ROK Police Failed to Protect U.S. Marines

Just in case you thought my most recent rant about South Korea failing to protect U.S. troops (the ones defending its country) was off-base, well, have a look:

The appearance of anti-war demonstrators as the beachfront site of a joint U.S.-Korea military drill on Thursday showed an apparent lack of interest by authorities in keeping exercise sites free of demonstrators and other civilians. Authorities said yesterday that the police in the vicinity of Manripo Beach, in Taean, South Chungcheong province, had been alerted to the exercise and told to prepare for the possibility of protests. But, officials said, only two policemen were dispatched to the beach; they failed to spot the protesters in time to block them.

The article goes on to note that this sort of thing has a history, so the authorities had no excuse for failing to prepare for it. The reponse was also characteristically slow.

Kim Yong-kyu, a public affairs official at the ROK-U.S. Combined Forces Command, said yesterday that the command has tried so far to respect demonstrators’ rights to stage protests and express opinions, but warned that such incidents could lead to accidents. On Thursday, protesters waited in their cars until amphibious carriers landed on the beach and rushed to the scene. By the time police reinforcements arrived, the protesters had finished a news conference with reporters covering the exercise and left.

It’s as if the government can’t decide which side it’s on.