Ex-spies held after S Korea protest

Police said it was a "very violent" protest

Some 200 former South Korean spies have been detained in the capital Seoul, after angry clashes with police.

The men were claiming bonus payments from the government for secret missions into communist North Korea.

Several police and ex-spies were hurt in the fighting.

The protesters say thousands of them were sent into North Korea in the decades after the end of the Korean War in 1953.

Burning containers

The demonstrators were commandos in the military when they were deployed as spies.

Police in March faced 500 ex-spies

They were well armed for Sunday's protest.

Police said the demonstrators were carrying metal rods and set alight gas containers.

"It was a very, very violent protest," police officer Yeo Ik-hwan told the Reuters news agency.

"Most of the protesters were taken to police stations nearby for investigation."

At the height of the confrontation the demonstrators were occupying part of a six-lane highway in the capital.

They say thousands of spies undertook dangerous missions in North Korea from the 1950s through to the 1970s.

They add that they were promised bonuses for their work. Their tasks included kidnapping and attacking strategic facilities.

The Associated Press news agency says that according to statistics compiled by South Korean officials:

• 4,849 are listed as missing
• about 300 were killed
• 203 were wounded
• 130 were arrested.

Compensation law

Government officials said many of the spies received compensation paid at the end of their missions, something the former spies deny.

Last year, the National Assembly adopted a law to compensate the families of spies who had been killed or wounded in action.

Under the law they are entitled to claim up to 100m won ($77,000), plus a monthly payment of 670,000 won ($515), but no compensation has been offered to those who returned unhurt.

Sunday's protesters held a similar rally in March, in which about 500 former spies took part.

Spies became less important from the 1970s as the South Koreans and the Americans began to use more sophisticated satellite intelligence systems.