US Deputy Secretary of State Mr Richard Armitage arrived in Seoul in South Korea today to discuss a proposed US missile defence shield. Activists who back North Korea staged a boisterous anti-US protest.
Some 50 demonstrators representing 44 civilian bodies marched through the airport terminal chanting "Yankees go home" and waving banners. They accused Washington of forcing Seoul to take part in the controversial missile plan.
A brief scuffle broke out as the protesters tried to force their way through a wall of riot police that prevented them from approaching a VIP-only parking lot atInchon Airport to confront Mr Armitage.
The activist groups said in a joint statement: "We oppose the visit by Armitage, the envoy of death. The purpose of his visit is simply to force South Korea to support and join in the US missile defence shield."
The statement accused US President George W Bush of driving the world and the Korean peninsula into an abyss of arms races and military tension and of sacrificing the "hard-won opportunity for peace on the Korean peninsula" for his missile defence shield.
"The world is confused over which country is the real rogue state," it said.
AFP