The murder of their compatriot is prompting displays of the famous South Korean pundonor and machismo.
An unexpected reaction was Wednesday's wave of anti-Muslim and anti-Iraqi sentiment.
"An innocent son of our nation was murdered," said one of the many messages that flooded the Web site of the Defense Ministry. "If you allow me to volunteer for Iraq, I will fight terrorists to avenge his death."
Other messages urged military strikes against terrorists. The portion of respondents to polls run by the Yahoo and Daum Web sites who said the beheading had prompted them to now back sending more troops increased by 23 percent on Yahoo and 24 percent on the Daum site on Wednesday.
At a rally in Seoul, conservative protesters said the government should send combat troops to Iraq, instead of military doctors and engineers.
"We want revenge for Kim's killing," the conservative protesters shouted, burning portraits of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the Jordanian-born leader of the Islamic terrorists who beheaded Kim and dumped his body and head on a road.
After callers threatened to blow up Seoul's main mosque, riot police officers were posted outside the building.
Why would this be unexpected? Your countryman getting murdered by terrorists should make you mad as hell.
Posted by floridacracker at June 24, 2004 06:46 AMI can attest from personal training experience that the South Korean army (and their special ops) are the toughest, meanest, nastiest, most unflinching bunch of soldiers I have ever encountered every one of them, right down to the cooks. Their training consists primarily of killing as many North Koreans as they can, any way they can. I am personally concerned that we have allowed 3,000 of them into Iraq -- they only recognize their own command structure and believe (as a matter of military doctrine) that orders from an over-all structure outside their government is "suggestion only...."
Posted by: Lew at June 24, 2004 11:32 AMI know what you mean, Lew. My dad also said the ROK troops are scary bad-asses.
Posted by: Donnah at June 24, 2004 11:13 PMNow if only the Bush Administration would allow our troops to reattach their balls and go after the terrorists to avenge the deaths of Americans who were executed ... but apparently, somebody must not be mad enough yet. Sad. Truly sad.
I admire the South Koreans and have no doubt our troops would do the same thing if they'd only be given the opportunity to do so.
Posted by: Kasey at June 25, 2004 12:47 AMIf the South Koreans really wanted to do their part they'd take out the nutjob a mere DMZ away from their doorstep. The benefits to the WOT and the human race would be enormous. South Korean pundonor and machismo indeed. Another Asian "flea on the western dog".
Posted by: Arty at June 25, 2004 07:58 AMTaking out South Korea would be extraordinarily dangerous, given that they have nuclear weapons and would undoubtedly use them.
Posted by: Dean Esmay at June 25, 2004 09:18 AMThe real problem is the thousands of artillery pieces aimed at Seoul.
Posted by: augustr at June 25, 2004 01:24 PMLew said "[...]South Korean army (and their special ops) are the toughest, meanest, nastiest, most unflinching bunch of soldiers I have ever encountered every one of them, right down to the cooks.[...]"
Heh, heh... shortly after Basic Training in 1984, I ran across a small, tough-as-nails soldier that seemed a little old to be a Private. His name was Kim something or other. He had _retired_ from the ROK army, immigrated, and joined the U.S. Army as a Private. He said he was ready for another 20 (years).
Abu may have made a serious error in judgement, here.
Korea is known as "The Land of the Morning Calm" because if you piss off a Korean, you're most likely dead before sunrise. If they like you, or you didn't upset them too badly, they'll just beat you until you can't move.
I can't say I'm surprised about Korea's reaction.
Posted by: Raging Dave at June 27, 2004 07:28 PM