SOME 3000 South Korean anti-communist activists have held a candlelit rally denouncing North Korea for carrying out its first nuclear test and urging Seoul to stop its economic aid to the North. "Down with Kim Jong-il. Dismantle North Korean atomic bombs," the protesters chanted as they waved national flags and raised candles during the rally outside the City Hall in central Seoul.
| “A survey done hours after Pyongyang announced its first nuclear test on October 9 showed about 70 per cent of South Koreans believed the nuclear issue should be resolved through dialogue instead of sanctions. In another poll from October 11-12, 43 per cent of respondents picked the United States as most to blame for the nuclear crisis, followed by 37.3 per cent who chose North Korea. ” |
Choi Sung-Kyu, a pastor from Full Gospel Church at Incheon City, told the crowd that the nuclear-armed communist state poses a threat not only to South Koreans, but their faith as well. "(North Korea's leader) Kim Jong-il and his clique, who say God does not exist, will certainly perish with his nuclear weapons," he said to the applause from the crowd.
The protesters also urged South Korean President Roh Moo-hyun's government to stop its policy of reconciliation and exchange with North Korea and scrap inter-Korean projects, including an industrial complex in the North's border city of Kaesong and tours to the country's Mount Kumgang resort. They said North Korea had used money it had earned from those projects to develop nuclear bombs. The government and the ruling Uri party have refused to shut the projects down but say they will "review" operations, asserting the schemes had helped ease tensions between the two Cold War rivals.
A survey done hours after Pyongyang announced its first nuclear test on October 9 showed about 70 per cent of South Koreans believed the nuclear issue should be resolved through dialogue instead of sanctions. In another poll from October 11-12, 43 per cent of respondents picked the United States as most to blame for the nuclear crisis, followed by 37.3 per cent who chose North Korea. |