A group of activists from a radical student group clashed with riot police Saturday while trying to enter a site where U.S. forces are expected to be relocated in the southern city of Pyeongtaek, 70 kilometers from Seoul.
There were no reports of serious injuries from either side, but police officials said they would try to find those who organized or began the violent clash and file charges against them.
The incident took place at around 5 p.m. when some 630 students from the Federation of University Students Councils tried to break through a police barricade into a field where thousands of U.S. forces in Seoul and the northern part of the country are to be relocated before the end of 2008.
The organization is often blamed and found responsible for violent protests. It is currently outlawed by the country's anti-communist National Security Law.
The protesters pulled down two containers that were part of the police barricade while spraying fire extinguishers and throwing eggs at riot police.
The students voluntarily dispersed at around 6 p.m. after failing to penetrate the police barricade, but later regrouped in front of the city's train station, where they were expecting to hold a candlelight vigil until 9 p.m., according to several members of the organization.
About 30,000 U.S. troops are currently stationed in the country, a legacy of the 1950-53 Korean War that led to the current state of division on the peninsula.
Washington plans to relocate most of its troops from near the border to Pyeongtaek as part of a global relocation plan that will also cut the number of U.S. forces in the country to about 25,000 by late 2008.
The two Koreas officially remain in a state of war as the fratricidal Korean War ended only with a cease-fire, not a peace treaty.
Pyeongtaek, Aug. 12 (Yonhap News)
Student activists, police clash over relocation of U.S. forces in Korea |
