SOUTH KOREA: Chinese students clashed with anti-Beijing demonstrators at the Olympic torch relay yesterday in the South Korean capital, throwing stones and punches at the latest stop on the flame's round-the-world journey.
Thousands of police guarded the torch from protesters condemning China's treatment of North Korean refugees. A North Korean defector tried to set himself on fire to halt the relay.
The small groups of anti-torch demonstrators were far outnumbered by seas of red-clad Chinese supporters waving red national flags, who took to the streets of Seoul to defend the torch.
Police deployed 8,000 officers, some running beside the flame while others rode horses and bicycles with the relay through the 1988 Olympics' host city.
On other legs of the torch relay, it was China's crackdown on violent protests against Chinese rule in Tibet that triggered attempts to disrupt the run. But in South Korea, many critics focused on Beijing's treatment of defectors who try to escape the North.
Thousands of North Koreans have fled across the loosely controlled Chinese border and many remain in hiding in China. If caught, they are deported and face likely imprisonment in life-threatening conditions in North Korea.
The man who tried to immolate himself, Son Jong Hoon (45), had led an unsuccessful public campaign to save his brother from execution in the North, where he was accused of spying after the two met secretly in China.
About an hour into the relay, Mr Son poured petrol on himself in the middle of a street, but police quickly carried him away before he could set himself alight.
Two other demonstrators tried to storm the torch but failed to hinder its 24km (15-mile) trip from Olympic Park, built in honour of the 1988 Summer Games, to City Hall. Police said five people, including a Chinese student, were arrested. Scuffles broke out near the relay start between 500 Chinese supporters and about 50 demonstrators criticising Beijing's policies. The demonstrators carried a banner reading, "Free North Korean refugees in China".
The torch relay continues in North Korea today.
- (AP)