Sunday, March 2, 2003
eTaiwanNews.com/Roh urges peaceful end to nuclear issue 
Most of the article is about the North's calls for talks with the US. The Pro-US rally bit is a sort of after-thought.
[...]In Seoul on yesterday, 30,000 pro-U.S. demonstrators jammed a downtown plaza to support the U.S. troop presence in South Korea and condemn North Korea as a "rabid dog" trying to arm itself with nuclear weapons.
The demonstrators, many of them veterans clad in military uniforms, waved South Korean and U.S. flags and shouted: "We oppose the withdrawal of U.S. military from South Korea."[...]
Update: Here's a more complete article about the pro-US rallies in Korea and Washington: Conservative Civic Bodies Stage Pro-US Rally. Also notice, this article puts the number of demonstrators at 100,000. That's a bit of a difference isn't it?
A large-scale pro-U.S. rally opposing the withdrawal of U.S. troops stationed here was held last Saturday in front of City Hall, downtown Seoul.
Some 100,000 members from the 114 conservative civic bodies, such as the Korean War Abductees’ Family Union and the National Council for Freedom and Democracy, gathered to protest against the North Korean nuclear plans and against Kim Jong-il on the occasion of the 84th anniversary of March 1 Independence Day.
They denounced the North Korean leader Kim for nuclear ambitions that, they said, have ratcheted up tension on the peninsula.
Amongst the demonstrators were former prime minister Chung Won-shik, former Sogang University president Park Hong, former Yonsei University professor Kim Dong-gill and National Council for Freedom and Democracy chairman Lee Chul-seung.
In addition, 83 lawmakers and Norbert Vollertsen, a German doctor who has helped North Korean defectors find asylum in the South, took part in the rally.
Participants of the rally said in a declaration, ``North Korea's nuke plan has haunted 70 million Korean people with the fear of war.’’ They also called for the government to solidify its traditional alliance with the United States in pursuit of the national prosperity and world peace.
Holding the national flags of the two countries, and chanting ``We love America,’’ the demonstrators played the national anthems of the two allies.[...]
Thanks so much for finding this, I'm gonna go post about it now.
You're welcome. :) Thanks for stopping by.
A demonstration supporting nice people. That's refreshing (but how can you be sure Americans aren't only in Korea for the oil? :)
Thank you. This means a lot to us. My sister-in-law (to be) just returned from a deployment to Korea and was upset by some of the rampant anti-Americanism. I am glad to see that the efforts of our men and women in uniform are appreciated.
Of course, they are just the old people and not those stupid-ass punk teens. The new generation is retarded, brian-washed, one-sighted morons. Of course, not all of them, but everyday I see these Anti-US things, I don't know what to think anymore.