There was a story about a labor protest where a middle aged woman was badly injured by the labor union people.

The rally was mounted last week by about 1,000 members of the labor union at Hyundai Hysco's steel facility in Suncheon. The parents' group has been campaigning for an end to violent demonstrations, both for their sons' safety and for broader social peace.

Three of the parents, including two women, were attacked by some of the demonstrators, police and the group said. Some of the union accused the parents of being sent by the police.

Korea's protest culture is violent. It always has been. Perhaps in the period of authoritarian government rule (1948 to roughly 1993) perhaps it was either that or nothing.

That is how my students (adults generally between 25-40 or so) saw it.

They said in the 1970s and 1980s, when they were young men and women, it was natural for them to join in protests and then fight the government who sent in thug riot police to break them up. They were fighting for democracy and workers' rights at a time when Korea was very badly lacking in both.

But, they said, since the situation in the 1990s and beyond was SO MUCH improved - both for workers and voters ----- they did not particularly care for the radical element trying to act like it was 1988 perpetually.

But, they still had much general sympathy for the university student unions and labor unions because the memories of the authoritarian past and how they had fought it were so strong.

More recently ------- however ---- in fact just within the past year or less --

more attention has been put out by as yet small groups of Koreans and the press to the idea that Korea really needs to put its violent protest culture in a box in the closet if it wants to move forward as a developed nation.

More specifically, after a few violent clashes in which a couple of older farmers died and people (riot police and protests) were injured --- and when Korea looked "bad" on the "international scene" due to violent protests in Hong Kong over a WTO meeting ---

a group of mothers of riot policemen (young Koreans who chose that line of work for their mandatory military service instead of the regular army) have been given attention by the press.

Their message of "Why doesn't Korean society respect my young son?" has struck a receptive chord in the press and probably the people.

Which touches on the nerve about progress vs memories of the past most adult Koreans have like I noted above.

This could be the start of a real change in what is a national sport in Korean society --- violent protests especially in the spring......

--I should have also added earlier that the protest culture underwent a significant change with the election of Kim Dae Jung in 1998.

He was one of the three primary democracy advocates and the biggest one for decades and suffered much for it under the Park Chung Hee regime and later.

When he got in office, he changed the level of aggression and tools the riot police could use on protesters and then the protesters for the most part adjusted the level fo violence they used.

But, around the same time, or a little before, as I have mentioned before, the student union leaders at 2 protests "interrogating" what they thought was a "police spy" to death caused a MAJOR sensation in Korean society and had a chilling effect on both student union membership, the size of protests they were able to muster for a few years, and the amount of violence they used.

I guess really ---- since that event, the protests haven't been on par with before, but pretty violent ones happen a couple of times a year.

And by "violent" I don't mean the mandatory large scrum, kicking, pulling, pushing, and beating of riot police shields with a few poles.