Pen/Insular_Notes

As many of the world’s favourite leaders gather in Korea’s second city, the big anti-APEC demo in Pusan is almost upon us. Hopefully I’ll have something to report tomorrow as organisers have been predicting a turnout of around 100,000 people and the demo against this particular club of neo-liberalising technocrats has become the focus for quite a few pissed off groups of people in Korea.

One such group is the farmers’ organisations, who demonstrated on Tuesday outside the National Assembly in Seoul against the liberalisation of the Korean rice market. Not too surprisingly the demo turned rather nasty with more than a hundred farmers ending up in hospital with injuries ranging from minor to very serious. For their side, the farmers managed to burn seven (yes, seven) police buses. As expected, Oh My News was on the scene to take some excellent pictures, which can be found here.

Jamie at Two Koreas, a man who knows something about anti-APEC demos from personal experience, has been doing a good job of covering the run-up to tomorrow’s fun. Newscham has also been reporting on the Pusan International People’s Forum taking place at the same time as APEC (in Korean).

Meanwhile, over at that home of cutting edge journalism known as the Korea Times, we learn that APEC delegates are getting to “experience unique Korean culture“. So, that’s ok then, the world leaders can contemplate calligraphy and listen to Confucian shrine music while they screw the world. Somehow, that makes it seem so much better. Of course the moment we’re all really waiting for is that cheesy photo-op when the 21 leaders will gather outside the conference venue donning the traditional Korean turumagi overcoats.

Here’s a somehwat more pleasing image:

Sort of reminds me of this:

And this:

And this:

(All pictures from Stop Bush demo, London, 20 November 2003)