By Kim Tong-hyung 
Staff Reporter

The Olympic torch relay was marked by heavy security in South Korea, as thousands of police guards contained sporadic protests in Seoul Sunday.

Nearly 8,300 law enforcement officers were deployed to cover the 24-kilometer route between Olympic Park and City Hall, as torchbearers dashed through the streets, blanketed by police guards in track suits while demonstrators showered them with a chaotic mixture of cheers and jeers.

Police seized a man who attempted to throw himself at a torchbearer along the route in Sinchon, southern Seoul, and also had to quash a violent clash between pro- and anti-China spectators.

The Olympic torch arrived in the country early Sunday on a chartered flight from Japan and was kept under tight security at the Lotte Hotel in downtown Seoul before moving to Olympic Park for the parade.

Activist groups ? including Christian conservatives, human rights advocates and North Korean defectors ? had vowed to disrupt the South Korean leg of the troubled round-the-world relay of the Olympic flame.

They were vowing to use the torch relay as a stage to denounce China's crackdown on protests in Tibet last month and its repatriation of North Korean defectors.

However, the anti-Chinese protestors were outnumbered at times by Chinese expatriates and students, who seemed just as enthusiastic in displaying their support for the Beijing Games.

A group of about 1,000 Olympic supporters, mostly Chinese nationals, gathered hours before the start of the torch relay at Olympic Park in southern Seoul, chanting slogans such as "Go Beijing!" and holding signs that included "Tibet will always be our land."

Tension mounted as scuffles broke out between the Chinese nationalists and some 200 human rights activists, who were holding a separate rally, forcing riot police to form a barricade between them.

At one point, a faction of demonstrators began hurling broken sidewalk blocks and rubbish at each other, prompting police to push them back. The clash left a news photographer bloodied after being hit over the head and another Korean activist hurt after being hit by a pipe wrench in the chest.

Concerns over disruptions arose as activists threatened to greet the torch relay with street demonstrations, with one coalition of civic groups even organizing a bicycle brigade of 100 activists scattered at different parts of the route ready to jump into the parade, prompting police to deploy heavy security measures such as escort vehicles.

Although assuring that the torch relay would be completed in relative calm, it also effectively hindered the festive mood by the time actor Yoon Tae-woong, the last torchbearer, brought the flame to City Hall around 7 p.m.

The Olympic torch left Olympic Park around 2:15 p.m. with Korean Olympic Committee (KOC) President Kim Jung-kil being the first of 80 torchbearers who carried the flame to City Hall.

The group of torchbearers included taekwondo gold medallist Moon Dae-sung, singer Jang Na-ra, who is immensely popular in China, and Yoon, who earned fame after appearing in the opening ceremony in the 1988 Seoul Olympics at 7 years of age.

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28 April 2008
The Korea Times

By Kim Tae-jong
Staff Reporter

Violence by Chinese during the Olympic flame relay in Seoul, Sunday, has ignited anti-China sentiment among Koreans.

The Beijing Olympic torch was successfully relayed from the South to North Korea, supported by enthusiastic Chinese supporters. However, the relay was marred by a clash between human rights activists and an overwhelming number of supporters, which left a sour taste in the mouth of many South Korean citizens.

Before the event, the police's main concern was that rallies by human rights activists to protest China's crackdown in Tibet might disrupt the relay. However, tens of thousands of nationalistic Chinese supporters flocked to streets in Seoul, resulting in an outbreak of violence against anti-Beijing Olympic protestors.

Some, including one Korean journalist, sustained light injuries from the clash in which Chinese expatriates and students hurled rocks, sidewalk blocks and rubbish. Police say they will apprehend those who resorted to violence.

On major portals, Internet users criticized the nationalistic Chinese and shared photos and video clips that show them attacking riot policemen and anti-China activists in a "foreign country."'

"It's a shame. Those Chinese have completely forgotten the Olympic spirit of peace," an Internet user with "ttottia" said on a Daum message board.

Others also suggested boycotting the 2008 Beijing Games and demanded that those involved in the violent clash be deported immediately.

Koreans watching the relay were surprised to see the lining up of as many as 10,000 Chinese on streets the flame passed through. About 8,300 policemen were mobilized for the event. Among other questions raised were whether all the Chinese were legal residents or not; how "foreigners"' could attack citizens of their host country; and why they held a demonstration here, not in Beijing, a Seoul citizen said.

"I started hating Chinese. Why did they do such a horrible thing here? They should go back to their own country," Kim Hyun-jin, an office worker in Seoul, said.

Thousands of Chinese, mostly young students, first cheered the torchbearers, singing, chanting and waving posters that said "We love China" and "Go, China." But the cheering took on a completely different tone when they met anti-China activists and demonstrators who denounced China's oppression of Tibet and its repatriation of North Korean defectors.

The Chinese supporters pushed through police lines, with some of them hurling rocks, bottled water and plastic and steel pipes at the protesters.

It soon turned into a violent clash that left citizens, riot police officers and anti-China protestors injured. A news photographer was hit over the head and another Korean activist was hurt after being hit by a pipe wrench in the chest.

The pro-Chinese later surrounded, kicked and punched Tibetans and South Korean supporters who waved pro-Tibet banners and called for the protection of human rights of North Korean defectors. They also clashed with riot police, witnesses said.

"This torch run reminds me of Hitler, who first invented the relay in 1936 to divert world attention from human rights problems in Germany under the disguise of `world harmony'," Norbert Vollertsen, a German doctor and advocate for North Korean refugees, was quoted as saying to The New York Times.

Citizens also criticized the police for their lack of stern measures against the Chinese nationalists. "It is obviously dereliction of duty," Seong Baek-ju posted on the official Web site of the National Police Agency. "How could they not do anything about these Chinese rioters."

Police detained some of Chinese supporters on the scene and an investigation is under way.

But they are unlikely to face severe punishment such as deportation despite the angry public reaction as most of them are students with the appropriate visas.

"First of all, we will wait for a police report and a court ruling before discussing whether to deport those involved in violence as their human rights must be protected," a Justice Ministry official said Monday.

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28 April 2008
The Hankyoreh

South Korea expressed "strong regret" Monday over clashes between anti-China activists and Chinese residents during Sunday's Olympic torch relay amid concerns that public outrage here may harm Seoul-Beijing ties.

The Foreign Ministry said Deputy Foreign Minister Lee Yong-joon met with Chinese ambassador to Seoul Ning Fukui and delivered a message of regret.

"Ambassador Ning visited the Foreign Ministry to thank the South Korean side for providing tight security measures for the torch relay," a senior ministry official said, asking not to be named. "We showed him police reports on violence caused by some young Chinese people and expressed strong regret." While briefly talking to reporters after the meeting, the ambassador sought to contain further fallout from the incident.

"What I want to stress is that Chinese people, especially Chinese students here, have good feeling about South Koreans," Ning said. "(I) will continue efforts not to damage the public sentiment of both nations. I think it requires joint efforts by the two governments."

He also expressed a wish for the recovery of those injured. Thousands of Chinese, waving their country's red national flags, tried to thwart rallies by those protesting against China's crackdown on Tibetans and repatriation of North Korean defectors, as the torch passed through downtown Seoul on Sunday.