FTA Protest

On March 25th, thousands of protesters marched on Korea's capital city to rally against the negotiations on the proposed South Korea-U.S. free trade agreement (FTA). The police had banned the demonstration when the rally's organizers had applied earlier, as is the law in South Korea, but the protest was held as planned, without the police forcibly blocking the rally. The National Police Agency estimated that about 7,500 farmers, laborers, college students, and progressive politicians took to the streets; and we estimated that close to 10,000 riot police gathered to control the massive rally in front of the U.S. Embassy. As Rachel, her parents and I walked around the massive protest and the omnipresent police force, we could feel nothing but awe struck by the mass amounts of people representing both sides of the protest. It was unimaginable to us the amount of damage that either side could cause.