Just a week ago, Seoul’s upscale Myeong-dong area brimmed with foreign tourists, shopping bags and vendors. Last night, as torn-up pieces of the cobblestone pedestrian mall hurtled through streaking tear gas, the scene was entirely different.

Police Intimidation

We arrived entirely unprepared for the situation that unfolded– half-packed for what was supposed to be a refreshing weekend retreat in the beach town Sokcho, we found ourselves flung into a mosh-pit of press, anarchists and riot police. Dashing into the fray with a camera, I managed to capture the stoning. In the following clip you can see the anonymous protesters tossing granite slabs, first at the heads of riot police, then their legs, preventing them from simultaneously defending both areas.

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The police occasionally lost composure, returning rocks at the protesters. In one such incident, an errant rock tossed from the front line impacted the reporter in front of me, who doubled over out of breath and apparently unconscious.

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Myeong-dong contrasted sharply with our experience earlier in Jongno, where, despite using heavy intimidation, riot police captured and detained protesters peaceably. We will bring you more on these events, Myeong-dong, and continuing developments as we follow the demonstrations into their second day (despite being warned to stay away).

Earlier today we set out to visit what we were told was a “day of protest” in Seoul. The whole thing started as a spirited gathering of over 16,000 people at a large park near the government offices and ended up being the most intense day of my life, as we were caught in the middle of a clash between protesters and over 800 riot police in various districts throughout the city.

All of the groups protesting gathered first at Yeouido park where there were a number of speeches and performances.

The event started at 3PM and ended at around 5PM when everyone started marching out the of park and through the streets.

The crowds reconvened a large intersection on Jongno St., a few miles away, and tried to shut down traffic. As we walked into the mass of people to interview, we were surprised by hundreds of armor clad riot police charging the group.

Things intensified after that with a series of scuffles and confrontations between the more aggressive protesters and the police.

The police ended up dispersing the protesters only to have them gather again. After the protestors were pushed back for the third time, the crowds disappeared and regrouped at a nearby shopping area, Myeong-dong. Here an anarchist protest group used tools to break up the street and lead charges against police lines again and again throwing stones and sections of the pavement.

This was by far the most violent of the encounters that we had seen and ended with the police sweeping in from every avenue of three consecutive intersections and rounding up the last of the more violent protesters.

There is a lot more to this story, and we’ve managed to get a lot of footage with cameras world’s better and my point and shoot. So we’ll be filling in more as we get it put together. So far we’ve only seen one article in the English news about this (forbes), but it gives you some more background on just why these are happening in Seoul now.