While the first thing that usually comes to mind, to a US Voter, when the words Reparations is heard, is the demand by many for Reparations for Slavery, there are many others who want a piece of the Reparations Pie - meaning money from Uncle Sam, i.e. the American Taxpayer.

One of the newest entries is South Korea.

It seems that, defying all logic, there were civilians casualties in the Korean War.

…the Seoul government’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission has more than 200 such alleged wartime cases on its docket, based on hundreds of citizens’ petitions recounting bombing and strafing runs on South Korean refugee gatherings and unsuspecting villages in 1950-51.

Of course, while it is common knowledge that the North Koreans were infiltrating dressed as civilians, and were using civilians for cover, it is apparently the fault of US Forces for not being willing to take casualties in weeding out the commies from the refugees.

And while I have no doubt that many Korean are simply interested in justice and acknowledgement, others are interested in more… tangible forms of apology:

Concluding its first investigations, the 2 1/2-year-old commission is urging the government to seek U.S. compensation for victims.

“Of course the U.S. government should pay compensation. It’s the U.S. military’s fault,” said survivor Cho Kook-won, 78, who says he lost four family members among hundreds of refugees suffocated, burned andshot to death in a U.S. Air Force napalm attack on their cave shelter south of Seoul in 1951.

I have no doubt that there are many such incidences from the Korean War.  And Vietnam.  And World War I & II.  And the Spanish-American and Mexican wars, and the war of 1812, and the revolution.

I am also certain that such incidences can be documented (or told in folklore) of every war going back to the first conflicts in the Fertile Cresecent between the early city states, thousands of years ago.

But let’s take a second, and look at South Korea today:

1. Population of more than 48 Million
2. Seoul, the capital city, is the 2nd largest city in the world.
3. The South Korean economy is the 4th largest in Asia, and 13th largest in the world, with a GDP of $1.2 Trillion.
4. South Korea is the largest ship builder in the world, and the third largest steel producer.

How about North Korea, whose government would have ruled the South, had the US not intervened?

1. Population approximately 23 million population, with periodic bouts of starvation.
2. GDP of approx $40B.
3. Rules by a totalitarian regime, with little or no outside contact.

(facts above from various sources including CIA Factbook)

Considering the vastly different lives lead by citizens of North and South Korea, I think that we can be forgiven for feeling that we have already paid compensation in the blood of 36,516 dead; 92,134 wounded, and 8,176 MIA US Citizen Soldiers.

We did NOT start the Korean War - NorthKorea did, with the support of the Soviet Union.  We DID save the South Korean from lives of desperation and poverty, lived by their brethren in the North.

I’m not suggesting they should thank us, but maybe they could be a little more understanding.

NOTE:  For full disclosure, I have spent several years in South Korea, and have a large extended family there.  I have a tremendous affinity for the people, culture, and history of the region. 

But it is about time the South Korean’s grew up, in a geo-political sense, andmatched their economic maturity with political maturity.

They need to stop holding Candle Light Vigils about importation of US Beef, and start holding them for the plight of North Koreans starving to death because of their government.

And they might comes to terms with Japan over some useless rocks in the Sea of Japan (or the East Sea, as the Koreans call it), instead of using the disagreement over which nationality of seagull nests there as an excuse for a pissing contest with their former Colonial masters.

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Tags: North Korea, Reparations, South Korea