The huge candlelit demonstration in Seoul on the evening of Tuesday June 10th was a sight to behold. Some 700,000 protesters were crammed together, hemmed in by shipping containers dumped onto the streets and by police buses. The authorities said they feared violence. In particular they wanted to prevent the crowd from marching on the office of the president, Lee Myung-bak. Since the crowd included mothers with babies, Catholic nuns, pensioners, and schoolgirls prim in their uniforms, it seemed unlikely to turn into a Molotov-cocktail throwing mob. A Buddhist monk held aloft one of many signs calling on Mr Lee to resign. But on the 21st anniversary of a protest that helped topple the dictatorship of Chun Doo-hwan, Mr Lee was taking no chances. Just hours before, the prime minister, Han Seung-soo, and all 15 cabinet minis-ters offered to resign. So had nine of Mr Lee's senior aides. The president's office hints that he may accept six ministerial resignations, including Mr Han's, and the foreign and agriculture ministers'.
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