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While the S.K. ruling class and its media is predicting - once again - that "the protests appear to be losing steam", since yesterday afternoon tens of thousands of people, "ordinary" citizens and many activists, are occupying the streets in the center of Seoul.

 
After LeeMB yesterday ordered the crackdown on the protest movement..

..clashes between the protesters and large units of the riot cops become routine.

Alone yesterday about 140 protesters were arrested!

Today LeeMB threatening demanded the end of the protests, but there is no end in sight!!

"The Lee administration has taken its first step toward death. We, along with the people, will fight the war!'', the DLP, for example, promised today.

And right now - once again - around 30,000 people are demonstrating in downtown Seoul (near the Sejong-no/Jong-no intersection). Of course they're blocked by hundreds of police buses and preparing for the next attack by the (thousands of) riot cops. 

Korea Herald's newest edition reported about the latest(6.25/26) developments on the protest front:

Civic groups and trade unions vowed to fight against the government's posting yesterday of U.S. beef import terms in its gazette.
They argue the move ignores public opinion, amid lingering fears over mad cow disease.

A coalition of about 1,700 civic groups said it would stage massive rallies Saturday and Sunday in central Seoul, demanding the government withdraw its notification of new beef import conditions.

The coalition also threatened to initiate a movement to oust the Lee Myung-bak administration.

"We have reached a time when people cannot help discussing the toppling of the administration," said Park Won-suk, a senior member of the coalition...

The Korean Confederation of Trade Unions, the nation's second-largest labor umbrella group, and other civic groups vowed today to block the release of the meat from warehouses in Busan and Gyeonggi Province. Some 5,300 tons of U.S. beef has remained frozen since last October when banned backbone fragments were found. "We will block the transportation of U.S. beef from today. We plan to position 10 to 100 members at 12 beef storage houses (in Gyeonggi Province), and will gradually increase the number," KCTU spokeswoman Woo Moon-suk told reporters.

Gyeonggi Provincial Police Agency dispatched about 900 police officers yesterday to six warehouses in Gwangju, four in Yongin, one in Incheon and one in Hwaseong, where a combined 2,066 tons of U.S. beef is being stored. Police said it will take a stern action against any illegal demonstrations, such as obstruction of traffic.

About 100 members of women's rights groups, including Korean Women's Association United, formed a human chain in front of a storage house in Gwangju to block meat shipments.

Civil Society Organizations Network in Korea, a coalition of nationwide non-governmental groups, also joined the public condemnation...

They called for a complete renegotiation of the deal, the release of detained protesters and the resignation of Eo Cheong-soo, chief of the National Police Agency.

Lawyers for a Democratic Society -- a progressive lawyers' association -- applied to the Constitutional Court to stop the new import terms from taking effect.

"The government, against the will of the citizens, posted the new import terms in its gazette without announcing its legislation plan," it said in a statement.

"If the terms go into effect, the distribution of American beef could seriously compromise people's fundamental right to health, infliction damages that can not be recovered. We expect the court to make a prompt decision on this, given the gravity and urgency of the matter."

The anti-U.S. beef protests stretched into the morning, clogging main thoroughfares in central Seoul, which lead to the presidential residence of Cheong Wa Dae.

Roughly, 2,500 people (according to the "independent" media: between 10,000 and 20,000!!) joined the candlelight vigil on Wednesday night.

Between Wednesday and the morning, 139 were detained at the scenes, according to police. Of them, one senior citizen and four school children were released. According to the anti-U.S. beef coalition, about 100 citizens and 56 police were injured during violent clashes.

As violence escalated, police used water cannons and fire extinguishers to ward off protesters who attempted to climb up police vehicles parked to prevent them from marching toward Cheong Wa Dae.

Rep. Lee Jung-hee of the Democratic Labor Party was detained at round 4 p.m. on Wednesday while demonstrating on streets near Gyeongbok Palace in central Seoul. She was released later that day and rejoined the demonstrations.

"I lament the reality that the administration can be maintained when it had to forcefully put on a police bus a lawmaker who protested the illegal detention of demonstrators," said Lee in a message she posted on an internet site while she was held at a police station.

"The insane Lee administration mounted a terrorist attack on a lawmaker in broad daylight, compromising the dignity of lawmakers and spitting on the authority of the legislature," said Park Seung-heup, spokesperson of the DLP.

At around 1:30 a.m. (today in the morning), a 53-year-old man part of his middle finger cut out. He claimed that a riot police officer had bitten it. He failed to find the missing part.

In the wake of mounting criticism about forceful crackdowns on protests, the human rights commission at the National Police Agency said all of its 14 members would offer to resign.

Related article: 

☞ Protestors Break Up After Violent Rallies (K. Times)

[6.25/26]"independent" reports by..

☞ Chamsesang

☞ VoP

☞ OhmyNews

☞ Tong-il News
☞ [6.25/26]Timeline

☞ NewsCham TV Report