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The Korean Confederation of Trade Unions has threatened to dispatch a second army of Korean protestors to Hong Kong unless a court there throws out charges of illegal assembly against a group of 11 Koreans who were arrested in violent demonstrations in the territory last month.
¡°The confederation¡¯s executive committee has decided to send some 300 of its members to Hong Kong between Jan. 20 and 22 to demonstrate unless the arrested protesters are acquitted and released¡± when their trial resumes on Wednesday, said KCTU head Jun Jae-hwan, who is in Hong Kong to support the defendants. Some other civil groups will join in to bring the total to 1,000, he added.
The 11 anti-globalization protestors, who are out on bail, along with a Japanese protestor have been staging a hunger strike at a ferry terminal in Kowloon for the last five days. They are among hundreds arrested during violent protests against a WTO Ministerial Meeting last month.
The Democratic Labor Party¡¯s acting chairman Kwon Young-ghil and two other lawmakers -- Kang Ki-kab and Dan Byung-ho -- went to Hong Kong on Sunday to attend the trial and support the protesters. They met the territory¡¯s Secretary for Justice Wong Yan-lung on Monday and urged him to ensure a fair trial.
Yang Kyung-kyu, the president of the Korean Federation of Transportation, Public & Social Service Workers¡¯ Union, who is taking part in the hunger strike, said the Korean Peasants League (KPL) and other groups will send their own demonstrators.
Meanwhile, some 300 Hong Kong civil activists and citizens took to the streets in downtown Hong Kong on Sunday to call for the release of the protestors, and on Monday held a candlelight rally in front of the residence of Chef Executive Donald Tsang. They say they will stage a hunger strike from Tuesday evening until the trial ends on Wednesday in front of Kwun Tong Court.
(englishnews@chosun.com )
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