------------------------- Via Workers World News Service Reprinted from the April 12, 2001 issue of Workers World newspaper ------------------------- U.S. AUTROCITIES IN KOREAN WAR: SOUTH KOREAN DELEGATION TOURS U.S. CITIES By Scott Scheffer A delegation from South Korea conducted a five-city speaking tour of the United States in late March to talk about U.S. atrocities against the Korean people during the 1950-1953 Korean War. The Korea Truth Commission, the International Action Center and Veterans for Peace sponsored the tour. Between March 21 and March 29, Hyun Ki Cho, a Korean grassroots activist, and Hwan Kye Il, a victim of a U.S. troop attack as a child, spoke to large groups in San Francisco, Los Angeles, New York, Boston and Washington, D.C. In each city Cho's description of the sheer scope of the violent attacks on civilians during those years left no doubt that these attacks--and there is evidence of some 160 of them-were not mistakes, but were in fact U.S. military policy. Hwan Kye Il was among a large group of unarmed villagers who were viciously attacked. He lost his left eye to shrapnel. In each city he described how it has affected his entire life. In San Francisco there was a large turnout from the Korean community. In addition to the moving testimony by the two main speakers, IAC Co-Director Gloria La Riva reported on the militant struggle of Daewoo auto workers who face massive layoffs as General Motors moves to take over the Korean auto company. La Riva was part of a recent IAC delegation to South Korea that met with labor activists, striking Daewoo workers, student leaders, former political prisoners and survivors of U.S. massacres. She also produced a video with dramatic footage from the trip, including scenes from the excavation of a cobalt mine. The mine contains the bodies of more than 3,000 people the South Korean regime executed--with U.S. complicity--during the war. Seventy-five people turned out In Los Angeles--about half from the city's huge Korean community. In addition to the South Korean delegation, Hwa Yong Kim, a Korean American and the Los Angeles representative of the KTC, recalled how she walked past the remains of her neighbors and friends as a child after a massacre by the U.S. military. Preston Wood of the Los Angeles International Action Center also spoke. In New York, the 75 people who turned out at the UN Church Center were moved by the report from Yoomi Jeong, the assistant general secretary of the KTC. Jeong described how only a week earlier she had learned that an uncle whom she had never known had been executed at the age of 15 by the South Korean authorities for his role in the Korean people's struggle. IAC Co-director Brian Becker analyzed the aggressive, militarist nature of the Bush administration. Jeong then joined the delegation in Boston, where about 60 people attended the meeting at the Community Church of Boston. The audience was visibly moved by the talks. The meeting included a sampling of Korean culture--a drum solo performed by P.J. Yim, president of the Boston Chapter of the Congress of Korean reunification. The tour wrapped up in Washington, where the meeting was chaired by Sharon Black Ceci of the Baltimore All People's Congress. She traveled to South Korea last year and toured some of the sites where the military killed innocent civilians, and where the South Korean regime executed massive numbers of political prisoners. Brian Becker also joined the Washington program. The tour made a great contribution to the education of the North American progressive movement, not only on the true history of the Korean War, but also on the very nature of U.S. imperialism. The struggle for justice in Korea continues today as people fight to rid themselves of the presence of more than 37,000 U.S. troops, demand a peace treaty to formally end the war between North and South Korea, and demand an end to the terrible trade sanctions against the Democratic People's Republic of Korea in the north. Brenda Sandberg, Sharon Black Ceci, Maggie Vascesenno and Phebe Eckfeld contributed to this article. - END - (Copyright Workers World Service: Everyone is permitted to copy and distribute verbatim copies of this document, but changing it is not allowed. For more information contact Workers World, 55 W. 17 St., NY, NY 10011; via e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] For subscription info send message to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Web: http://www.workers.org) ------------------ This message is sent to you by Workers World News Service. To subscribe, E-mail to: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To unsubscribe, E-mail to: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To switch to the DIGEST mode, E-mail to <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Send administrative queries to <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
