Print

Mail

wiki links

North Korea demands apology for brawl in Seoul

Stopping short of a full apology, organizers expressed regret yesterday over a brawl outside a World University Games venue that sparked another boycott threat from North Korea.

South Korea's government declined to get involved in the standoff following anti-Pyongyang protests in Daegu on Sunday, which ended violently when North Korean reporters objected to banners denouncing their leader Kim Jong-il and tried to seize them.

North Korea last week threatened to boycott the Universiade after its flag and image of its leader were burned in protests in Seoul, but backed down when South Korean President Roh Moo-hyun said the burning incident was "inappropriate" and "regrettable."

North Korean team chief Jun Kuk-man said he'd withdraw his delegation from the games unless the South apologized for Sunday's scuffle, agreed to "properly punish" the activists involved and guaranteed it would prevent a recurrence.

Daegu organizing committee president Cho Hae-nyoung said the melee was regrettable and pleaded with activists to "refrain from staging reckless protests that go against the true amateur spirit" of the event.

He offered extra security for the North Korean delegation, including competitors, officials, cheer squad and reporters, in a bid to avoid further contact with activists.

But Cho said he couldn't guarantee the North any legal action against the protesters involved Sunday because of the democratic right of South Koreans to free speech.

"It's up to our legal authority to decide whether there was illegal aspects in yesterday's incident," he said.

The brawl started outside the Games' media center and lasted about 10 minutes as dozens of the more than 100 riot police on the scene moved in to break it up and hustle the North Koreans back into the building.

Police haven't made any arrests. One person, a German doctor and human rights activist, was knocked to the ground and carried from the scene on a stretcher. He was treated and later released from hospital.

The incident "made it plain that South Korea is a place unfit for a function for peace and friendship such as world sports games," said the North's Secretariat of the Committee for the Peaceful Reunification of the Fatherland, a powerful party organ, according to Pyongyang's official KCNA news agency.
This story has been viewed 1535 times.