South Korea's prosecution said Saturday it will be stern in dealing with violent protesters, who rallied on Friday against the expansion of U.S military base south of Seoul.
The prosecution said it has already requested arrest warrants for 37 protesters on charges of cutting through a barbed wire fence and infiltrating an area designated for the construction of an expanded U.S. base in Pyeongtaek, 70 kilometers south of Seoul. More than 500 of the protestors, mostly anti-U.S. activists and college students, have so far been taken into custody since evictions of local residents and civic activists from the area and the setting up of the fence began on Thursday.
On Sunday, the prosecution plans to request additional warrants to detain up to 60 protesters out of about 2,000 who clashed with unarmed soldiers Friday. The Defense Ministry set up a 29-kilometer-long wire fence near U.S. Camp Humphreys in Pyeongtaek the previous day.
"We must take strict legal action against violent protesters who oppose the U.S. base relocation," Lee Gwi-nam, a senior prosecutor, told reporters.
The prosecution is also trying to arrest prime suspects from an anti-relocation civic organization who allegedly masterminded the infiltration.
The U.S. military plans to relocate its Yongsan Garrison in downtown Seoul and the 2nd Infantry Division, currently near the border with North Korea, to Pyeongtaek.
The existing Camp Humphreys in Pyeongtaek is set to triple in size by 2008 and become the U.S. military's chief installation in South Korea, which is part of the U.S. global troop realignment for flexibility.
About 30,000 U.S. troops are stationed in South Korea as a legacy of the 1950-53 Korean War.
Last year, the South government took legal control of about 3.49 million pyeong (11.5 square meters) of land and has since been seeking to clear the area of people who remain there.
But some farmers and organized protesters have defied government orders to leave the site and vowed to continue farming. (Yonhap News Agency)
[National] Prosecution vows to sternly handle protesters against U.S. base |
