S. Korea holds pro, anti-Trump rallies ahead of visit

Seoul, Nov 4 (IANS) Rallies welcoming and opposing US President Donald Trump's two-day visit to South Korea next week were held here on Saturday.

Conservative voters, mainly elderly loyalists of impeached South Korean President Park Geun-hye who was ousted from office in March and stood trial over corruption charges, held a rally, the local media reported.

They waved national flags of both South Korea and the US, with some of them lifting Trump's pictures to welcome the US leader's first state visit to South Korea in over two decades, Xinhua news agency reported.

The so-called "rally of Taegeukgi", the South Korean national flag in Korean, also demanded the release of Park.

Similar welcoming rallies were also conducted in different areas of Seoul as Trump is scheduled to visit South Korea from November 7 to November 8.

According to the presidential Blue House, Trump will arrive in the country at about noon on Tuesday and will hold a summit meeting with South Korean President Moon Jae-in.

On the second day, Trump will deliver a speech to the National Assembly, becoming the first US President to do so in 25 years.

On the other side of the central Seoul, protest rallies were held against Trump's visit due to his belligerent rhetoric against North Korea that escalated tensions on the Korean Peninsula.

The protesters urged the Moon government to veer away from the hostile policy, which the Trump administration adopted, and to stop annual war games between the two allies to bring peace and dialogue to the peninsula.

The anti-Trump protesters reportedly requested over 100 rallies to be held in Seoul during Trump's two-day stay. Rallies outside the Blue House will be prohibited or restricted for the two days marking the first such measure taken under the Moon government, which was inaugurated in May.

Trump will reach Japan on Sunday, the first stop on the five-nation, 11-day trip during which he will visit South Korea, China, Vietnam and the Philippines.