Pro-, Anti-Trump Rallies Held in South Korea Ahead of State Visit


Pro-, Anti-Trump Rallies Held in South Korea Ahead of State Visit

TEHRAN (Tasnim) - Rallies both welcoming and opposing US President Donald Trump's two-day travel to South Korea next week were held in Seoul on Saturday.

Conservative voters, composed mainly of elderly loyalists to impeached South Korean President Park Geun-hye who was ousted from office in March and stood trial over corruption charges, held a rally and press conference in Seoul on Saturday, according to local media reports.

They waved national flags of both South Korea and the United States, with some of them lifting a photo of Trump high in their hands to welcome the US leader's first state visit to South Korea in over two decades, Xinhua news agency reported.

The so-called "rally of Taegeukgi," the South Korean national flag in Korean, also demanded the release of Park, the impeached president.

Similar welcoming rallies were also conducted in different areas of Seoul as Trump is scheduled to visit South Korea from Nov. 7 to Nov. 8.

According to the presidential Blue House of South Korea, Trump will arrive in the country at about noon on Tuesday and will hold a summit meeting with South Korean President Moon Jae-in.

On the second day, Trump will deliver a speech to the National Assembly, becoming the first US president to do so in 25 years.

On the other side of the central Seoul, protest rallies were held against Trump's visit, which protesters claimed the US president's belligerent rhetoric against the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) escalated tensions on the Korean Peninsula.

The protesters urged the Moon government to veer away from the hostile policy, which the Trump administration adopted, and to stop annual war games between the two allies to bring peace and dialogue to the peninsula.

The anti-Trump protesters reportedly requested over 100 rallies to be held in Seoul during Trump's two-day stay.

Rallies outside the Blue House will be prohibited, or restricted for the two days, marking the first such measure taken under the Moon government, which was inaugurated in May.

Two anti-American youth activists were arrested earlier this week as they attempted to hold a protest rally against Trump's state visit in front of the US embassy in Seoul.

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