UC Berkeley GAIA Books Title Protesting America Permalink https://escholarship.org/uc/item/0026695h ISBN 978-0-9845909-6-4 Author Moon, Katharine H. S. Publication Date 2012-12-15 Peer reviewed eScholarship.org Powered by the California Digital Library University of California Protesting America The Seoul-California SerieS in Korean STudieS ediTorS: Noh Tae-Don, Seoul National University; John Lie, University of California, Berkeley adviSory board: John Duncan, UCLA; Henry Em, New York University; Roger Janelli, Indiana University; Michael Shin, University of Cambridge; Sem Vermeersch, Seoul National University; Chang Dukjin, Seoul National University The Seoul-California Series in Korean Studies is a collaboration between the University of California, Berkeley, and the Kyujanggak Institute for Korean Studies, Seoul National University. The series promotes the global dissemination of scholarship on Korea by publishing distinguished research on Korean history, society, art, and culture by scholars from across the world. Protesting America Democracy and the U.S.-Korea Alliance KaTharine h. S. Moon Global, Area, and International Archive University of California Press berKeley loS angeleS london The Global, Area, and International Archive (GAIA) is an initiative of the Institute of International Studies, University of California, Berkeley, in partnership with the University of California Press, the California Digital Library, and international research programs across the University of California system. University of California Press, one of the most distinguished university presses in the United States, enriches lives around the world by advancing scholarship in the humanities, social sciences, and natural sciences. Its activities are supported by the UC Press Foundation and by philanthropic contributions from individuals and institutions. For more information, visit www.ucpress.edu. University of California Press Berkeley and Los Angeles, California University of California Press, Ltd. London, England © 2012 by The Regents of the University of California Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data A catalog record for this book is available from the Library of Congress. Manufactured in the United States of America 21 20 19 18 17 16 15 14 13 12 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of anSi/niSo z39.48 – 1992 (r 1997) (Permanence of Paper). To Daddy, Douglas Kwang Hwan Moon (1938–2001), who wished for me to serve as a bridge between America and Korea Contents Acknowledgments ix inTroduction 1 1. naTionalism verSuS allianCe 27 2. Power and deMoCraCy 70 3. ProTesting AmeriCa: CooPeraTion and Conflict in Civil SoCieTy Activism 110 4. Made in Korea and beyond: regional and inTernaTional Activism 141 5. winnerS and loSerS in Civil SoCieTy PoliTics 175 ConCluSion: deMoCraCy and disconTents 201 Bibliography 231 Index 251 Acknowledgments The idea for this book was conceived in the late 1990s, and despite my yearning and good intentions to complete it sooner, the stuff of life hap- pened. The project endured the sudden loss of my father, Douglas Kwang Hwan Moon, a week after the shock and tragedy of September 11, 2001; the death of my young cousin Jin Soo Kim; and the severe pain and grief that accompanied me for many years. My mother, Ai Ra Kim, retired from her teaching position in the midst and struggled to find a new iden- tity, pace, and place of belonging. I learned that the strongest of people can get shaken when the foundation of one existence must transform into another. But life is generous and full of renewal. Along with the disheart- ening events, I witnessed the heroic efforts of my sister, Caroline Moon, who dove into medical school in her mid-thirties and now serves with devotion as a pediatrician. She gave birth to her first child in December 2010 and gave me the gift of becoming imo (auntie). Life also sparked new and unimagined blessings and brilliance in the love and companionship of Jeffrey Frankel, who became my husband in 2011, and his son, Evan, in whom I have a son. In known and unknown ways, these precious people, together with my close friends, saved me from the many blows and lows and enabled me to appreciate the highs of moral support, perseverance, laughter, and sheer fun (heaps of thanks to Jeff and Evan in this category). I describe this personal context in which I have pursued this book project to highlight that just like human life, Korea is ever dynamic, wrestling with the pains and contradictions of the past, the old and the new mixing and colliding, throwing around ideas and fads, with an eye always on the future. The constant flux that makes South Korea excit- ing and exhausting gets reflected in its relationship with the United States. And despite the ups and downs in the bilateral alliance, the ties ix x / Acknowledgments endure, simultaneously thickened, knotted, and frayed over sixty years. The neverending news about U.S.-Korea relations made the project more drawn out than I might have wanted. At some point, I had to decide to stop reading about the political and societal changes and the potpourri of interpretations and just “do the book.” To those who offered venues for intellectual exchange, specific com- ments and insights, and hearty encouragement, as well as other invalu- able resources, I am sincerely grateful: David Kang, who read significant portions of the work in progress, bandied about ideas with me, and con- sistently cheered me on to the finishline; and Jojo Abinales, Youngshik Bong, Jae Chung, Shari Cohen, Alex Cooley, Bruce Cumings, Cynthia Enloe, Roxanne Euben, John Feffer, Stacie Goddard, Roy Grinker, Donald Gregg, Yong Chul Ha, Sung-joo Han, Kyudok Hong, Naoki Kamimura, Choi Kang, Peter Katzenstein, Bob Keohane, Byungkook Kim, Taehan Kim, Sunghan Kim, Eunmee Kim, Sam S. Kim, Joel Krieger, Insook Kwon, Geun Lee, Karin Lee, Namhee Lee, Sook-Jong Lee, Derek Mitchell, Chung-in Moon, Marianne Perlak, Wilbur Rich, Dick Samuels, Mark Selden, Gi-Wook Shin, Andre Schmid, Sheila Smith, Scott Snyder, David Steinberg, Sidney Tarrow, and Meredith Woo-Cumings. I owe very special thanks to Bob Hathaway, Asia director at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, and Mike Mochizuki of The George Washington University, who provided good guidance and great commu- nity during my fellowship at both institutions in 2002 – 3. I am indebted to the Luce Foundation, who funded that year of work. I also received gen- erous funding from the U.S. Fulbright Program and Wellesley College. During my field work in Korea in 2001 and subsequent visits through 2009, Korean activists, academics, and government officials, as well as American Embassy (Seoul) officials and various members of the U.S. Forces, Korea (USFK) provided valuable resources and perspectives on the alliance relationship, “anti-American” sentiment among South Koreans, and civil society activism in Korea’s vibrant — and chaotic — democracy. Serapina Mikyung Cha was a wealth of knowledge and insight about the politics of NGOs in Korea. She generously offered her time, observations, and friendship. Particular thanks go to Sunghan Kim of Korea Univer- sity, diplomat Changbom Kim, and other officials in the Korean Foreign Ministry’s North America Division, as well as Steven Rounds and his Public Affairs staff at the U.S. Embassy in 2001 – 2. Over so many years, I have had so many research assistants that I cannot name them all, but I could not have done the work without them, in particular Jeeyoung Bae, Rachel Stern, Chiaki Nishijima, Mattie Fitch, Acknowledgments / xi Rakeen Mabud, Laura Stevens, Minjung Paik, GiYoon Kim, Janice Kim, and several students at the Graduate School of International Studies at Ewha University (2002). Erin Choi, who was graduated from Wellesley in 2010 and is now on her own path toward Korean studies and U.S.-Korea policy, was the most outstanding RA, especially through a critical stage of my research and writing. Special thanks also go to Ellie Choi, Ph.D. in East Asian Studies from Harvard University and now assistant profes- sor at Cornell University, who oversaw the romanization of the Korean words in the manuscript. Last, a word of thanks to Nathan MacBrien, my kind and patient edi- tor, and to John Lie of the University of California, Berkeley, for encour- aging me to publish in the Seoul-California series. Portions of this book were previous published under my name in the following publications: “Resurrecting Prostitutes and Overturning Trea- ties: Gender Politics in the South Korean ‘Anti-American’ Movement,” Journal of Asian Studies 66, no. 1 (2007); “Challenging U.S. Hegemony: Asian Nationalism and Anti-Americanism in East Asia,” in The United States and East Asia: Old Issues and New Thinking ed. G. John Iken- berry and Chung-in Moon (Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield, 2007); “Rethinking Young Anti-Americanism in South Korea” (co-authored with Youngshik Bong), in The Anti-American Century, ed. Allan McPherson and Ivan Krastev (Budapest and New York: Central European University Press, 2007); and “Korean Nationalism, Anti-Americanism and Demo- cratic Consolidation,” in Korea’s Democratization, ed. Samuel S. Kim (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2003). Introduction In the winter of 2002 – 3, South Korean citizens responded en masse to the military trials and acquittals of two U.S. servicemen whose armored vehicle had run over and killed two school girls — Sim Misŏn and Sin Hyosun — that June. Demonstrations in front of the U.S. embassy and at the gates of U.S. military compounds had proliferated since the inci- dent. In July, protesters broke through the chain-link fence at Camp Red Cloud, pelting stones at U.S. personnel. On September 15, three U.S. soldiers were assaulted and another abducted by Korean protesters. U.S. Ambassador Thomas Hubbard and Secretary of State Colin Powell, along with various officials at the Pentagon, offered various apologies for the loss of the two lives to little effect in appeasing Korean anger and grief.