SOUTH Korean college students, civic groups and opposition parties held a candlelit rally on Friday to call for quick government action to reduce tuition fees.
South Korea has the world's second-highest average college tuition fees after the United States, according to a 2009 Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development report.
Police warned of stern action if protesters occupied streets or engaged in other illegal acts. But organisers went ahead with the protest in a plaza in central Seoul.
Police put the number of protesters at 2,000.
Some 510 civic groups have formed a coalition to support students and opposition party leaders also vowed to take part in the rally.
Tuition fees became a sensitive political issue this year after several leaders of the ruling Grand National Party (GNP) proposed halving fees, in an attempt to woo voters before next year's parliamentary elections
Source: straitstimes