About 7,500 riot police raided a Seoul campus Sunday and broke up a huge protest demanding the withdrawal of U.S. troops and unification of the Korean peninsula.
Violent clashes erupted when police fired volleys of tear gas and about 10,000 students and dissidents fought back with steel pipes and stones. No arrests or injuries were reported.Before the raid, students at Seoul National University, defying a government ban, held ceremonies to mark the anniversary Monday of Korea's liberation from Japanese colonial rule in 1945.
The three-day anniversary celebration brings to a head a month of confrontation between the government and radical students it accuses of being North Korean sympathizers.
In a statement, students and dissidents claimed the presence of 36,000 U.S. troops in South Korea heightens tensions on the peninsula and blocks its reunification.
About 250 North Koreans, calling themselves a delegation to the Seoul rally, showed up at the border village Panmunjom on Sunday, Seoul's Naewoe Press reported. The Seoul government refused to let them cross the border.