Asia-Pacific

South Korean police brace for anti-US protests

(AFP)
Updated: 2006-05-13 16:18

Hundreds of riot police have been deployed around the US embassy in Seoul as anti-US activists called for a candle-lit vigil to demand the withdrawal of US troops from South Korea, witnesses said.

Some 20 bus loads of riot police troops carrying shields stood guard around the high-walled US embassy compound as some 100 activists began a rally nearby to protest against the expansion of a US military base south of the capital.

"As long as US troops stay in this country, we will never be freed from the threat of war," Kim Kyu-Chul, a pro-unification activist said at the gathering.

The protesters carried banners calling for the withdrawal of US troops from South Korea and an end to the ongoing talks to conclude a free trade agreement with the United States.

The small demonstration was a prelude to a candle-lit vigil later Saturday, for which activists plan to mobilize 10,000 people.

Dozens of US military bases in and around Seoul are to be relocated to Pyongtaek, 70 kilometers (45 miles) south of the capital.

Construction is to begin in October but some residents and farmers, backed by anti-US activists, had refused to vacate their houses on the site.

Thousands of protesters armed with bamboo sticks fought pitched battles with police in demonstrations Thursday last week in Pyongtaek.

They made holes in miles of barbed-wire fence set up around the site cleared for the new US military base.

Seoul and Washington have agreed to relocate 35 US military bases across the country in a consolidation plan.

But activists say the relocation is aimed at facilitating a pre-emptive US attack against North Korea, with thousands of US troops being pulled out from the front lines where they would be exposed to North Korean bombardment.

Some 32,000 American troops are stationed in South Korea under a mutual defense treaty following the 1950-1953 Korean War.