Police Taping Union Rally Called Intimidation

The Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency broadcast video clips of the May Day rally held in downtown Seoul through its homepage, stirring criticism from the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions.

"The objective was to help settle a mature and transparent demonstration culture," said a police official on the agency's decision to make public video clips of the rally on the Internet every 30 minutes to an hour from 9:40 a.m. until late at night.

In response, the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions declared that "Videotaping scenes of the rally and disclosing them on the Internet impedes lawful rally and violates the rights to one's portrait." It said it would file criminal charges of misfeasance.

The police agency dispatched 56 teams with cameras to collect evidence at rally sites. The confederation had 20 or so union members also taking pictures of the rally as a precaution against possible police violence. Video clips had been used competitively by the police and the confederation as supporting evidence with regard to the melee involving police and Daewoo Motor trade union members last month.

Some 15,000 workers gathered for the confederation's May Day rally in Daehakro at 2 p.m., and some 4,000 attended a rally held by the Federation of Korean Trade Unions in Seoul Station Square at 1 p.m. Both pressed for a halt in plans for industrial restructuring. The confederation demanded the abolition of mass layoffs, and the federation called for reformulation of the government's labor policies.

Meanwhile, about 1,030 North and South Korean workers held a joint May Day ceremony in the morning on Mount Kumkang for the first time since the two Koreas were divided.

by Sung Si-yoon