![]() In the capital, development is swift and unsentimental. According to an evictee group, there are more than 400 development battles taking place around the country. The site may be the most recent and visible scar from South Korea’s growing pains, but it is by no means the only one - nor will it likely be the last. Get briefed on the story of the week, and developing stories to watch across the Asia-Pacific. (The other victim was a police officer.) Diplomat Brief Weekly Newsletter N When I arrive, it is sunny and brisk, and a police bus is parked out front next to a huddle of about 20 policemen all fresh faces, young conscripts serving their mandatory two years as riot guards instead of soldiers.Īround them, banners hang from condemned buildings and decry the actions of the government and the police that January day: ‘Lee Myung-bak regime: apologize and resolve the Yongsan Tragedy!’ and ‘Even if you try to hide the truth, it will come out!’ A fence that surrounds the burned building has been spray-painted in a rainbow of colours with stencils of the five dead protesters’ faces. Ten months later, the tile and concrete skeleton of the building in Yongsan Ward is still standing. But what happened in those moments led to the deaths of six people and dramatically changed the narrative of Seoul’s redevelopment struggles. Only 16 minutes passed between the time the second wave of commandos stormed the rooftop in those cold dawn hours of January 20 - lifted in a shipping container by a crane - and the time the building exploded. And inside, a handful of protesters were locked in a final stand against police and the destruction of the surrounding neighbourhood. The makeshift watchtower built on the roof was consumed. A column of flames ripped through its fourth and fifth floors, feeding on paint thinner spilled from Molotov cocktails. The office building had been slated for demolition, but not like this.
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