It could have been all over before the World Cup even started.
Taking photographs just after my arrival at Incheon Airport in South Korea, I felt a hand on my shoulder and looked around. The security officer was clearly not amused and wagged his finger. "You, come with me," he said.
PHOTO: JULES QUARTLY, TAIPEI TIMES
If I had not known before that this tournament was going to be the most security-minded World Cup ever, I did now.
It had been a smooth two-and-a-half hour flight to Seoul from Taipei and airport security seemed fairly relaxed.
I wondered where the explosive detecting EGIS-2 system was and when my bag would go through it. I looked for heavily-armed security personnel in plastic body armor.
But instead of a heavy military presence there were the usual custom officers and I took a picture of them instead. Which was when I was tapped on the shoulder and asked to follow a man in civilian clothing.
As I put my camera away and began to pack my bags the plainclothes security officer asked me whether I was a journalist and could he see my ID?
That was it. The officer explained that I couldn't take the photo without permission, and then he gave me said permission.
I was pleased to have picked up just a yellow card.
Now I could see there were a lot of guys looking around doing nothing, most of them I now suspected were plainclothes security guards.
A cute-looking labrador-cross-sheepdog walked by waving his tail and started sniffing my bag. I asked if I could take a photo, but perhaps the trainer wanted to retain his dog's cover.
Otherwise, there was none of the security circus that greeted the US team when it arrived in South Korea last week.
Three helicopters, a cordon of 500 national policemen and eight Korean military SWAT team mem-bers stood guard with automatic weapons when they arrived.
When South Korea held the Olympics in 1988 it was worried about the threat of attack from North Korea. In the wake of Sept. 11, it is more concerned with terrorists, particularly in relation to Americans.
The US' first game is on June 5 against Portugal. It then faces South Korea on June 10 and Poland on June 14 in the round-robin portion of the tournament.
At the main press center in downtown Seoul yesterday there were the standard police escorts and magnetometers. But security was more concerned with sorting out skinheads from journalists after an Englishman managed to fool them last week.
Outside the press center the South Korea Socialist Party was massing to protest against the privatization of state industries.
Phalanxes of riot police cordoned off the demonstration and gradually, when press interest faded, Korea's "Red Army " went away.
The president of the South Korea Socialist Party, Wong Yong-shu, told the Taipei Times that it was a peaceful protest to make people aware of the problems resulting from the selling off of the nation's key industries.
"There is a deepening class divide which is causing social problems. We have had to take to the streets to fight this," he said.
When asked whether the socialist party was affiliated in any way with North Korea, he said, "No, no, no. We are not against capitalism and we are not for North Korea. This is about justice."
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