600 Demolition Squad Members of NUS In Activity

The police said on Aug.19, “As the investigation goes ahead, it throws light upon the whole case,” and added, “We arrested Mr. Kim (27,·K University senior), leader of strikers in the National Unification Scouters (NUS) on a charge of pulling the wire behind the scene, and we are also chasing after 4 to 5 more people on same charges.

The police expects that the NUS, which is under the command of the National Students` Union on National Unification, is comprised of 3 organizations with around 200 members respectively and some of the members are involved in the raids against U.S. Army facilities in Korea including the recent ‘raid strike against USFK of Far Eastern Engineering Troops in Seoul’. The whole picture of their demonstration, revealed by the police investigation, is rather appalling.

Recruitment of Strikers

Around 9 in the morning of the D-day, five to six striker`s leaders of the NUS including Mr. Kim, immediately began to recruit new members to the demolition squad, following the direction from the interim executive conference of the Metropolitan area.

Selection points were ‘lower classes students with no criminal records and with strong commitment to struggle.’

At that time, around 200 members of the NUS were staying together at Chungang University in Seoul. The police think that seniors of the NUS such as Mr. Kim, recruited new members for the demolition squad based on personal relations. It only took 1-2 hrs to raise new members.

Mr. Kim told the younger ones, “It`s highly possible for us to get caught up by the police and taken into custody.” Still, they were willing to join the demolition squad.

As the direction indicated, 8 out of 12 arrested on that day were either freshmen or sophomores, and there was only one senior. It was different from the demonstration in last Feb, when the Federation of Korean Students illegal occupied the American Chamber of Commerce in Korea. At that time, the majority of students were juniors or seniors.

Cautious Scenario

These people moved according to a careful scenario they had prepared beforehand. At around noon that day, when given the ordered to move, they got on to cabs in 3 groups of 4 people and went to Dongguk University. There, three journalists including one from the liberal Internet media ‘Voice of People’ and a ‘guide whose name is unknown’. On the car that was heading to the USKF Shooting Range, the guide endowed them with tasks. Each members were given detailed tasks, ranging from ‘taking out the Stars and Stripes’, ‘spraying thinner onto the flag’, ‘lighting it up’, and ‘checking people who are obstructing the task’.

Eventually at 4:55p.m, they made a surprise attack on the USFK in the twinkling of an eye and ‘successfully’ accomplished the plan. It only took 7 hrs to be recruited as a demolition squad member and to carry out the task.

A police official said, “The fact that the new members blindly followed orders from their seniors despite the expected great repercussion of demonstration and even though it was taking place in a dangerous shooting range shows that they were thoroughly prepared psychologically.”

A Ready to Die Resolution

The demolition squad members wrote a resolution before going to Dongguk University that day. They wrote a resolution together on an A4 paper which was mainly about, “Those wicked American…(omitted)…I will sacrifice by self to prevent war on the Korean Peninsula and do by best to secure peace for my people.”

A police official said, “It is the first time we got this type of resolution since 2000,” and added, “I am worried that it might be a sign that student movement is becoming radical once again.”

The police is focusing on the fact that the squad members did not run away or hid their faces that they were seemingly not concerned whether they get arrested or not.

One police official said, “More facts will surface with further investigation.”

Heon-Jin Lee mungchii@donga.com