SEOUL, 25 June 2004 — Anti-war and anti-Arab passions flared yesterday as South Korean activists vowed to block the dispatch of more troops to Iraq and the government banned a video of the beheading of a Korean national.
South Korean anger was triggered by the gruesome killing of 33-year-old hostage Kim Sun-il by his captors after President Roh Moo-hyun refused their demand to cancel the deployment of more than 3,000 extra South Korean troops to Iraq starting in August.
US President George W. Bush sent a letter of condolence to Roh yesterday, expressing gratitude for the courage shown “by the Korean people in our historic joint struggle against terrorism,” Roh’s aides said.
A candlelit vigil near the US Embassy in central Seoul drew some 300 protesters, who chanted: “No war, no deployment.”
Pro- and anti-war demonstrators took to the streets of Seoul and anti-war groups said they would stage mass rallies tomorrow in cities across the country.
“We will stage an all-out struggle by our members to stop the dispatch of troops,” said the umbrella Korean Confederation of Trade Unions which groups some 500,000 workers.
Pilots at South Korea’s two commercial airlines, Korean Air and Asiana, said in a statement they would boycott flights carrying troops or equipment to Iraq.
Analysts said the killing of Kim further polarized the country between anti-US opponents of the war and pro-US supporters.
“Opposition to the war and the troop dispatch will grow,” said political science professor Lee Chung-min at Hankook University of Foreign Studies.
But he said there was now no going back for Roh, who would compromise his leadership if he reversed the troop decision.
Several pro-US activists torched a portrait of Abu Musab Al-Zarqawi, the Al-Qaeda linked militant who leads the group who beheaded Kim.
Anti-Arab sentiment was also apparent as police stepped up security to protect South Korea’s small community of around 30,000 Muslims after some 40 callers threatened to blow up Seoul’s main mosque.
