Kim\’s \”mother,\” the woman you\’ve seen in the pictures crying and passing out, is actually his third step-mother, and has only met Kim twice. In fact, one reporter asker her which college Kim attended and she gave an incorrect answer. So apparently, they weren\’t too close, though you wouldn\’t know that from the histrionics she displays whenever a camera is around.
Kim went Iraq to raise money for his studies because his father said he had no money to contribute to Kim\’s education. However, the sister is on the record as stating that Kim\’s Dad did have the cash, but just didn\’t want to part with it.i\’m told she\’s blaming her father for his death.
His family (or at least his parents) are suing the Korean government for a billion won.
Some local Christian leaders are embarrassed by the way Kim pleaded for his life on the video tape. Remember, Kim was a Christian and had a missionary streak in him. his undignified departure from the worlds hardly a shining example for other Christians to follow (and most definately some good propoganda for the terrorists).
With all these questions about Kim\’s family, the Korean public is not very tolerant of their claims for compensation. Public sentiment is not on their side

It’s a shame that the Korean government isn’t being direct as to what exactly happened. They owe Mr. Kim’s family and the nation as a whole an explanation. All too often, countries like Korea and Japan cover up any information that may make them seem flawed, in order to save face. The West is prone to this type of behavior, as well. Meanwhile, a young man is dead, and his family’s life is ruined for ever. May he rest in peace.

Berg is/was commonly described as a “contractor”, but he seemingly was in Iraq independently, trying to get contracts to build towers, either for radio or cellular telephones, if I understand it correctly.

It sounds like neither of these men had sponsorship from any sort of reputable company, one which would at least make a commitment to try to take care of its personnel. Which further implies that authorities (Korean consular and US embassy/CPA) didn’t really have a handle on them. Traveling about on their own, it’s no wonder that they became easy “soft” targets.

It seems incredible that either of them would not pay attention to TV news reports and have a modicum of awareness of the situation there. I’m guessing their relative youth made them careless.

What we got so far: Muslims residing in Korea are apparently concerned. The Itaewon mosque has been getting threatening phone calls, and the homepage of the Korean Central Islamic Association has been getting a lot of ugly Korean Internet user