June 22, 2008 (SEOUL)

By Chris Maupin, Independent Observer

Crowds of angry protestors took to the streets of Seoul on Saturday evening where they met with several hundred police in riot gear.

For the past several weeks, Seoul has been the site of angry and at times violent protests against president Lee MyungBak and his aims to sign a free trade agreement and more specifically a deal to resume imports of US beef.  South Koreans believe that US cows will bring "Mad Cow" disease to their country.

At around 9:00PM,  roughly 200 demonstrators, mostly college-aged youths, began running past buses of crowd control police amassing near Seoul Station.  The running youths met up with a larger crowd marching in the opposite direction back toward the station. 

The scene briefly turned violent near the buses, as the crowd met with line of police wielding truncheons and plexi-glass shields.  Rioters screamed obscenities and rammed the police shields several times before being forced to go around the blockade.

At about 9:30PM, a much larger groupof 1,000 or morewas seen approaching from the more distant City Hall area.  Traffic was at a standstill as demonstrators filled four of the road's eight lanes.  Chants calling for "Lee MyungBak's removal" and other angry slogans rocked the otherwise peaceful night.

The two masses of demonstrators met near an 'SK' brand gas station where an angry dispute broke out between a police sargeant and an angry mob.  The dispute was over a flatbed truck full of sand that the demonstrators brought.  Several times, the crowd angrily pushed and carried the beleaguered police officer. 

Protestors threw trash at a nearby police wrecker car and screamed obscenities and taunts at officers.  Police left the area and demonstrators jumped the truck filling plastic bags and rice sacks with sand -- presumably to hurl at riot police.