Roh to MacArthur Thugs: Please Don’t Make a Scene

It’s hardly the strong leadership that protects liberal values from political violence, but it’s a start. From The Korea Times:

In a meeting with Korean residents of New York, Roh, emphasizing the South Korea-U.S. alliance, said Gen. MacArthur is “part of our history” and added that it would be undesirable if it were not respected as such.

“We should not manage the South Korea-U.S. relationship in such a way as to pull down the statue,” he said. “We should not insult people just because we have different perceptions and evaluations of history.”

This is mostly meaningless. Of course Roh doesn’t want that statue knocked down before a hundred TV cameras. Where is the stern warning that people who use violence will go to jail and stay there for a long time, rock-throwing police included? Instead, Roh continues to triangulate and play agnostic about the substance of the thugs’ world view:

But he seemed to say that the reason it should stay where it is was U.S. sensitivities about the stature of the general, a leader of United Nations forces here during the Korean War. “The statue has to stay, remembered as a part of history. Both good and bad parts of history must be remembered as they are.” To applause from his audience, Mr. Roh continued, “We must not do something that insults other people simply because of differences in perception and the evaluation of history.”

The Korea Herald mentions a planned counter-demo by former ROK Marines (uh oh) and editorializes about where this could all go if unchecked:

But ideological conflicts aside, the actions of radical groups to remove the general’s statue from the park by the use of physical force is unreasonable and can hardly win public support as there are democratic and legal ways to promote their cause. If they consider the statue as an intolerable eyesore, they should petition the city authorities or the city council to relocate it to another place such as the Korean War Memorial in Yongsan, Seoul, or maybe to the MacArthur Memorial in Norfork, Virginia.

Now, a sizeable force of sentries has to be posted to protect the statue around the clock as with other sensitive places such as the U.S. and Japanese embassies in Seoul. And we fear that in the days ahead similar guarding might be needed for the many memorial monuments across the country dedicated to the U.N. Korean War Allies.

If the statue moves to the United States because of this, it will be the functional equivalent of it being knocked down, and it would have similar reverberations for relations. As for the upcoming demo, it will be interesting if people who engage in violence will be arrested, tried, and punished this time, without regard to which side they are on.

I add the significant fact that the Herald editorial was forwarded to me by a congressional aide (thanks!). Given that fact, the U.S. media’s complete failure to report the 9/11 riot doesn’t mean this has gone unnoticed in places that matter.