20 protesters arrested in S. Korea

About 20 South Korean protesters were arrested in clashes with riot police near an U.S. military base on Sunday, the police said.

At least 2,000 students marched from Seoul to Pyongtaek, about 65 km south of Seoul, on Sunday morning and demonstrated against the expansion plan of the U.S. Camp Humphrey there, shouting " Yankee go home. Pyongtaek is our land."

The clashes happened when the protesters tried to break through the human barriers formed by riot police. The government said at least 18,000 policemen and troops were deployed around Pyongtaek to prevent the protesters from getting approach to the U.S. military base.

However, there is still no casualties has been reported.

Meanwhile, hundreds of labor union members rallied against the expansion of the U.S. military base on Sunday morning in the urban area of Pyongtaek, which has 350,000 population.

Sunday's demonstration near Pyongtaek came after a candle-lit vigil with at least 10,000 people in Seoul's downtown area near the U.S. Embassy Saturday night. Protesters called for the withdrawal of the U.S. troops in the country and urged the release of those arrested in another protest against the U.S. military expansion plan earlier last week.

South Korean Prime Minister Han Myung-sook appealed for restraint in a statement on Friday, saying that violence would not do any good to the nation and the U.S. base expansion is unavoidable.

On May 4, 200 people, including both protesters and riot police, were injured during bloody clashes at the village of Daechuri as police tried to evict the protesters who occupied a school in a bid to stop the construction of fence around the compound of U.S. base. The Yonhap news said 500 protesters were detained during the clashes and 16 of them were put under formal arrest.

South Korea plans to expand Camp Humphreys by September to help relocate U.S. military forces from the Yongsan Garrison in downtown Seoul and the Second Infantry Division from border areas with the Democratic People's Republic of Korea to Peyongtaek.

The Camp Humphreys is set to triple in size by 2008 and be used to as the U.S. chief military installation in South Korea.

About 29,500 U.S. troops are currently stationed in South Korea.

Source: Xinhua