KOREA MIRED IN SALT LAKE.

Byline: PAUL OBERJUERGE

DAEGU, South Korea - Jiminy Christmas. If we knew you cared so much we would have thrown Apolo Anton Ohno and his soul patch into the Great Salt Lake and given you the silly speedskate gold medal. Maybe the silver and bronze, too.

That's what all this fuss was about? Not bilateral relations or policy toward North Korea or tariffs on steel? Nothing serious? It was about Kim Dong Sung and the 1,500-meter short-track race at the Salt Lake 2002 Winter Games?

An event 99 percent of the American public has long since forgotten was such a heinous miscarriage of justice, on this side of the Pacific, that millions of South Korean sports fans stewed over it for nearly four months.

When the two nations met in the World Cup on Monday, in an event significantly more meaningful than roller derby on ice, there was ominous talk of violence directed toward Americans by frustrated and angry Koreans. The police presence here in this city of 2.5 million was papal-visit big. Reportedly, more than 11,000 police were in and around the World Cup stadium here. Another 6,000 or so took up stations around the U.S. embassy in Seoul.

We were led to believe the danger was from real issues. Korean unification, or America's military presence here.

But, no, it apparently was mostly about Kim Dong Sung and Apolo Anton Ohno and one of the most insipid events in the entire frozen freak show that is the Winter Olympics.

How else to explain Ahn Jung Hwan's reaction upon scoring the tying goal in the 78th minute of a crucial World Cup soccer match? Instead of thinking, ``hey, we're still first in the group'' or ``finally, we put one away'' ... Ahn went to the northwest corner of Daegu World Cup Stadium's field ... and mimicked the motions of a speedskater.

How else to explain most of 60,778 fans chanting ``Ohno! Ohno!'' As if it were a national rally cry to rival ``Remember the Alamo,'' or something.

OK, we read you loud and clear. You're all ticked about the Olympics.

To recap something Yanks probably missed and certainly forgot, Kim was disqualified for ``cross-tracking'' Ohno at Salt Lake in the 1,500 final.

Kim's gold went to Ohno, who was accused of theatrics, and folks here blew a gasket. They sent 30,000 e-mails to the U.S. Olympic Committee, crashing its computers for a time. You'd think everyone would get over it.

Everybody here seemed to forget an Australian official made the call in Salt Lake, and a soccer match that should have been big enough on its own turned into a Korean Holy War to avenge Kim Dong Sung.

The U.S. soccer contingent was equally bemused and annoyed - that anyone could care about short-track speed skating ... and that they could use it to generate real passion against their American futbol opponents.

``It's irrelevant,'' said U.S. coach Bruce Arena, who then made a mocking remark about all the ``invented'' sports on the Winter Olympics calendar and wondered if ``Frisbee speed-skating'' might be added to the program next.

Landon Donovan, the midfielder from Redlands, was incensed by the little show.

``It was absolutely a disgrace,'' he said. ``It was shameful that that guy would do something like that. It's one of those things in America, we don't even think about it. Apolo Ohno had one taken away from him for tripping (in the 1,000) and falling and we don't talk about it. It seems like they're so bitter about it. To do that in a game, to say we cheated and try to disgrace the country, and then the whole team got behind him and were mocking falling down. ... It was disgraceful, sad.''

As it turns out, if the South Koreans had done a better job of finishing their myriad scoring opportunities Monday, they could have avenged Kim Dong Sung and a lot more - won the match and moved to the verge of the second round.

Instead, they and the Yanks have four points with one match left, and the Koreans have to play dangerous Portugal while the Americans get Poland.

We thought we were at the World Cup, the planet's greatest sports event. But the South Korean hosts, who ought to think bigger than this, were still waiting for a makeup call on the 1,500 short-track event.

Does everyone feel better now? Can we get on with the World Cup? Good. Kim Dong Sung and Apolo Anton Ohno shouldn't be mentioned in the same breath as the World Cup and we hope they never are again.

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Photo:

(color) South Korea's Jung Hwan Ahn, left, mimics the motions of a speedskater after scoring the tying goal against the U.S.

Herbert Knosowski/Associated Press