DLP’s Roh Explains US ‘Silence’ on Kidnapping

by Robert Koehler on July 24, 2007

in Korea in the War on Terror, ROK-US Issues

Appearing on CBS, Democratic Labor Party lawmaker Roh Hoe-chan expanded on yesterday’s Hankyoreh Shinmun’s theme, saying, “Because the United States hopes Korean troops will remain in Afghanistan and has wanted Korea to even send combat troops, it won’t say anything about the hostage situation.” He also said another reason why the United States was keeping silent was that if Washington told Seoul not to accept the Taliban’s demands, it could be read as meaning the United States thought it would be good even if the hostages died, and if it told Seoul to accept the demands, it could cause problems for the US occupation policy in Afghanistan.

He was also kind enough to blame the United States for the hostage situation (because, according to “sources,” the United States has been asking Korea to send combat troops since the beginning of the year) and for the death of a Korean soldier in a suicide bombing attack on Bagram Airbase in June (because the real target was a visiting US official).

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Hostage Crisis Update: If Missionaries Die, America is to Blame at ROK Drop
July 25, 2007 at 3:25 pm

{ 14 comments… read them below or add one }

1 Warren July 24, 2007 at 11:31 pm

It cost me 70,000 Won to fill up my car and now I don’t have enough money for Domino’s. Stupid America! Curse that Henry Ford!

2 R. Elgin July 24, 2007 at 11:53 pm

I find solace in that most Koreans would not take Roh’s comments seriously.

Perhaps if he were to volunteer to swap himself for one of the hostages, he might actually manage to do something that has merit but as it is . . .

3 globalvillageidiot July 25, 2007 at 12:00 am

Nice to see the DLP exploiting this story to further its anti-
American agenda. Very classy. I’d expect nothing less from them.

4 SomeguyinKorea July 25, 2007 at 12:00 am

Bah, don’t mind him. As a member of the DLP (10 seats in the National Assembly during last elections) he’s way out of the loop:

http://english.yonhapnews.co.k.....0315F.HTML

5 cm July 25, 2007 at 12:42 am

By now, you would expect that’s what the hani would write. So why get your knickers bent over this?

Overwhelmingly, Koreans are blaming the hostages and the church. Many are saying they should’ve known better and that we should just let them die, and that tax money shouldn’t be wasted on them.

6 dlatn July 25, 2007 at 3:34 am

Hang on, we have the peoples’ paper saying the emperor has no clothes, and cm decries the fact, when all know the US has its nose to the ground and sphincter up top the air and exposed, deserving of a colonoscopy of the twin tower kind.
This is a US mess, the failure to deliver to the world upon the end of the Cold War.

7 Andy Jackson July 25, 2007 at 9:19 am

dlatn,

That comment was a piece of modern art.

8 Railwaycharm July 25, 2007 at 9:34 am

“dlatn,

That comment was a piece of modern art”
And fiction

9 dogbertt July 25, 2007 at 9:43 am

Isn’t it funny how there’s always an anti-American angle to be found in every situation involving Korea?

10 Railwaycharm July 25, 2007 at 11:19 am

9. Every fucking time!

11 tmc1233 July 25, 2007 at 11:38 am

민주노동당= common thugs in the guise of a political party. Four or five of them tried to jump me in Ulsan back in ‘03 for 1.) being American and 2.) asking them their opinion about the thousands of pedestrians killed in Korea every year (they were exploiting, I mean commemorating the one-year anniversary of the deaths of the two girls hit by the US Army vehicle).

12 kafka2k July 25, 2007 at 5:20 pm

What has this situation got to do with the US, anyway; I mean aside from the fact that we have mobilized every paramilitary group in the region? Will Korea ever embrace the concept of accounability and own up to their responsibilites?

13 seouldout July 25, 2007 at 6:08 pm

No.

14 MigukNamja July 25, 2007 at 11:14 pm

It’s not Korea that’s blaming the U.S., it’s the sad Roh administration and the DLP.

This is classic Roh and DLP : when in doubt, blame the U.S..

Take solace in the fact that Roh is likely the most unpopular Korean leader in recent history, including the pre-democracy dictators. So, no, I don’t believe anything close to the average Korean is blaming the U.S. over this tragedy.

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