lined with US and Korean flags:

What made this funny was that we saw a banner on the front of the Lotte Hotel welcoming people attending some forum between China and Korea.  Right in front of the hotel and all along the road were Korean and US flags.  Probably not to welcome of a sight for the Chinese visitors to this forum. 

I checked the Korean media for any news of this rally and didn’t see anything but maybe they will post something tomorrow.  Anyway it was a welcome sight and hopefully the large turn out for this rally is a sign of positive things to come in the US-ROK relationship.