Thousands of South Koreans took to the streets Friday, demanding jobs and denouncing government policies in mostly peaceful May Day protests.
Police said about 16,000 people converged on a park near the National Assembly to mark the international labor day. They waved signs and chanted ant-government slogans under clear skies. Some called on South Korean President Lee Myung-bak step down.
"I am here to be with the people screaming for jobs and kicking and screaming to keep their jobs," said Kang Ki-kab, leader of the progressive Democratic Labor Party.
South Korea’s economy has been hit hard by the global economic slump as demand for the country’s exports has waned, though large-scale job losses and layoffs have so far been avoided. Still, the country’s unemployment rate has steadily risen and reached 4 percent in March.
Some protesters called for the suspension of South Korea’s free trade agreement with the United States, which has yet to be ratified by lawmakers in either country. University students called for reduced tuition fees.
Relatives of people killed during a police crackdown on a squatter protest early this year stood on a stage, dressed in traditional black mourning clothes and holding framed photos of deceased loved ones. Six people — five protesters and a police officer — died in a fire sparked by the January clash.
The incident drew criticism that police were careless or used excessive force in breaking up the protest by displaced tenants demanding better compensation from developers.
May Day protesters later marched toward central Seoul, while some took subways. Black-clad riot police stood guard on streets and at subway stations. Sporadic, though minor, clashes occurred and a few protesters were detained.
The demonstrations came a year after a large-scale protest movement erupted in South Korea centered on public anger against Lee’s decision to lift a ban on imports of U.S. beef that had been imposed since late 2003 over fears of mad cow disease.
The decision, which came less than two months after Lee took office, prompted weeks of candlelight rallies that drew crowds of up to 80,000 people in downtown Seoul who marched over health concerns and a perception that their new president, a pro-American conservative, had given in to U.S. pressure.
The government eventually modified its decision and allowed U.S. beef only from cows younger than 30 months, seen as less likely to be infected, to return. Protests eventually waned.
In neighboring North Korea, the country’s state news agency reported that senior ruling Workers’ Party of Korea and government officials observed May Day with workers throughout the country by visiting factories, farms and other facilities.
"The senior party and state officials laid floral baskets and bouquets before the statues of President Kim Il Sung," the Korean Central News Agency reported from Pyongyang, referring to the country’s late founder and father of current leader Kim Jong Il.
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