(This has been going of for more than a month!)

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Thousands of South Koreans protest corporate layoffs

SEOUL, South Korea
(March 31, 2001 9:43 a.m. EST ) - Masked students hurling firebombs were among the thousands of South Koreans who marched Saturday to protest the layoffs stemming from President Kim Dae-jung's corporate restructuring program.

The clash came only days after President Kim Dae-jung warned that his government will deal sternly with violent protesters. With frustrations mounting over the layoffs, protests have become more violent in recent weeks.

In Saturday's clash, 50 students in masks hurled firebombs when they were blocked from marching out of Yonsei University in western Seoul. Police armed with shields and helmets dodged the missiles, made crudely of beer bottles and gasoline.

In a separate clash earlier Saturday at a large intersection in central Seoul, at least three protesters were bleeding from facial injuries after they were bashed by police batons. A dozen more were hauled off for questioning.

That clash erupted when police blocked 5,000 laid-off workers, students and labor activists from marching on the presidential Blue House several blocks away.

Hundreds of protesters threw rocks, exchanged punches and kicks with police. Some ripped up flowers and dirt from the ground and hurled them at police, who fought back with batons and shields.

Students surrounded several riot police and pummeled them with wooden sticks. Other officers quickly charged into the crowd to free their colleagues.

"Down with Kim Dae-jung! We condemn restructuring!" the protesters chanted.

Protesters wore headbands and carried banners bearing similar anti-government slogans.

Traffic backed up for hours until the protesters dispersed.

Hundreds of students then moved to Yonsei University, where the firebomb clash took place.

The protesters included hundreds of laid-off workers and union leaders from Daewoo Motor Co. and the state-run telephone company Korea Telecom. The two corporations have shed thousands of workers in the past year to cut debt and slim down in the wake of the 1997-1998 Asian financial crisis.

Kim says layoffs are a painful but inevitable medicine for South Korea's economic woes.

News Copyright © 2001 Interest!ALERT

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