The U.S. military called on South Korean authorities yesterday to prosecute to the "fullest extent possible" a group of anti-American student activists who entered one of the local U.S. bases Thursday. The Eighth U.S. Army said yesterday it had apprehended 12 Korean students and turned them over to Korean police authorities after they illegally entered the Rodriquez Range Complex, a firing range in northern Gyeonggi, and halted its regular training program. "We strongly support the right to peacefully assemble and the right to free speech, yet we do not condone illegal entry into military installations or violent actions," the Eighth U.S. Army said in a statement.
| "Get those assholes off our goddamned firing range!" |
U.S. Army officials explained that entering an installation where live weapons are being used and armored vehicles are engaged in active training is extremely dangerous and can result in severe injury and loss of life to the individuals protesting as well as to the soldiers on duty. Student activists belonging to the radical Hanchongnyeon group rallied nationwide in anti-U.S. demonstrations Thursday, throwing red paint and burning the U.S. flag in some cases. In their view of the United States as encouraging the likelihood of war on the Korean Peninsula, these radicals demand the withdrawal of U.S. forces from Korea and a nonaggression pact to be signed between Pyongyang and Washington as a peace overture to North Korea.
"It is unfortunate that U.S. soldiers who are conducting high-levels of training to defend the Republic of Korea are disrupted by a student radical group," Lt. Gen. Charles C. Campbell, commander of the Eighth U.S. Army in the statement.
What are we waiting for. Get our troops the hell out of there. |
