Tens of thousands protest against South Korean president

Protest organizers said as many as 130,000 people joined the rally Saturday; police put the number at 68,000. He was in stable condition after emergency surgery on Sunday, a police official said.

Demonstrators, many of them wearing masks and carrying banners, occupied a major downtown street and began marching between tight perimeters created by police buses, meant to block them from entering large roads leading to the presidential Blue House.

More than 60 slaves, majority disabled, were rescued from the islands previous year after they were found by police officers from Seoul who were searching for a missing person.

Baek Nam-gi, a farmer from South Jeolla Province, is hit by the spray of a police water cannon during a demonstration near Gwanghwamun Square in central Seoul, November 14.

Tens of thousands of people of took part in the march, according to police. The police, who had set up vehicle barriers at the four-way intersections in front of the Seoul Finance Center and in front of Jongno District Office and around Gwanghwamun Square, took steps to force the protestors to disperse, firing water mixed with capsaicin and coloring agents.

On Saturday up to 80,000 people in Seoul called for the resignation of President Park Geun Hye in demonstrations fuelled by growing frustration over the government’s labour policies and rising youth unemployment.

Kim Sung-soo, spokesman of the country’s main opposition party New Politics Alliance for Democracy, released a statement criticizing the “excessively violent” police suppression of the protest, which he said was responsible for Baek’s injury.

“If lawmakers try to pass the (government’s) bill that will make labor conditions worse, we will respond with a general strike and that will probably be in early December”, said Han, moments before police moved in and forced him to flee inside a building as his colleagues blocked the officers.

Workers’ groups have been denouncing government attempts to allow more freedom for companies in laying off workers, which politicians have said would be critical in improving a bleak job market for young people.

Conservative critics argue that now the authors are too left-wing, but liberal opponents accuse the government of reverting to a policy used by past authoritarian regimes in South Korea including that of late president Park Chung Hee, father of the current president.