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[EDITORIALS]Childish acts, serious soldiers

Published: 31 Mar. 2006, 22:28

Twenty members of a leftist civic group put on a surprise protest at a South Korean-U.S. military site. They waved pickets reading “amphibious assault drills for an invasion war of the North need to be stopped.”
They engaged in unreasonable acts as they blocked the movement of armored personnel carriers and hindered the training of U.S. soldiers.
The purpose of the current training is to assess the preparation and readiness of South Korean and U.S. forces in case of an emergency. It is apparent because our government has offered to allow the North to send monitoring personnel, but the North refused the offer.
Above all, who would think that the combined forces of South Korea and the United States would invade the North?
Nevertheless, without providing any proof, they repeated like a parrot what the North has been preaching, namely that the training is aimed to prepare for an invasion. One has to doubt the real identity of these people.
Is there any specific reason for them to insist the current drill be denounced as a practice to invade the North? Or do they think military drills as a whole to be defined as invasional?
Based upon their argument that “war practice in front of the same nation should not be conducted,” most seem to consider the military drills to be a preparation for an invasion. If so, we would like to ask whether they plan to go to every training ground to try to prevent military drills. Do not insult with childish actions the soldiers who are training hard in various drills to uphold democracy.
The anti-U.S. actions of the Southern Headquarter Pan Korean Alliance for Unification are not a new thing. Last year, they engaged in violent acts at a military drill site at Pohang. The group also stands at the forefront of various anti-U.S. protests, such as opposition to a movement of U.S. military installations to Pyeongtaek.
The group has been designated as a dangerous leftist group since 1997.
Nevertheless, the government has just stood by and done nothing. This time was no different, as the police only identified some of the protesters and said it would decide their fate in consultation with the Defense Ministry.
The soft countermeasures taken by the government in light of clear breaches of the law are worrisome.
Stop looking at indications by others and devise a measure that can wipe out these illegal actions.