Tens of thousands of anti-government demonstrators yesterday marched in Seoul in what police believed was the largest protest in the South Korean capital in nearly a decade.
About 80,000 people were expected to turn up for the downtown rallies that were to stretch into the evening, according to an official at the Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency, who did not want to be named, citing office rules.
The marches, organized by an umbrella labor union and civic groups, brought together protesters with a diverse set of grievances against the government of conservative South Korean President Park Geun-hye, including her business-friendly labor policies and a decision to require middle and high schools to use only state-issued history textbooks in classes from 2017.
Photo: EPA
Members of the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions (KCTU) briefly clashed with police, who unsuccessfully tried to detain KCTU president Han Sang-goon during a news conference, but there were no immediate reports of injuries. A Seoul court had issued an arrest warrant for Han over a failed court appearance, after he was indicted for his involvement in organizing a May protest that turned violent.
Demonstrators, many of them wearing masks and carrying banners, occupied a major downtown street and began marching between tight perimeters created by police buses, intended to block them from entering large roads leading to the presidential Blue House. Police officers, many wearing helmets and body armor, moved swiftly to flank the demonstrators.
This was probably the largest crowd seen in a demonstration in Seoul since 2008, when people poured onto the streets to protest the government’s decision to resume US beef imports amid lingering mad cow fears, the Seoul police official said.
Labor groups have been denouncing government attempts to change labor laws to allow larger freedom for companies in laying off workers, which policymakers say would be critical in improving a bleak job market for young people.
Critics say that the state-issued history textbooks, which have not been written yet, would be politically-driven and might attempt to whitewash the brutal dictatorships that preceded South Korea’s bloody transition toward democracy in the 1980s.
Park is the daughter of slain former South Korean president Park Chung-hee, who ruled the nation in the 1960s and 1970s, and whose legacy as a successful economic strategist is marred by records of severe oppression.
South Korean police in May detained more than 40 people when protests over the government’s labor policies and the handling of last year’s Sewol ferry disaster spiraled into violence, leaving several demonstrators and police injured and many police buses damaged.
MONEY MATTERS: Xi was to highlight projects such as a new high-speed railway between Belgrade and Budapest, as Serbia is entirely open to Chinese trade and investment Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic yesterday said that “Taiwan is China” as he made a speech welcoming Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) to Belgrade, state broadcaster Radio Television of Serbia (RTS) said. “We have a clear and simple position regarding Chinese territorial integrity,” he told a crowd outside the government offices while Xi applauded him. “Yes, Taiwan is China.” Xi landed in Belgrade on Tuesday night on the second leg of his European tour, and was greeted by Vucic and most government ministers. Xi had just completed a two-day trip to France, where he held talks with French President Emmanuel Macron as the
With the midday sun blazing, an experimental orange and white F-16 fighter jet launched with a familiar roar that is a hallmark of US airpower, but the aerial combat that followed was unlike any other: This F-16 was controlled by artificial intelligence (AI), not a human pilot, and riding in the front seat was US Secretary of the Air Force Frank Kendall. AI marks one of the biggest advances in military aviation since the introduction of stealth in the early 1990s, and the US Air Force has aggressively leaned in. Even though the technology is not fully developed, the service is planning
INTERNATIONAL PROBE: Australian and US authorities were helping coordinate the investigation of the case, which follows the 2015 murder of Australian surfers in Mexico Three bodies were found in Mexico’s Baja California state, the FBI said on Friday, days after two Australians and an American went missing during a surfing trip in an area hit by cartel violence. Authorities used a pulley system to hoist what appeared to be lifeless bodies covered in mud from a shaft on a cliff high above the Pacific. “We confirm there were three individuals found deceased in Santo Tomas, Baja California,” a statement from the FBI’s office in San Diego, California, said without providing the identities of the victims. Australian brothers Jake and Callum Robinson and their American friend Jack Carter
CUSTOMS DUTIES: France’s cognac industry was closely watching the talks, fearing that an anti-dumping investigation opened by China is retaliation for trade tensions French President Emmanuel Macron yesterday hosted Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) at one of his beloved childhood haunts in the Pyrenees, seeking to press a message to Beijing not to support Russia’s war against Ukraine and to accept fairer trade. The first day of Xi’s state visit to France, his first to Europe since 2019, saw respectful, but sometimes robust exchanges between the two men during a succession of talks on Monday. Macron, joined initially by EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, urged Xi not to allow the export of any technology that could be used by Russia in its invasion