A youth choir sings at a memorial ceremony marking the 22nd anniversary of the deaths of Shin Hyo-sun and Shim Mi-seon, two middle schoolers who were killed when a US armored vehicle ran them over in 2002. The ceremony took place on June 13, 2024, in a peace park named after the two girls located in Gyeonggi Province’s Yangju. (Baek So-ah/The Hankyoreh)
As military tensions continue to rise on the Korean Peninsula, South Korea recently marked the 22nd anniversary of the deaths of Shin Hyo-sun and Shim Mi-seon, two middle school girls who were killed in 2002 when a US Forces Korea convoy driving an armored vehicle struck and crushed them. On Thursday, 23 activist groups, including the Hyo-sun Mi-seon Peace Peace Park Project Committee, gathered at the park named after two girls in Yangju, Gyeonggi Province, to hold a candlelight memorial vigil. Over 150 people, representing groups ranging from religious communities to youth groups, attended the memorial to pay their respects. “As the US Indo-Pacific strategy continues to ratchet up its pressure against China, the US-South Korea alliance is morphing into a trilateral alliance that includes Japan, wherein South Korea will become an outpost. Once more, Korea is facing the increasing risk of nuclear war,” said Kwon Jung-ho, an attorney representing the committee.“Inter-Korean relations have regressed into an openly hostile relationship, where each side has resolved to respond to strength with strength, turning the whole peninsula into a powder keg. Peace is more dire than ever. The true realization of peace on the Korean Peninsula is the realization of the spirit of the candlelight memorials for Hyo-sun and Mi-seon,” he said.
