Torch in South Korea

This crowd watches as some protesters reenact a scene of a Chinese policeman holding a gun at the head of a North Korean refugee in China. a multinational coalition of human rights activists has held this staged theatrical event every day in downtown Seoul since last Spring. They started 444 days prior to the Beijing Olympics; in Korean culture, the number 4 means death. their protests are meant to draw attention to China’s policy of repatriation which they say is killing North Koreans who try to flee their homeland. For some, this policy means they may never see their family who tried to defect into China ever again. Experts don’t expect the South Korean government to make much of an issue out of this. This analyst says the government doesn’t want to risk China-Korea trade relations, or a break up of the nuclear negotiations which involve North Korea and China.