Student groups and civic activists held anti-US demonstrations in front of the American embassy and in downtown Seoul, Monday, a day before President George W. Bush's visit to South Korea. Some 28 students of the Federation of Korean University Student Councils took over the offices of the American chamber of commerce at 1:15pm and staged a sit-in protest for about two hours and a quarter. This is first time a US-run organization has been illegally occupied by demonstrators since the office of the US Cultural Center in May 1985, even though demonstrations have been staged in front of US facilities.

The student activists went to the office located on the 45th floor of the Korea World Trade Center using all six elevators at once and wielding wooden clubs to intimidate guards, while two policemen in front of the office were overcome by the group. The activists chased twelve workers away and broke a large glass window to hang a 10m-length banner saying, "We are against Bush's visit." At the same time they threw hundreds of leaflets out of the window, shouting "withdraw the hard-line policy on North Korea."

At around 3:30pm, 10 special weapons and tactics officers abseiled from the building roof top and entered the office securing it within 10 minutes. All the students were arrested.

In the morning, Federal People's Alliance members, including Pastor Moon Jeong-hyun, read a peace declaration at a press conference in the YMCA. At the same time, some 20 members of the Korean Teachers Union and 20 Democratic Labor Party activists in military uniform were supposed to deliver a protest letter to the US embassy at around 11:00am, but were stopped by police. A member of the Peace Loving Mothers Association staged a one-person demonstration in front of the embassy all day.

In the afternoon, a civic organization for Korean War time civilian victims and survivors prayed for peace on the Koran Peninsula at an anti-war demonstration in Yeoido, urging the US government to compensate for massacres during the Korean War. In Myeongdong Cathedral, the Foundation for Justice held a mass for peace on the peninsula, while in Gwangju and Jeonnam Province, 205 professors held a press conference in the morning at the YMCA protesting Bush's visit.

The FKUSC and civic groups are expected to stage a series of anti-Bush demonstrations during his visit to the country, and some 3,000 Federal People's Alliance members are to hold a large-scale rally in Jongmyo Park Wednesday.

However, some rallies to welcome the US president are also expected. On Tuesday afternoon, an association for those who received the Order of Military Merit is planning to stage a street march near the War Memorial, Yongsan accompanied by Free Netizens on the Internet.

(Kim Bong-gi, knight@chosun.com )