Relatives protest visit by North Korea general blamed for warship sinking
SEOUL: Angry relatives of sailors killed in the 2010 sinking of a South Korean warship protested yesterday against the impending visit to the Winter Olympics of a North Korean general blamed for the attack.
Relatives of the 46 killed on the Cheonan corvette urged Seoul to scrap the visit by Kim Yong Chol who will head an eight-member delegation at the Games’ closing ceremony today.
US President Donald Trump’s eldest daughter and key adviser Ivanka will also attend the event, creating protocol headaches for Seoul officials.
Kim is widely blamed for a spate of attacks against the South including the torpedoing nearly eight years ago of the corvette. He has also been linked to the shelling of the South’s Yeonpyeong island the same year, which killed four people.
‘Execute Kim Yong Chol’, chanted a group of some 30 relatives of the Cheonan victims at a rally in a Seoul city centre square.
“North Korea accept the responsibility for the atrocity and apologise,” they shouted, waving banners and portraits of Kim marked with a red cross.
The conservative opposition Liberty Korea Party also repeated its objection to Kim’s visit, vowing to hold a massive protest tomorrow.
“We can never allow a visit by a Hitler-like war criminal, the main culprit of the attack against the Cheonan,” party leader Hong Joon-Pyo wrote on his Facebook account.
Thousands of demonstrators staging their weekly protest for the release of jailed former president Park Geun-Hye also threw their weight behind the campaign against the controversial visit, calling for the general’s arrest and execution. — AFP