Asia-Pacific

S Korea to ban protests near G20 summit venue

(Xinhua)
Updated: 2010-10-11 16:26

SEOUL - South Korean will forbid all protests and rallies near the venue of the upcoming G20 summit to ensure security, police said?in Seoul on?Monday.

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All demonstrations held within a two-kilometer radius of the Convention and Exhibition Center (COEX) in southern Seoul, the venue for the summit among the world's 20 major economies, will be banned from Nov 8-12, chief of the National Police Agency Cho Hyun-oh said. The summit will take place on Nov 11-12.

"We will ensure that no illegal, violent protests will tarnish the meaning of the summit," Cho said in a briefing. The government would have to resort to all equipment including water cannons to disperse protesters, he added.

Peaceful demonstrations outside the temporary security zones will be allowed.

South Korea is planning to put some 30,000 policemen and 20,000 right police officers on standby for the summit, the largest scale ever for a single event held in the country. Security will also be beefed up around vulnerable facilities including subway stations against possible terrorist threats, according to the police.