On the eve of the final of the 2002 World Cup, six young seamen were killed in a surprise attack by North Korean patrol boats off Yeonpyeong Island in the West Sea and 18 others wounded. On the fourth anniversary of the tragedy, some of the survivors live with shrapnel too deeply embedded to remove, and in their nightmares they see their comrades shrouded in flame. The Chosun Ilbo tracked down on 10 of the wounded from the West Sea Battle of 2002, who were far away from football fans¡¯ cries of "Dae-han-min-guk" that filled the city streets. Six agreed to speak on the record.
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Seo Young-seok, the father of Seo Hu-won, who was killed during the June 29 West Sea battle in 2002, kisses a bronze relief of his son during the third anniversary of the battle in Pyeongtaek last year.
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Kim Seung-hwan, 25, was a naval gunner aboard the patrol boat Chamsuri 457. He lives with eight pieces of shrapnel in the right armpit, buttocks and the inside of the thigh. Four years after the wounds, he is still in pain. But he refuses close medical examination because the process was torture. When he lay in the magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) machine, the shrapnel reacted and pierced his flesh. Of the 20 pieces of shrapnel he sustained in the gunfight, 12 have been removed, but the remaining eight control his life. Then there is the psychological pain. ¡°During this World Cup, I joined my friends in the street cheers, but had to run back home stunned by the smell of firecrackers," he said.
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Kim Seung-hwan, a naval gunner aboard the patrol boat Chamsuri 457 in the West Sea Battle of 2002, visits the Sapgyoho Marine Park in Dangjin on Monday, ahead of the incident¡¯s fourth anniversary.
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Another naval gunner, Kim Taek-jung, 25, has given up his dream of becoming a civil engineer and is preparing for the civil service exam instead. "Because civil engineering requires active work at the site, I've made a realistic decision to become a public servant, I still have four or five pieces of shrapnel in my body," Kim said. "One night I remembered the faces of my six dead comrades, but I couldn¡¯t recall the name of one of them, so I sobbed all night."
Although they suffer from sleepless nights and nightmares, those without external injuries are not entitled to benefits as "persons of merit." Ko Kyug-rak, 25, also a naval gunner, said, "For over a year after the incident I was unable to sleep more than three hours a night." Aboard the patrol boat that turned into a sea of flame, Ko saw his peers burned and their heads blown away and lost some of his hearing. But when he went to a military hospital to claim benefit, Ko was given cool treatment. "A doctor ignored the psychological problems and only asked me to show any external wounds," he said. "If benefits for persons of merit are granted for this level of injuries, the doctor said, it would have an adverse effect on the state budget."
Another wounded veteran, Kim Myun-joo, 26, has applied for meritorious benefit twice, but in vain. "I'm just sad because I feel like that post-traumatic stress disorder and efforts to safeguard the country are being neglected," he said
Of the six victims this paper interviewed, three have office jobs and three are students, all trying hard to make a future for themselves despite the difficulties. What they want from the country is just one thing: that it remembers that many young people were killed or wounded while safeguarding the country on June 29, 2002. "I just wish they remembered the battle once a year, even if they don¡¯t pay much attention. Nothing else," said Lee Jae-yong, 25.
(englishnews@chosun.com )
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