get the military fuckers out.... should only accept tourists.

Anti-US protests in Seoul

Priests, monks, actors and singers have all taken to the streets of the South Korean capital to protest over the deaths of two school children run over by a US military tank in June.
A group of 25 Roman Catholic priests entered the fifth day of their hunger strike on Friday as entertainers and film makers staged a march outside the US embassy in Seoul.

Friday's is the latest in a series of sometimes violent protests since a US court marital last month found the two US servicemen in the tank not guilty of negligent homicide for causing the accident.

Amid rising anti-American sentiment, several pubs and restaurants in Seoul are now barring US servicemen.

Demonstrators have been demanding that the US soldiers involved in the accident stand trial under South Korean law.

But US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, who met South Korea Defence Minister Lee Jun in Washington on Thursday, said he saw no reason for the accord governing the 37,000 US forces in South Korea to be changed.

According to the accord, known as the Status of Forces Agreement (Sofa) the US has jurisdiction in criminal cases involving its servicemen in South Korea, although it can hand over jurisdiction to Seoul on a case by case basis.

Growing resentment

The leader of the South Korean Catholic Priests' Association for Justice (CPAJ), Reverend Mun Kyu-hyun, said the road accident had led many to question the very presence of US forces.

"The innocent deaths of the young girls aroused South Koreans to the growing question - what are the US troops doing in this country?" asked the priest, who was leading a rally on Friday.

South Korean singer Lee Hyun-woo agreed.

"For a long time, we thought of American soldiers as friends, neighbours and allies," he told reporters.

"But after the accident, I think our views have changed 180 degrees," he said.

US President George W Bush has led apologies over the incident, but they have failed to mollify the South Korean public.