Saturday reminded many people of the early days of protest in May: there was no violence on either side. Police didn’t provoke protesters, and protesters didn’t attempt to march to the presidential Blue House. Instead, various cultural and protest activities took place all over the major streets of central Seoul.

And as the night deepened, a substantial number of people simply camped out on the streets:

Unless the Lee Myung-bak government drastically changes its course of action and chooses to renegotiate over U.S. beef and give up on its privatization plans for national infrastructure industries, every Saturday will likely turn into a National Camping Out Day.

And it was the Buddha’s turn on Friday: a thousand of Buddhist monks held a protest Buddhist service again at the same place in the presence of 30,000 citizens holding candlelights.

The monks ingeniously recreated the famous “Candlelight Girl” character in the form of a Buddhist light—a sacred lamp Buddhists use for various religious purposes:

On the heels of all these religious protest ceremonies comes a National Victory March on Saturday, which is expected to draw the biggest crowd since June 10 to central Seoul. Buoyed by support from various religious groups and organizations, many Koreans are increasingly confident that they will win this fight for health and human rights.

Burger King Korea itself has issued a pop-up notice on Burger King USA’s official position, namely that the hamburger patties sold in Burger King restaurants in the U.S. “are made from 100 percent beef from healthy cows of all ages in accordance with strict U.S. federal regulations”:

This shouldn’t come as a surprise given the fact that about 20% of the beef consumed in the U.S. comes from cows older than 30 months of age.

Around 10:30PM of July 1, several men apparently associated with HID, a pro-government extremist organization, raided NPP’s headquarters. According to those at the scene, the intruders went berserk shouting “We will kill Jin Joong-gwon and all the other commies of ColorTV”, and injured some party staff on duty. Jin is the political pundit who’s been serving nearly daily as the chief male reporter of ColorTV.

Lee Myung-sun, the chief female reporter of ColorTV, expressed her concerns over the safety of herself and the staff of ColorTV, but vowed to keep broadcasting candlelight vigils live till the last candlelight is put out.

One wonders whether this incident isn’t an indication that Lee Myung-bak and his right-wing extremist supporters have been caught by surprise by the recent turn of events.

In response, about 300 Catholic priests and 200 nuns took to the street on Monday, and held a public protest Mass in central Seoul:

The priests and nuns called to the government for renegotiating over U.S. beef, firing Uh Chung-soo, the head of the National Police Agency, and releasing all the citizens arrested so far. And they called to the citizens for maintaining the principle of nonviolence.

Quoting John 1:5, they declared that “the darkness has never won against the light”. Tens of thousands of citizens attending the Mass burst into applaud and cheers in agreement.

Upon finishing the Mass and the ensuing protest march, some of the priests began a fasting protest at Seoul Plaza:

Also, the priests announced their plan to hold a protest Mass everyday at 7:00PM at Seoul Plaza.

New York Times, which owns IHT and regularly publishes Choe’s articles in their entirety, has wisely published Choe’s report on the June 28th protest with that false claim edited out. Choe’s reports on Korea have always been skewed to the right. If, as is reported by Reuters, “The New York Times is developing plans to merge the Web site of the International Herald Tribune with that of The New York Times, in a bid to expand their global reach and deepen their appeal to advertisers“, it’d be wise of NY Times to reconsider publishing articles on Korea by an unreliable reporter like Choe.

In phase with his decision to put into effect the April 18th beef imports agreement with the U.S., Lee Myung-bak made a decisive break from his previous apologetic tone this week, and the police returned to full-scale violence. However, June 28 marked a new height in police violence.

Here’s a video showing a female student being attacked by riot police last night:

Police threw various items including a fire extinguisher at protesters:

This video shows police throwing nuts and bolts at protesters, injuring a middle-aged woman:

So many Korean people shed blood last night. But police’s violence didn’t discriminate between Koreans and non-Koreans, or between citizens and journalists. Reportedly a German journalist was injured by police. And an American young man had the upper left part of his lip cut by an inch by a sharp-edged police shield:

As police violence escalates, citizens are now seriously considering some possible self-defense measures. We might be entering a new phase in civil protest in Korea.

[Update: June 28, 21:20]

Here’s another video showing police acting like rabid beasts.

Among a countless number of physical abuses by police stood out this case:

He is Ahn Min-seok, a member of the national assembly. According to the United Democratic Party—the leading opposition party Ahn is affiliated with—and news reporters present at the scene, Ahn was surrounded and attacked by police while trying to keep police from arresting citizens around 1 a.m. of June 27.

All 14 members of the human rights committee of the Korean Police Agency resigned in protest against police violence of the 26th. The fact that the committee comprises both conservative and liberal people indicates that concern is widespread over police’s treatment of protesters.

More than a hundred protesters including one grade schooler and two young moms carrying baby carts were forcibly arrested. Many more were attacked by the police who seemed quite willing to use sharp-edged shields against peacefully protesting citizens. Also, a rather surreal thing happened: a man in his fifties (shown below) had one of his fingers bitten off by a policeman:

Lee Myung-bak may have calculated that if the police aggressively respond to protesters on Wednesday, not too many people will take to the streets on this weekend.

That’s a mistake.

The Korean Confederation of Trade Unions (KCTU), the most powerful labor organization in Korea, has issued a notice of a set of guidelines for a total strike against the government’s decision to put into effect the April 18th beef import deal with the U.S.