Wednesday marks one year since Kim Seon Il's body was discovered, brutally murdered by Iraqi insurgents. We again convey our condolences to his family and relatives. You can still see him crying, "Please don't kill me!"
It hurts even more because it seems as if the lesson and work left behind by his death are not been put into practice and are being forgotten. When he died there was an overall review of policy towards Korean citizens overseas, but since then little has improved. When a tsunami overtook South and Southeast Asia at the end of last year the government failed to respond quickly and was thrown into confusion, and even now there has been little change in the consular personnel who provide services for the people. The proposed legislation that would restrict travel war-torn or terror-stricken areas and the revision to the passport law has slept in the National Assembly for a full year.
Even more a problem is that instead of withdrawing Korean troops in Iraq, the cause of Kim's death, there is talk of extending their deployment there yet again and even of changing the nature of their duties. When it became known on Al Jazeera that Kim had been kidnapped, the government announced that it would not be withdrawing Korean troops, and that contributed to his death. Insurgents said that Koreans had come to Iraq not to help Iraqis but to make the Americans happy, and the situation has not changed. Just recently Minister of National Defense Yoon Kwang Ung said a bill to extend the deployment beyond the end of this year would soon be submitted to the National Assembly, and he said so without any sign he has been agonizing over the decision. He is being deceptive for saying that having Korean troops guard the United Nations' facility that is being built in Irbil, recently the location of repeated terror attacks, "counts as peace and reconstruction activities."
Last month the Korean base there was hit with a shell attack. What is so difficult about withdrawing troops from a situation that is unjustified and unbeneficial? Kim Seon Il cries from the grave.
The Hankyoreh, 22 June 2005.
[Translations by Seoul Selection (PMS)]
[Editorial] Lesson of Kim Seon Il: Withdraw From Iraq |
