A group of people stages a rally in front of the Foreign Ministry in downtown Seoul on May 21, 2018, calling for revision of the Status of Forces Agreement (SOFA) and denouncing U.S. forces for the environmental contamination of U.S. bases in South Korea. (Yonhap)
Trailers enter a THAAD base in the country’s southeastern rural county of Seongju on April 12, 2018, to bring excavators, bulldozers and forklifts out of the base in accordance with an agreement between villagers and the defense ministry. The equipment was introduced in November to build the THAAD base, which the villagers strongly oppose. (Yonhap)
A sign with Donald Trump's face at the demonstrations in support of disgraced former South Korean president Park Geun-hye: "All Koreans love USA. Please save Korea's ex-president PGH" https://t.co/5umsrnQbLPpic.twitter.com/0xWtFcwGU0
Supporters of ousted former President Park Geun-hye hold South Korean and U.S. flags as they march on the street in front of the Seoul Central District Court after the court sentenced her to 24 years in jail and fined her 18 billion won (US$16.83 million) on April 6, 2018. (Yonhap)
A group of students calls for a professor to resign over remarks accused of defaming the Me Too campaign during class at Dongduk Women’s University in Seoul on March 19, 2018. (Yonhap)
Unionized workers of GM Korea Co., the South Korean unit of General Motors Co., call for the retraction of a GM decision to close GM Korea’s factory in Gunsan, 274 km south of Seoul, during a protest held amid rain near the presidential office Cheong Wa Dae in Seoul on Feb. 28, 2018. On Feb. 13, GM announced it would close the Gunsan car assembly plant, citing low productivity. (Yonhap)
Members from the conservative Liberty Korea Party, including LKP leader Hong Joon-pyo (4th from L, front row), hold a rally to criticize a visit by Kim Yong-chol, the chief of the eight-member North Korean delegation, at Cheonggye Plaza in Seoul on Feb. 26, 2018. Kim is an alleged mastermind of a 2010 North Korean torpedo attack on the South Korean corvette Cheonan that killed 46 sailors. (Yonhap)
It is pretty clear that the Kim regime sent Kim Yong-chol as part of the South Korean delegation to rub the Cheonan attack in the face of South Korea’s conservatives:
Kim Sung-tae, floor leader of the main opposition Liberty Korea Party, speaks during a rally in central Seoul on Feb. 26, 2018, to protest a visit to Seoul by a controversial North Korean official. (Yonhap)
Political parties collided Monday over a controversial visit to Seoul by a North Korean official who is accused of masterminding deadly military attacks in 2010.
The main opposition Liberty Korea Party (LKP) staged a massive rally in central Seoul berating the liberal government for embracing Kim Yong-chol as the chief of the North’s delegation to the closing ceremony of the PyeongChang Winter Olympics despite his alleged role in the two attacks.
Kim, a vice chairman of the Central Committee of the North’s ruling Workers’ Party, has been accused of leading the torpedo attack on the South Korean warship Cheonan and the bombardment of the border island of Yeonpyeong. The attacks killed a total of 50 South Koreans.
“We will fight until the end against the Moon Jae-in government that has pressed ahead with its decision to allow the visit by Kim Yong-chol despite public concerns and objections,” Kim Sung-tae, the LKP floor leader, said during the rally.
“The raison d’etre of our party is to protect the free democracy system here,” he added.
Describing Kim as a “murderer” and “war criminal,” conservatives here had called for the cancellation of Kim’s three-day visit to the South.
They argue that the visit by Kim — who is under a set of local and international sanctions — will help the North’s “deceptive peace offensive” to weaken the current sanctions regime, sow discord among South Koreans and drive a wedge between Seoul and Washington. [Yonhap]
You can read more at the link, but this would be like a US President giving the red carpet treatment to the mastermind of the USS Cole bombing. Instead the US gave him Gitmo. That is the treatment Kim Yong-chol deserves, not VIP treatment at the Walker Hill Hotel.
