The US embassy in Seoul has removed banners celebrating the Black Lives Matter (BLM) movement and gay pride after running afoul of US President Donald Trump’s administration.
The embassy on Saturday had unfurled a banner on the building reading “Black Lives Matter” in solidarity with the increasingly global movement that has emerged after the killing of African American George Floyd while in Minneapolis, Minnesota, police custody.
In a Facebook message on Saturday, the embassy said the banner “shows our support for the fight against racial injustice and police brutality as we strive to be a more inclusive & just society.”
Photo: AP
On Twitter, US Ambassador to South Korea Harry Harris said he believed that from “diversity we gain our strength” and quoted former president John F. Kennedy.
Harris is Japanese-American and previously told embassy staff that he was “deeply troubled about the events surrounding the brutal killing of George Floyd in Minnesota and the ongoing aftermath.”
“As an Asian American who was raised in the segregated South of the 1960s, I never thought I would see this happening again, especially in the 21st century,” he added in a message.
Photo: AFP
However, the BLM banner was taken down on Monday, with CNN quoting an anonymous source saying that the request to do so came from the office of US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo.
The embassy also removed a rainbow flag, a symbol of the LGBTQ equality movement — hours before a landmark US Supreme Court decision on Monday that outlawed discrimination against workers based on sexual orientation.
A huge banner commemorating the 70th anniversary of the Korean War yesterday covered the space previously occupied by the two emblems, featuring a black-and-white photograph of a bugler in a military cemetery and a message in Korean reading: “We don’t forget.”
The official explanation from the embassy, which did not mention the LGBT pride flag, was that the BLM banner was removed to avoid any perception that it was meant “to support or encourage donations to any specific organization.”
In a statement, an embassy spokesperson said the removal of the BLM banner “in no way lessens the principles and ideals expressed by raising the banner, and the embassy will look for other ways to convey fundamental American values in these times of difficulty at home.”
The decision drew criticism from some activists in Seoul — and speculation that Trump might have been responsible.
Lee Tae-ho, a member of the Seoul-based civic organization People’s Solidarity for Participatory Democracy, called the abrupt banner removal regrettable, saying its presence was “a very positive thing that could improve the US image and help resolve the problem.”
“If the removal was really made because of pressure made by Trump ... I think what they did was unhelpful for the US,” Lee said.
Pompeo, an evangelical Christian who in the past has said that he defines marriage as between a man and a woman, last year restricted the flying of rainbow flags, as some embassies had been doing each June for Pride Month, which celebrates the movement for LGBTQ equality.
Trump and Pompeo have both condemned the killing of Floyd and spoken in general terms of the need to reform law enforcement.
Additional reporting by AP
A fire caused by a burst gas pipe yesterday spread to several homes and sent a fireball soaring into the sky outside Malaysia’s largest city, injuring more than 100 people. The towering inferno near a gas station in Putra Heights outside Kuala Lumpur was visible for kilometers and lasted for several hours. It happened during a public holiday as Muslims, who are the majority in Malaysia, celebrate the second day of Eid al-Fitr. National oil company Petronas said the fire started at one of its gas pipelines at 8:10am and the affected pipeline was later isolated. Disaster management officials said shutting the
DITCH TACTICS: Kenyan officers were on their way to rescue Haitian police stuck in a ditch suspected to have been deliberately dug by Haitian gang members A Kenyan policeman deployed in Haiti has gone missing after violent gangs attacked a group of officers on a rescue mission, a UN-backed multinational security mission said in a statement yesterday. The Kenyan officers on Tuesday were on their way to rescue Haitian police stuck in a ditch “suspected to have been deliberately dug by gangs,” the statement said, adding that “specialized teams have been deployed” to search for the missing officer. Local media outlets in Haiti reported that the officer had been killed and videos of a lifeless man clothed in Kenyan uniform were shared on social media. Gang violence has left
US Vice President J.D. Vance on Friday accused Denmark of not having done enough to protect Greenland, when he visited the strategically placed and resource-rich Danish territory coveted by US President Donald Trump. Vance made his comment during a trip to the Pituffik Space Base in northwestern Greenland, a visit viewed by Copenhagen and Nuuk as a provocation. “Our message to Denmark is very simple: You have not done a good job by the people of Greenland,” Vance told a news conference. “You have under-invested in the people of Greenland, and you have under-invested in the security architecture of this
Japan unveiled a plan on Thursday to evacuate around 120,000 residents and tourists from its southern islets near Taiwan within six days in the event of an “emergency”. The plan was put together as “the security situation surrounding our nation grows severe” and with an “emergency” in mind, the government’s crisis management office said. Exactly what that emergency might be was left unspecified in the plan but it envisages the evacuation of around 120,000 people in five Japanese islets close to Taiwan. China claims Taiwan as part of its territory and has stepped up military pressure in recent years, including
RSS