Several thousand South Korean workers swinging bamboo sticks clashed with riot police Friday outside the National Assembly to protest a new set of labor laws. The workers fought with police, attacking them with the sticks, spraying fire extinguishers and trying to turn over riot police buses set up to block the building in western Seoul. Police fired water cannon at the workers. National Police Agency officer Shin Kyung-soo put the number of workers at 3,000. He said 1,500 riot police were on the scene. There were seven arrests and no injuries, he said.
See "South Korean workers, riot police clash after passage of labor laws", Associated Press, International Herald Tribune, November 30, 2006