Sat, Jul 23, 2005 - Page 16 News List

MacArthur's star fades in South Korea

Support among the young for the US general has declined as memories of his role in the Korean War shorten

SOUTH KOREA , INCHEON

"The statue is a symbol of colonial rule. We should not hand over this colony to our sons and daughters," said Kang Hee-nam, 85, who leads an anti-American committee.

Kang's group backed Pyongyang's argument that the US induced North Korea to trigger the war. It also accused Washington of heightening tension over North Korea's nuclear weapons drive.

But other regard the anti-US protesters as ungrateful.

"Instead of quibbling, they should pay attention to North Korea's human rights situation and the dictatorship of its Kim Jong-il regime," Lee Phil-han, a 56-year-old businessman in Incheon, said.

"We owe a lot to the United States which played a key role in our economic development. My notion is being supported by a silent majority of South Koreans."

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