Police fire water cannons at protesters in rally against Hanjin layoffs

SEOUL, Aug. 28 (Yonhap) -- Riot police on Sunday blasted water cannons at hundreds of demonstrators denouncing mass layoffs at Hanjin Heavy Industries and Construction, a South Korean shipbuilder, officials and witnesses said.
It was the first time in nearly three years that police in Seoul used water cannons to disperse demonstrators since the summer of 2008, when massive street protests raged in the capital over a decision to resume U.S. beef imports.
After several rounds of verbal warnings, police fired the water cannons at around noon at some 800 protesters who gathered for a sit-in protest in front of Hanjin's building in Yeouido, downtown Seoul.
It was not immediately clear whether there were injuries, but police said no physical clashes with protesters erupted and they voluntarily ended their sit-in about a half hour after the water cannons were used.
"We will legally punish those who planned the illegal demonstration," said a Seoul police official.


The labor dispute at Hanjin, based in the southern port city of Busan, began last December after the company announced a plan to cut 400 jobs as part of its restructuring efforts.
In late June, the firm signed a deal with workers to end the strike after promising more favorable retirement benefits to those who opted to resign voluntarily.
But the dispute did not die down, as some militant union workers refused to accept the agreed-upon terms while the company used physical force to drive protesting workers from its shipyard in Yeongdo, Busan.
The ongoing labor dispute drew particular attention from the public and media with a solo protest by one woman, Kim Jin-sook, a former Hanjin Heavy worker and member of the Korea Confederation of Trade Unions. Since January, Kim has protested from atop a 35-meter tower crane at the Yeongdo shipyard.