Korea Independent Media Center

본문

for those of you who are not familiar with what is going on in korea these days, here's the situation:

The S. korean police SWAT team killed 5 tenants who were resisting a forceful eviction in brutal raid.
During the raid a cop also died.
A group of tenants, on the verge of getting evicted in this cold winter, occupied an empty building in Yongsan area, central Seoul, to let their desperate situation know to the general public and resist together.
 
The police commandos started attacks early morning of Tuesday, Jan 20, jointly with hundreds of riot police soldiers and thugs hired by large companies aiming at redevelopment of the area.
Conglomerates such as Samsung and Posco kicked out most of the tenants living in the area and cleared most of the buildings to build luxurious buildings.
It is estimated that the conglomerates can make profit of 4 trillion won or some 1 billion US dollars.
The police started the violent attack just 24 hours after the tenants occupied the empty building.
Tenants prepared painter thinner to make molotov cocktails and to warn the police off the building.
As soon as the attack started, fire erupted suddenly, which may have caused the deaths.
The building was heavily guarded by the hundreds of police and so nobody could get out of the building.
The Seoul metropolitan police and the prosecuters say that the fire was caused by the molotovs, blaming the 'squatters' for the deaths.
Evicted tenants fighting for their basic rights were dubbed as 'urban terrorists' by the authorities.
But it is for sure nobody could have died if the Seoul govenrmnet had tried to sit down and talk with the protesters.
More than 20 people got severe burns and everyone in the building was arrested.

A rally was held on Friday, Jan 23 and some 3,000 people attended to demand punishment of the cheif police commissioner and step down of the President.
Currently, we have candlelight vigil at the Yongsan building every night and there will be another big rally in Seoul on Saturday Jan 31.