Seoul Metro’s finest in action:
The best part is the caption that accompanied the pic over at the Korea Times:
Unionized workers and student activists hurl firebombs at riot police during an anti-government rally against its hard-line labor policy near the Seoul City Hall, Sunday.
Hard-line labor policy defined as “talk tough, let radical unionists run riot for a couple of days and destroy millions of won in property, and then cave into their demands.”
In a related Korea Times piece, the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions issued a statement in which it says:
“The recent series of suicides by workers are blatant acts of murder committed by our society,” the trade union said in a statement, referring to Bae Dal-ho, Kim Joo-ik, Lee Hyun-joong, Lee Yong-seok and Kwak Jae-kyu, who killed themselves in protest against worsening labor conditions.
Yeah, they are blatant acts of murder, except the guilty parties are those organizations that encourage and attempt to capitalize on these tragedies, and those news organizations that glorify such acts in order to advance their own political agendas.
I look foward to reading more live reports from the Oranckay - I live out in the sticks, and I have to go by the OhMyNews report, which I dislike despite the bitchin’ war photos.
More Kung-Fu PodoriTM action (term coined by dda).
6 Comments
I love those police “batons” and want one. Maybe even two. Where can I get one? What are they called in Korean?
Kevin
They are “chinappong”.
A little googling… yes, here you can order your own:
http://www.skse.co.kr/viewproduct_4_k.html
I consider the suicide of young students who crack under the pressue of the collge entracne exam to be a better example of “blatant acts of murder committed by our society.”
I was in CHongno last night and saw the demo up-close. They were blocking off CHongno and that street that runs from Chongno down past Myung-dong. Korean me-first-itis at its absolute worst…
BRian
We are seeing the beginnings in Korea of the same process that led to the establishment of the Japanese Red Army, one faction of which turned to terrorism on behalf of any anti-US group it could find after a nasty little incident in which the killed all the less radical members of their group. Expect them however to be more dangerous then the Japanese Red Army Faction ever was.
Perhaps more suicides of labor activists is the way to go. KCTU says it has 650,000 members, so five down, 649,995 to go! Few will have meaningful work once they force Korean firms to move to the workers’ paradises of China and North Korea.
This chinappong is exported to Indonesia, Vietnam, Singapore, Nepal, Philippines, and other South-East Asian countries, as well as Central and South Americas, and Oman (of all places), says the web site quoted above. What a fine collection of democracies…
I was looking up close at one of them yesterday, since a kung-fu p’odori had his back a few inches from my nose (they usually carry them ninja-style, hooked in the back of their vest into two loops of the same material as their vest), and they look a little cheap. I’d suggest they switch to Tonfa:
http://www.police-shop.com/AGB.....tonfa.html
http://eiko.gr.free.fr/Version.....otonfa.htm
But since it’s originally Japanese, some might balk at the idea (or make “upgrade” ones with two handles, more is better, bwahahaha).
PING:
TITLE: I fought the law and the law won: Anatomy of a Korean riot in Pictures
BLOG NAME: Flying Yangban
First the pics. NOTE: All pics are from OhmyNews as linked by the Marmot and reported by Oranckay. (BTW, Oranckay, can you help my woman get a gig at the Chosun Ilbo? She took the second test Saturday but didn’t
PING:
TITLE: Eyes On Korea: 2003-11-11
BLOG NAME: Winds of Change.NET
NOV 11/03 TOPICS INCL: North Korea, North Korea, and MORE North Korea, fecklessness at the South Korean Ministry of Unification, the debate on sending South Korean troops to Iraq, unionists turn downtown Seoul into a “sea of fire,” moon pies (yes, moon…