THOUSANDS of South Koreans marched in Seoul at the weekend, blowing horns and banging tambourines to protest against the arrest of a senior trade unionist over violence at an earlier anti-government protest.

 

Prosecutors are considering indicting arrested Korean Confederation of Trade Unions president Han Sang-gyun for sedition, a charge unseen in South Korean courts since the military dictatorship of the 1980s.

 

Under South Korean law, sedition is punishable by up to 10 years in prison.

 

Saturday’s demonstration was the latest in a series of recent mass protests against the government of right-wing President Park Geun Hye.

 

Ms Park has been criticised for her increasingly harsh treatment of union members resisting her drive to deregulate labour markets.

 

The demonstrators, who were also carrying banners calling on the president to step down, marched through the city centre under heavy police surveillance.

 

The march took the demonstrators past the hospital where 69-year-old farmer Baek Nam Ki remains in a coma after being hit by a close-range blast from a water cannon during a huge rally on November 14, where dozens of protesters were hurt in clashes with police.

 

The government has clamped down on labour and civic groups involved in last month’s rally, holding them responsible for the violence.

 

Its aggressive stance towards protesters has raised alarm at Ms Park’s intolerance of dissent.

 

Prosecutors have recently pushed several criminal defamation cases against journalists and activists who have attacked the president.

 

There is also widespread resistance to the government requiring schools to use only history textbooks that whitewash the dictatorships that stain South Korea’s previous history.

 

Ms Park is the daughter of assassinated military dictator Park Chung Hee, whose legacy is marked by a brutal record of civil oppression.

 

There is also widespread frustration among the young at joblessness and inequality.