S. Korea Protesters Demand Ouster of American Troops

SEOUL — Radical students burned U.S. flags and clashed with riot police in Seoul and Kwangju on Monday as they began a week of protests to demand the expulsion of U.S. troops from South Korea.

Students organized demonstrations on at least 23 campuses nationwide. Most were peaceful and small in scale, with just a few hundred students taking part, police said.

But in the southern city of Kwangju, about 170 miles southwest of Seoul, an estimated 1,000 students hurled rocks and sticks at riot police in a violent demonstration, officials said.

Students demanded that 43,000 U.S. troops stationed here under a mutual defense treaty be withdrawn immediately. They burned American flags and put up posters denouncing the United States.

In Seoul, police arrested 18 students armed with iron bars and firebombs who briefly occupied an office at national police headquarters, officials said.