UPDATE 2: English piece on this travesty, courtesy the Chosun Ilbo.
UPDATE: Simon makes some observations about the hunger-striking Korean protesters.
ORIGINAL POST: According to Yonhap News, the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions (KCTU) threatened Monday to send a 1,000-man protest team to Hong Kong to conduct large-scale demonstrations if Hong Kong authorities do not quickly clear and release 11 Korean protestors who were arrested following violent clashes with riot police during recent WTO ministerial meetings in the city.
KCTU head Jeun Jae-hwan, who visited Hong Kong to support the arrested demonstrators, said that if the Hong Kong courts do not acquit and free the suspects, his union would send a 300-man protest team to Hong Kong between Jan. 20 and 22, and a 1,000-man team afterward.
Jeun said that judging by the current attitude of the Hong Kong police, the protesters stood little chance of being freed. He warned that a second round of protests would be led peacefully, but with the emotions of protesters running high, "it would be difficult for even the union leadership to control it."
The "Hong Kong 11" are in their fourth day of a hunger strike.
Sphere: Related Content
15 Comments
So… March on Hong Kong, get arrested. March again…. think they’ll get arrested? Sure they claim that they’ll be peaceful, but then again they did the first time too. They started as peaceful demonstrations, and turned into riots. It’s gunna happen again, not because it’s the South Koreans, but because that’s the way people work. Get a lot of angry people together, and they’re gunna get violent, it’s a fact of life.
I really hope they do march on HK again, and get arrested again. They can participate in the hunger strike too.
My main question is, if all these farmers are sitting in HK jail cells, who’s working the farms in South Korea? I suspect there will be a lot of imported rice next season to make up for this years mess.
Stuck on Stupid
who’ll offer odds on when the KTU makes a simelar threat? can’t be too far.
I just hope this means that foreign visitors and residents of Korea will be afforded the same right to violent protest.
It sounds to me, giving the timing, that the union people in Hong Kong stuck their finger out to check the winds and decided they could push their luck further.
What I mean is, I believe after watching these groups for some time, if they thought the Hong Kong courts would deal harshly with the protesters, especially if they thought the police would throw even more protesters in jail for longer periods of time if they came there….
…and if the union leaders had felt a sizable backlash coming from Korea society itself….
you would not see this kind of stance.
Meaning….I think these guys push when they believe it wins support inside Korean society and duck when they think that is the way to go to keep support.
It is their form of politics.
The squeeky wheel get the grease only so long; then it gets tossed in the trash. Time’s up.
Time for the Hongers to start building more prison cells.
Hong Kong Tourism could look at is an easy way to attract tourists.
Pighting!
I really, really like to see this. One thousand protesters to HK. Wow! This is it! What are they going to wear? An uniform?
HK people and police are going to wait at the airport and throw eggs and rocks and the police will arrest Koreans as they step down from the plane. Korean terrorists! Arrested en mass!
I feel so excited thinking about this. Something like this is definitely needed to re-direct Korean Savage thinking.
Modern world does not condone this type of savagery. Try more diplomatic tactics.
This is a good thing. Send 1,000 protestors to HK, then another 1,000, then another…eventually Korea will be a pleasant place to live in.
I doubt these new protestors will make it through the HK immigration at the airport and if they do and decide to hold another illegal and violent demonstration, I hope the HK government throws them in jail too.
Here’s a thought, usually when you go through immigration, someone asks you or you have to write the ‘purpose of your visit’ if the protestors wrote that they were there for a protest, then they could be refused entry. If they wrote something like ‘for tourism or business’ then they would be guilty of immigration violations and could also be jailed. HK immigration should ask each and every Korean person who enters the country to write or state the purpose of their visit.
These people may have to learn that outside of Korea, the law is actually enforced and punisment is metted out accordingly. There is no begging for ‘understanding’ when illegal activities are involved.
Throw them all in jail for 6 months to a year…if the HK government backs down on this then they will open themselves up for this type of behavior in the future.
I also have to wonder, if a bunch of foreigners decided to stage a violent protest in Busan during the APEC conference…would the Korean government just let them go? me thinks not.
I also have to wonder, if a bunch of foreigners decided to stage a violent protest in Busan during the APEC conference…would the Korean government just let them go? me thinks not.
It really depends. Where the victim of a violent crime committed by a foreigner in Korea is another foreigner, there is just about zero official interest in punishing the offender. Only if the victim is Korean do they care. (There is also, needless to say, not much interest in doing the job when it’s Korean-on-foreigner violent crime.)
So if Seattle’s finest anarcho-syndicalists got on a plane (where do they get all the money for this travel?) and beat up members of the American delegation to APEC, it would be very interesting to see the Koreans’ dilemma. Probably some punishment would be handed down, because these Yankees would be government-tied and therefore some lever of pressure exists. But if the Evergreen State sent some hippies who randomly beat up other white people on the streets of Busan during APEC, and those white people were not APEC delegates, there would in all likelihood be zero punishment.
lets compare apples to apples then…If a bunch of foreigners came over here and started beating the teenager riot police over the head with sticks and throwing molotov cocktails….what would be the reaction. I can guess…and if you sent the same protesters from the seattle WTO meeting…there would be Korean riot police in the hospital.
“I just hope this means that foreign visitors and residents of Korea will be afforded the same right to violent protest.”
Two years later, we know the answer.
The “related posts” function is cool.