US envoy urges South Koreans to set guilt aside

The US Ambassador to South Korea today urged South Koreans to set aside their culture of collective guilt and not assume responsibility over the murder of 32 students and faculty members at Virginia Tech University.

“It’s not about Korea; it’s not about Korean-Americans,” Alexander Vershbow, the US ambassador to Seoul, said. “It’s about one deranged individual.”

A South Korean, Seung-Hui Cho, killed 32 people and faculty members on campus last week and then turned the gun on himself. At least 15 were wounded by the gunman.

Speaking at the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies, Vershbow, a senior US diplomat who has held his post a year and a half, said “the tragic events at Virginia Tech should not be a cause for any ill feelings against Koreans”.

Koreans adhere to “a spirit of collective responsibility and collective guilt, which I hope is not going to prevail,” he said.

“The tragic events should not be a cause for any ill feelings against Koreans or Korean-Americans,” he said.