http://www.boston.com/dailynews/340/world/South_Korean_president_chastis:.shtml

South Korean president chastises anti-U.S. activists

By Soo-Jeong Lee, Associated Press, 12/6/2002 05:33

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) President Kim Dae-jung warned demonstrators Friday that their near-daily protests against the U.S. military are hurting South Korea's national interest.

The protests have intensified since two U.S. soldiers were acquitted in November by U.S. military courts on charges of negligent homicide in the deaths of two 13-year-old Korean girls who were killed in a road accident.

President Bush apologized for the accident, but South Korean protesters have continued to stage near-daily demonstrations, some of them violent.

''Some demand the withdrawal of U.S. troops from South Korea and shout for anti-Americanism. That's wrong. They are hurting our national interest,'' Kim said during a meeting with government officials.

Kim said South Korea needs the 37,000 U.S. troops stationed in South Korea as a deterrent against communist North Korea.

The anti-U.S. protesters also demand that the agreement covering the status of the U.S. troops stationed here be revised to give South Korea courts more jurisdiction over them.

The Status of Forces Agreement, adopted in 1966, has been revised twice but many South Koreans believe that it still leaves Koreans at a disadvantage.

The protesters note that under the agreement, the U.S. military has the right to try U.S. soldiers accused of crimes while on duty, while South Korea is virtually denied jurisdiction over them.

Kim defended the current agreement, saying that it allows South Korea ''about the same level of jurisdiction as in Japan and Germany.''

Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld said in Washington on Thursday that there will be no changes to the agreement.

On Friday, Kim Mee-hwa, a well-known female comedian, and about a dozen other actors, singers and film directors joined a rally demanding changes in the pact.

-- Anonymous, December 06, 2002